Mangaluru, a port city by the Arabian Sea
in southern Karnataka, is home to about six lakh people. It has three malls,
two parks and two beaches where the young and not-so-rich can hang out—but they
can’t escape the gaze of vigilante groups that impose their moral code.Suresh Bhat Bakrabail, 70, an activist with
the Karnataka Forum for Communal Harmony, compiles a list of moral policing
incidents reported in the local newspapers. Last year he says 139 incidents
were reported from Mangal