The power-distance between an individual and the state can be very large in India, often literally. It can take a long time to get an electricity connection.
One way, as women in India, to shame the government officials to pay attention to you is to storm into their office and make them wear bangles!
Hindu reports
"Angry over the erratic power supply in the district, Awasthi and her supporters Friday barged into the office of executive engineer R.S.Gautam and forced him and other officials there to wear bangles, police said."
Wear bangles! This brand of shaming is not unique to the subcontinent however. In Thailand, derelict policeman are forced to wear hot-pink armbands featuring "Hello Kitty,"
It's hard to say where to draw the line between "humiliation" and "soul force" as a motivating factor, but it's fair to say that from the medieval blacking of the face to Gandhi's "satyagraha"; communities in India have evolved colourful ways of registering protest.
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