Will I be right in calling many of the people, who take to the streets/social media to protest the rape attacks in Delhi/Assam, as selfish and hypocrites?

By your logic, we cannot protest against farmers suicides too. Because there are millions of people dying in Africa and by that scale our farmer suicide is low. Don't you feel sorry for the poor in Somalia and Rwanda? In fact, we cannot protest against anything as there are always things bigger than the issue concerned. Actually, rape is a much bigger issue than even the heinous farmer suicides. According to National crime statistics 17000 farmers die every year from the suicides, whereas more than 22000 women get raped. I'm sure both these numbers are drastically understated. Humans will always be selective and biased in how we perceive the world around us. This is part of our fundamental survival mechanism. For instance, one attack on a family member will be considered worse than the murder of 1000 people in a continent far away. It all comes to how close the impact is and how similiar the victims are to us. The recent rapes are primarily a law & order problem that has a clear target - tighten court and police system. Farmer suicides are a part of a deep socioeconomic problem. People really don't know whom to protest against. Finally, protesting against A doesn't mean we condone B. Don't introduce a false dichotomy.

No. It is not hypocrisy. This is simply our system at work. Let's first understand how our political system is supposed to work: India is a federation of many states, each of which has a government elected by the people. And even within a state, there are smaller units, all the way to Panchayats, which have elected representatives to look after the interests of their constituencies. This means that people are supposed to vote for regional leaders who will uphold their interests.This is why different political parties campaign on different issues in different states. Some run on a platform of farmers' rights, like in U.P., some run on the platform of law and order and illegal immigration, some run on a infrastructure development platform like in Gujarat, etc So, the government of each state is supposed to be elected on its ability to tackle the issues faced by the state. And if the government does not do this job properly, then it is the right of the wronged constituents to put pressure on the government to do its job. In this particular case, the issue is the extraordinary number of rapes in Delhi. This latest incident just galvanized the population, but the issue has always been there. So, it is the right of the Delhi people to pressurize the Delhi government to take action on this long-standing issue. Facebook activism is easy, you can float any post: about rapes, farmer suicides, maltreatment of sportsmen, victims of terrorism and you will get a lot of shares and likes and comments. You can even get any online petition signed. The real commitment is shown when people come to the streets. And people have come to the streets to protest now, but which people? Delhites! I haven't yet read any report of  street-protests related to this case in any other part of the country. So no! There is nothing hypocritical here. It's democracy at work. I elected my representative. He/she is not doing the job well. So I am now going to make sure he/she cannot ignore my plight. No one on protest is claiming that they are the next Gandhi - at least not any normal person. They are just asking for their rights as citizens. They are not full-time activists. They are normal people like you and me who have to earn a living. There are so many issues in India that if they start protesting for every single one of them, they would not be able to go to work. So they do what normal people in a democracy are supposed to do - protest on issues directly affecting them. As far as the farmers are concerned, they also ask for their rights to their elected representatives. And there are full-time activists and NGOs who help them do it in the most effective manner. However, you would notice that even the NGOs have very specific agenda. One NGO will help farmers, another will help beggars, another for women facing domestic violence, etc. So, should we call them hypocrites because each of them is unable to take on all the ills of India? Or should we call the farmers hypocrites because they only protest for their issues and not about rapes in Delhi? Now, finally the role of media in this. This is where you might have some point. When the media shows news about farmers' protests and marches, perhaps they do not present it as well as they did in this case. However, I will have to admit ignorance in this area, since I stopped watching TV years ago. And I am sure much of your angst is caused by this popular news medium. Let someone else write an answer about this aspect.

