Many were puzzled by the size of the (now called off) protests and the speed with which they sprang up. To understand the environment that produced this anger, we need to set aside the immediate issue over which the youth have mobilised and step back to assess the larger picture.

Let us begin with a question: what is our relationship with the State? By 'State', I mean the government, whether local or central.

For some of us, such as those writing and likely reading this, the points at which the State intersects with our lives are few. This is the upper class. (Only 3 per cent of India pays income tax, so we cannot properly speak of a middle class — only an upper class and the rest.) Professionally, this class operates in English and lives in India's cities. English, which nine out of ten Indians do not speak, allows those of us who work in it to be global. In cultural and even professional terms, we inhabit a wider world than the majority of Indians.

Physically, too, our lives are less touched by the State than those of most Indians. We are unlikely to have been educated in government schools, and our children have probably not spent time in anganwadis. Our health is taken care of by the private sector — its doctors and hospitals — not by the nearly 10 lakh women who serve as Accredited Social Health Activists or ASHA.

Our reliance on the Public Distribution System (PDS),........

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