Excellent post. I have more to say on this than would fit a comment, so I wrote an entire post (with link back, of course).

Spontaneous protest arising from entitlement politics, yes, but stripping and molesting women? I am not sure if economics and politics had much to do with that!

I think because people are being denied opportunities to voice their opinions.

1. there is a decline among regional and ethnic parties. they are becoming personal fiefdoms. I predict large scale farmer/regional violence in Karnataka once it becomes a two-party state. Isn’t the Gurjar-Meena conflict also a result of the two-party system? Either parties promise the moon while in opposition, knowing fully well that the demands are unjustified and cannot be met. Such espousal should have come from fringe caste parties, not Congress or BJP.
2. the decline of communist parties. Ever since CPM became the B team of the Congress party to oppose the BJP, there has been a vacuum in the left of center space. Maoists have filled that space. the media, BJP and now even Karat have painted the maoists as terrorists.
3. the complete bankruptcy of the national media . This appalling decline brought about by TV journalism has misplaced priorities. Little wonder that Salman Khans and Jessica lals get much more coverage than nandigrams and bodolands. Can you believe blood thirsty mobs in Delhi are not satisfied with the 2 year sentence given to Uphaar accused. Even such causes get national attention, but the aspirations of millions in India’s interiors only get a passing reference in the national media.
4. politicians no longer espouse causes . when they rarely do like Karat espousing anti-imperialism, they get ridiculed by the media including this particular blog! these days parliamentary debates are not news worthy. thats just going thru the motions. If media had maintained the custom of reporting what happens in parliament/assemblies, someone might have spoken about nandigram or this adivasi ST demand. And the protesters might have got some assurance that politicians are ’seriously’ talking about them.
5. the general apathy or the greedy indian middle class. Unless the protesters do something dramatic, this core of Indian populace will not bother to look at them. One only had to read the blogs of educated middle class indians about the Ram Setu controversy to understand how appallingly ignorant they had become. “I want my God untouched. I don’t give a damn about what this project is about” was the general theme.