As the doctors cautiously revealed the details of injuries inflicted on the young woman, who needed a gut transplant as her intestines had been torn by iron rods, thousands of students from colleges and universities in the city gathered in a spontaneous protest in Delhi. Anger spread like a heat wave. In my years in Delhi as a student and a reporter, the protests against the various instances of sexual assault would be attended and lead by left-leaning women’s organizations student groups. India’s conservative middle and upper-middle classes mostly stayed home. This was different…

Basharat Peer on the fury in Delhi after the rape and murder of the 23-year old unnamed victim: http://nyr.kr/YSQPOw

Photograph by Rakash Singh/AFP/Getty.