Engaging India is a weekly online column analysing the issues, trends and forces behind the business and politics shaping India and its impact on the world. Engaging India appears every Thursday morning exclusively on FT.com India, a dedicated online section on India, and is written by Jo Johnson, the Financial Times’ South Asia bureau chief; Amy Yee, New Delhi correspondent; and Joe Leahy, Mumbai correspondent.

If you’re sitting in a hedge fund somewhere in London or New York and spending much of your time reading panglossian BRICs reports, it’s quite possible to be completely oblivious to the social protests that are gathering pace and force across much of India.