Is India seeing the light?

There is a long way to go, but the rape and death of Nirbhaya has sparked a sea change in India, writes Shoma Chaudhury

ONE horrible night, innocent victims, devastated families — and a country seething with rage and violence, stuck between feudal hierarchies and the modern economy.

Mahavir Enclave is a bustling working-class colony at the hard extremities of New Delhi. Houses snake up here in haphazard bursts whenever their inhabitants can afford to elbow a little more space for themselves in the world. For an outsider, these seem less homes, more just slivers of precarious brick slapped together. But for those who live there, it’s psychological solidity: A toehold, finally, on life.