India, May 23 -- A nation, like a person, can go for long periods avoiding what it would prefer not to know about itself. The economy occupies one set of conversations and one set of professionals; the climate occupies another; the inner condition of the citizen, if it is examined at all, belongs to a third domain, often dismissed as private or soft. These separations make ordinary public life manageable. They also make certain kinds of understanding nearly impossible.

Such a moment arrived in India this month. When our Prime Minister appealed to Indians to drive less, take public transport, work from home where possible, delay foreign travel and refrain from buying gold, he made a request that was reasonable, practical and entirely corr...