By Sandeep Verma 
Manipal, April 25: Some videos result in ‘ten-minute abject boredom’ and then are predicted to be completely forgettable. Then, there are those just like the video that made its way from Manipal on April 24, which some may argue are priceless and stay with you forever. This is because the video in question is sure to elicit marvel at the short and unremarkable Manipal road that converted insignificant clips of public road altercations into three long, temporarily dormant arguments in bulk, begging to be resolved, that the Manipal public and Indian citizens have been avoiding for extended lengths of time.
There was a video of a young couple from North India engaged in kissing on a public road in Manipal. Unbeknownst to the kissing couple in the public eye, a young man in the short clip that recorded the public display of affection was there, and a local man reportedly approached them and said something in Kannada. The young man in the couple, instead of being addressed in Kannada, asked the local to say something in Hindi or to speak in Hindi, to which the local been approached, said no to. There was some back and forth until the local move said something, and then they left the road.
Unremarkably, this is the altercation that transpired on the Manipal road. The short and unremarkable video was recorded in roughly forty seconds. Fortunately, by the time this video made its way to X and WhatsApp, it was predicted and has since been a hundred different fights, or so.
Why Manipal Is Not Just Any Town
Manipal is not a common town.
Before we dissect and separate the fights, this is a great opportunity to consider the town in which all of this fighting and circling the public courtyard altercations occurred, Manipal, Indian.
Manipal is a town in Karnataka, India, that is home to the academically prestigious Manipal Academy of Higher Education. People flock to this powerhouse of education from all around India, and all around the world. Walk around Manipal and you might see folks from the state of Punjab, all the way down to the southern state of Kerala, and everywhere in between. It is an Indian town that doesn’t have a clear definition for “outsider” because there are so many of them.
Because of this, there is a lot of pent-up energy. Most of the time it is calm. However, when it is not, it can be very loud.
What People Know and How People Think
A video, first shared on X by a user @sanatan_kannada, with a caption urging people to see and share, described the behavior shown in the video as a disgrace to Indian culture and to the families and students who use that area. And it is not surprising that the post was going viral.
Almost immediately, there were many reactions.
Some of the people mentioned was that the couple did not need to go that far. People mentioned that it was a public space, that there are kids and old people around, and you cannot do whatever you want, just because you are two people that can give consent. These people were not all strict about things or were not all apart of the so-called moral police. Some were just normal people or regular residents of the area that felt it was not right, and while that might not give them a legal or moral right, it is a completely valid feeling.
This argument received an equal amount of response. Many said this situation was silly. Many pointed out that recording a couple kissing is not a crime and recording people without their consent and then posting that video is worse. Some people said exactly this, “If filming kissing is so indecent, then why are you filming people without their consent and posting it?”
This was never answered.
What The Law Actually Says, Or Does Not
The Law Has an Opinion, Sort Of. This is the tricky bit. This George Clooney Hangover story is a great example of what indecent means.
Let’s define India.
Put simply, it’s illegal to perform any act of disorderly conduct, declared as a nuisance to the public. But, it’s never been established what exactly those words mean together. Courts will say that the law indians abide by will never be indecent, and that the law of indecency will never be obscene.
In simple terms, Section 294 likely has nothing to do with two people kissing on a street. No one has filed any complaints in Manipal. The cops have not intervened. The law, for now, remains a bystander. Law and public opinion are two different games of chess, one in which the law watches and the other in which public opinion acts. In India, they have the unfortunate habit of totally missing each other.
Then There Is The Hindi-Kannada Conflict, Which Is A Special Kind Of Fire So far, this was about morality. What follows is where this conflict became about something totally different.
When a local man, let’s say, with Hindi speaking skills, was faced by a local Kannada speaking man, and Hindi speaking man couldn’t be bothered to learn or engage in the local language, this was about signals.
The state of Karnataka has a fluctuating and violent history of linguistic power conflict. The state is home to a mostly Hindi-speaking North Indian population and has little or no tolerance for Kannada. The small towns and district centers of the state are turning into foreign habitats to the local population and foreign settlers. Every interloper, foreign of not, signals an expectation of local language migrating to Hindi, is actually gouging a local sensibility.
This is far from ancient history. Just last year in May 2025, an SBI bank official in Bengaluru refused to speak in Kannada, said “this is India,” and that he would converse in Hindi. An outrage was sparked and the official publicly apologized. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah commented, and it was national news.
The Manipal couple hasn’t created a new grievance. They stepped directly onto the grievance, without being aware that it existed.
The Older Fight Underneath All of This. Focusing a bit more narrowly on Manipal, you see a conflict India has grappled with in various forms over the last 10 years.
Who has the right to control what is appropriate in a public’ place? Is itun-Indian’ to kiss in public, or to enjoy the public display of affection? To what extent is it culture-overlap? To what extent is adopting the customs and traditions of the local community? To what extent is insisting on remaining culturally critical of rigidariatism and cultural displacement? Where is the line drawn between welcoming new residents in and no longer culturally colonizing in the name of being a diaspora?
You may disagree, but that is why they have no rival.
The Rate They Are Contested
Silence from the couple. Not a single complaint. No Landers. No ID in the couple. No statement from local authorities, and no police statements. The couple has not been publicly named. Not a single detailed statement has been released. The official response to the Act, as it stands, is silence.
The silence you describe probably won’t last, and this video is going to continue to spread.
A Small Video, A Very Large Country
What this incident has accomplished the most is to show how many unfinished debates that conflict with one another, and that India is constantly enduring. The decency debate, the consent and surveillance debate, the language and belonging debate, and the migrant and local debate. They all appeared, collided, and then continued on social media, separated and no closer to a resolution.
The couple is long gone. The argument is very much still present.
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- Sandeep Verma
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