New Delhi, July 12 -- In the wake of the alleged murder of Ketan Agarwal at Pune's Lohagad Fort, India finds itself trapped in a bizarrely predictable ritual. Before the law can even dissect the forensic evidence, public intellectuals rush to dissect our culture.

A recent commentary recasts an allegedly meticulous, months-long plot of deception culminating in homicide as the tragic byproduct of overbearing Indian parents, restrictive family expectations and the "tacky" culture of small-and-medium enterprise (SME) business families.

Such narratives represent a deeply biased and intellectually lazy view in their attempt to launder premeditated violence through the passive voice of societal oppression.

By reducing a horrific crime to a sy...