India and Latin America vs. change


I was just asking myself these days howcome if:

1. Latin America is strongly catholic it is worldly known as a region where affection between lovers is publicly shown; and moreover...
2. India is known as the birth place of the Kamasutra and as the place where the temples have statutes that represnt the sexual activity, why is that nowadays lovers get punished for the mere thing of holding hands on the street? See the incident that happened in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, when police beaten up young men and women for publicly displaying affection in a park.

I do have some opinions about the answer but first I would like to have some elegant proof before I state my opinion as I wouldn't like to sound crazy or hurt somebody.

In the meantime while I dig up my resources if you know the answer you are free to state your opinion.