I am a heterosexual so I care less about LGBT issues and I did not participate in their protest for rights. My dad is a farmer , so if there is any protest against farmer suicide , I will participate. I have a sister so I would have protested for strict laws against sexual harassment If I am in Delhi. I will not complain about my neighbor( who is a business man ) If he does not participate in our farmer suicide protest the same way no one from LGBT community complained about heterosexuals not joining their protests. We are affected more if anything happen to us, our family, our village and so on. If something bad happens to our family we feel devastated. But if the same happens to our neighbor it's just a news to us. There are thousands of protesters because they could easily relate to the situation of the 23 year old girl to any of their family members. Sister, wife, girl friend any of their beloved ones. So calling this is as hypocrites is baseless. By this logic every human being is a hypocrite. You are a hypocrite because you care about only Indian farmer suicides. What about Syrian civilian deaths in the revolution ? What about Rwandan Genocide? Will you raise your voice only if it happens in your country? You hypocrite!!! This claim dilutes the meaning of the word hypocrite. So please don't call them hypocrites. If you want you protest against each and every single issue known to mankind go ahead and do it. May god be with you.

It's ironic that this question is the answer in itself. The reason you ask this is because you have witnessed the news, maybe the protest too firsthand. And have had your circle talk about it incessantly. That is the world view you stay in. Look at the other side now. Do you think that for farmers, the very same you are referring to, are moved as much as you by these protests. Most likely not. But they are moved by their own issues. Those protests too happen. You just don't know of them, because: 1. You don't need to 2. That section isn't as "media-friendly" as the section that protested against the rape. They don't tweet. They don't rush to news channel (and even vice versa). So what you call selfishness is a basic instinct to proclaim your own situation as the one that requires most attention. And by that logic, even the farmers are guilty of it. Nothing right or wrong about it.

Middle class India has all the sexy tools!  It's beyond hypocrisy!  It's fashion!  Who gives a damn about farmers committing suicide?  They're not spectacular.  That kind of crap happens somewhere out there, where Indian urban middle class hardly ever ventures. Indian urban middle class is apathetic towards just about everything, unless it is a mob opportunity to show up in great numbers in public, usually thrown into a frenzy by electronic, English speaking media. Terrorism is sexy! A tsunami is sexy! A movie star being stopped for a few hours by US Immigration authorities is worthy of freaking hours of news, including that bum calling a press conference to tell us that his life isn't too much worse off for the experience.  All of that is worthy of Indian urban middle class attention. Farmers dying?  Come on.  Where's the story in that?

Straight answer to your question : NO you would not be right to call them hypocritical. AFAIK hypocritical means practising one behaviour and promoting another in others or through speech. Unless those coming out in protests were rapists themselves and were merely objecting to others raping at will. Fat chance of that, you will agree. Yes you would be right to call them selfish. Add to that list all those who protested on the net too, myself included. They were selfish in their desire to have a better place for women. They were selfish in their desire to shake the government awake. They were selfish in their desire to get gender inequity into the open. After all they too would benefit. My question is so what? I have a different take on selfishness: I do not believe that humans are capable of any act that is NOT selfish. The degree may vary but that is a fine nuance. Ultimately all acts are selfish.  Not all selfishness is bad. In fact most of the advances that we make come out of a selfish desire to make the world a better place. Some examples - We write answers here on Quora to add to the knowledge pool but also because it makes us feel good. Social workers work with the poor in difficult conditions because it makes them feel important as change agents. Sadly we use selfishness only in the pejorative sense. We need to redefine it. PS : It is not necessary to have sisters / girl friends to abhor the act of rape or protest that it happens. In fact that may be a touch hypocritical.

