India, Sept. 17 -- About half a million road accidents happened in India and almost as many people were injured in them in 2024, the latest year for which we have official data. Not all accidents make prime time news. One of them made it this week, when a car driver in Gurugram hit a woman riding a motor bike in what clearly looks like a case of road rage - India's euphemism for criminal behaviour on roads. The incident in question checks all the boxes of toxic sociology in post-reform Indian cities.

The crime was perpetrated by somebody from a social group which used to own much of the land around what is now called the National Capital Region near Delhi. This area has some of the most expensive real estate in the country. Members of su...