Why students need to be taught to recognise and reject abusive speech

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi released a video recently expressing shock at the profanity hurled at him during the recent NEET protests at Jantar Mantar — and, more pointedly, at his surprise that young girls had used such language — he called it, in his own words, a “cultural shock.” The language of abuse in India has no gender, caste, or creed; it is one of our public culture’s most reliable products, not a deviation from it. Shooter Manu Bhaker recently posted on X that the language we choose reflects our personality and the kind of person we are. If true, the ease with which Indians reach for abuse is not a mystery of national character. It is a gap in national education.