Actions don’t have consequences in India. Or so many believed until a 17-year-old, without a licence, allegedly driving as he shot a Reel, killed a 23-year-old man on February 3. Is this an aberration or a symptom of a culture where public rules feel optional? Civic sense reveals itself in smaller, not-so-subtle ways. The blaring phone in a train compartment. The paan stain blooming on a freshly painted wall. Each act forms the texture of daily life.

Journalist and writer Manu Joseph sees this as a deeper cultural tension. “I look at our society as a battle between the village and the city,” he says. By “city,” he means people who “believe in order and rules as a form of wisdom” and are “very serious about civic order.” The “village mindset”, in his formulation, enforces strict social codes inside the home but treats public space as loosely governed. “The problem with India is that we were always villagers. Some of the most influential people like Gandhi, who were from the privileged class, romanticised the village because villagers were simple people who would worship them,” he explains.