I am too a little new to the whole Indian space, as while my parents are Indian, they emigrated quite a while back while I was young.

I, too, sometime marvel at this strange level of “trust” that binds Indian together – and hence the parking man not taking that Benz for a spin after the owner hands them the keys and 10 rupees.

A few observations I had:
1. Indian on the Lower end of society are more afraid of committing crimes against those in the higher end simply because they don’t understand how to get away with their crimes – I have a hunch that they simply don’t go ahead with it as they can’t seem to work out how to finish the job or simply are afraid of the “powerful allies” that the person may have. I guess in a way that’s smart and opportunistic from a criminal perspective and it’s the same everywhere.

2. A lot of things can be resolved with “tatkal karwai” or (roughly) instant justice. Sounds funny at first, but its true. I had a experience where a person had a heavy steel pipe concealed on top of his motorcycle exhaust. Upon asking him why he needs it he replied to me – “Boss – tatkal karwai”

3. Apathetic nature of society – Indians have a much lower standard reaction to some forms of crime it seems (although it may be heavily covered in the news). Domestic violence, some small forms of assaults etc. To give a better example, compare this to a discovery chanel 26/11 documentry in which a tourist described how he saw a man in a building next to the Taj happily brushing his teeth even as bullets were being fired.

4. Stats are stats – there’s “Lies, damned lies, and statistics” – you can do the math on that
And again, its the same everywhere… police always play down crime stats… only problem overseas is that there is more “proof” of crime and governance.. something that is very very slowly catching up in India

Really appreciate the fresh perspective.

About the rapes and murders per 100,000 people being low, I can not comment on. But I believe that the news about robberies being about smaller amounts is that bigger robberies are going on in the Government Organizations through bribes and scams.. A recent article about a 4 Crore worth of equipment purchased by an IIT was lying unused simply underlines the way money is siphoned off from Government organizations.

Thus even if the Robberies in the Private space aren’t that large, the Robberies for the general Public are the order of the day and I believe more important in the above discussion.

-Utkarsh

1. Rapes are not reported because then you have probably ruined all chances your sister/daughter/ niece will ever get married.

2. Your house gets robbed and you can’t report the theft of your black money that you were hiding under the mattress !

3. Fire brigade comes to put out the kitchen fire and then magically your camera and dvd player are “lost” from the bedroom.

4. Why would anyone file a complaint against a neighbor when s/he happens to be the Home minister’s relative?

5. Your tenants need to be evicted? Police will suggest you pay the family to move out instead of starting a court battle that may take 15 yrs.

6. The cops may even come to your house and suggest you take back a lost property complaint so that they may clear up the backlog of cases at the end of the year.

And I don’t mean to say these things are unique to Delhi. I live in a Calif city which is consistently ranked in the top10 safest cities in the US. Here too our police Dept and the DA charge and plea bargain crimes such that the statistics don’t vary too much.

@ Dips, I agree with you.

Batman?