What an inspiring post! Now I feel like I HAVE to respond to the same question with my home country of Mexico. As you can imagine, it's going to be very similar to yours, but I really feel like it can't be stressed enough: In spite of its horrible reputation, I have never felt unsafe in Mexico, even in the allegedly 'bad parts'. But let me detail all that in my post. For now, I am so glad to see that your description of India suggests the same thing in general: most places are not really unsafe, while at the same time even the safest places can't be 100%.