On one hand we criticize the fact that Freedom of Speech guaranteed under Article 19 is qualified by exceptions. Not a day passes when we do not criticize the Government for perceived stifling of free speech. Indians as it is have to think twice about airing controversial and offensive speech in real life. Internet is the only place left where we can speak our mind under the cloak of anonymity. And with every passing month the stupid rules of r/India are taking away chunks from even this little freedom we have.
Why are people offended if I use 'secular' in a sarcastic manner to identify a political ideology? How is calling a group 'bhakts' contrary to healthy functioning of this sub? People are supposed to have thick skin on the internet. What are we? A group of seventy year olds who need to preserve morality and civility everywhere we go?
This sub draws traffic not because of its rules or moderation. It draws traffic simply because someone was able to squat on the url 'http://www.reddit.com/r/India'. You change all the moderators and remove all the rules and the sub will still continue to draw the same amount of traffic. What is the need for so many rules then? Is it because a particular group of users want the discourse to take place only as per their liking? Because the Rule Section of this sub has alrady started to mirror Indian statutes - bulky and devoid of common sense. And it doesn't help when moderators insist on strict interpretation of rules in all cases and under all circumstances. This has often resulted in absurd post titles being allowed and minor deviations removed. We now have a situation where a twitter link to a verified account of Rakhi Sawant is all right but if one were to link to a non-verified account of Sudheendra Kulkarni the post will be removed unless we censor it out!
If you want to do something better for this sub take up the responsibility of creating 'stickies' for occasions where there is a possibility of a large number of user threads cropping up. Get a few nice people to do AMAs. Improve upon the CSS. And please remain in the background instead of making these monthly "Hello! We are your mods. This is how we are going to talk going forward" threads.