Hey. My wallet got stolen twice while traveling in DTC buses recently. Why didn't you come out to help me? Awkward? Just like your question. 1. Rape is not an ordinary crime. No, no, no. It questions humanity. It is stealth of someone's right to respect, happiness and free will. It is like murdering someone yet leaving them alive—the worst kind of suffering a human can be inflicted to. 2. If you don't mind, may I ask what has been your contribution in protesting against any of these issues? Farmer suicides or the upsurge in crimes against women? 3. Can you count the number of problems in the society we live in? I can't. I think they are infinite in number. Start from a small scale... domestic violence, marital rape, thievery, vulnerability of senior citizens, dowry etc. Let's go a little further, maybe to the level of problems that are local to our surroundings. Illicit consumption of electricity, hygiene, stray animals, cutting of trees, breeding of mosquitoes, and so on. Go up further and you expand to burning problems that range from caste discrimination to corruption to illiteracy to unemployment to poverty to malnutrition to whatnot! How do we adopt a "non-selfish approach" (according to your definition) and fight for all these causes? 4. Coming back to the recent rape incident, it brought about the kind of movement where we have to be heard because we have the right to be heard because even though the government may try to fool us otherwise, we can easily fight back saying, "This can happen to us as well. Now you tell me what are you going to do about it?" This is precisely the reason why the authorities have not been able to openly go against the public wrath. 5. Farmer suicides are a burning problem of the Indian economy. It is not just about "out of sight, out of mind". A clear understanding of this upsetting issue needs deeper understanding of the root causes. It needs us all to be educated about farmer policies in India, the fallacies on part of the authorities, the flaws in the provisions, the real reasons why they are not getting enough help, the real reasons for their failure, the growth or loss of their agriculture, and so many more things that I cannot think of right now. You know why? Because there is no ONE reason behind the problem. It's a far more complicated issue than what the masses would understand or relate to. Why and how do you ignore this fact? Although I feel disgusted at having to compare two burning issues, in this context it goes without saying that the actual reasons behind crimes against women are far more clear, visible, attributable and avoidable—which further urges the necessity of the questions that have only begun to come up now. 6. I would request you to provide your valuable suggestions on how to educate ourselves better and protest against any of the crimes that you think deserve greater attention, rather than comparing the reactions that they generate. Rapes have been happening in the country for so long now, so long that reading about them stopped affecting us, as if we had turned indifferent to it. It is only unfortunate that it took a crime of THIS extent for us to waken up and realize that things are going really wrong. And yet, you choose to follow this track of thinking. By the way, it took a revolt of this scale for you to doubt the public's intentions and question their indifference to the problem of farmer suicides. WHY THE SELECTIVE BIAS?

If you seriously think people being selfish or worrying about their own safety is hypocritical or wrong,come out of the mask and welcome to the real world bro.Majority of the people are selfish in this world. The concept of democracy in itself works on the core definition of selfishness.Every person thinks for themselves and if majority of people thinks that a specifc party/candidate is good for him/her that party will come to power.If you think someone else will take care of you that will infact lead to chaos which is a bit evident in  our country. Now in case of rape protests major population of country (yes far more than the people affected directly by farmer suicides)  is being affected by this.Men are feeling insecure about their sisters and wives and women are feeling insecure about them selves and hence the protests. In case of farmer suicides or other issues raised I can think of three reasons i) No one is coming to your rescue : It is the duty of farmers and the people affected by the farmer suicides directly or indirectly to protest against this.The people who are not affected by this wont protest and you cant expect them to. If majority of the population are unable to realize that they are being affected by farmers suicide it is their ignorance not hypocrisy. ii)The intensity to which you are affected : In case of farmers suicides only farmers are being affected heavily including death.For others the affect is more like a slow poison and they wont feel the impact until couple of years where as in case of rapes there is a direct impact on majority of people and the impact is immediate and irreversible. iii)Corruption: On the other hand ,most of the people actually think that the root cause of the farmers suicides and other issues is corruption and yes we have seen lot more people to come on roads to protest against corruption. On a lighter note I think you are being a hypocrite by complaining everyone is selfish and you are not :P

I think every person alive, is selfish and hypocritical. Even if mildly so. Even twins in the womb try to get the best share for themselves. If you ask most farmers of our nation they won't look upon very favorably on a girl who was out with a boy at 9 PM in the night. To be seeking a world free from selective biases and prejudices is too idealistic.   Perhaps all these protestors are individually motivated by misguided notions of activism which will lose steam over time. Perhaps their protests are essentially guided by direct fears for their own physical bodies and that of their loved ones. Perhaps a lot of people, amongst those protestors contribute significantly to what leads to the deafening, dangerous silence of our society today. However, we can never tell if, when or how all those inviduals together, with their selfish interests, could possibly trigger/catalyze a collective change in the mindset. They might or might not. However the possibilty, even if remote, even if inconveniencing or frustrating to the most cynical amongst us, must be given a chance. For we desperately need a change. The change that it brings about might be insufficient, or minor. But I would still like to give it a chance.