At the time, the television news media, which are largely headquartered in New Delhi, had very little understanding of Mr. Hazare, who is from the western state of Maharashtra. Until last April, his influence was confined to rural parts of Maharashtra. By the time the anchors asked the important question — “Who exactly is Anna Hazare?” — it was too late. They had already proclaimed him a modern saint, and he had amassed millions of supporters in a matter of days. As it turned out, Mr. Hazare is not a man the urban middle class would normally call a saint.

Mr. Hazare has in the recent past supported the anti-migrant stand of Raj Thackeray, whose outfit, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, has frequently assaulted migrants from north India in Mumbai. The novelist Arundhati Roy, accusing Mr. Hazare of tacitly backing right-wing violence, asked in an article in The Hindu: “Who is he really, this new saint, this Voice of the People?”

After the media’s canonization of Mr. Hazare, his utterances and actions slowly began to expose him as a very different man from what people had been led to believe. He praised the chief minister of Gujarat State, Narendra Modi, for “rural development” even though the image of Mr. Modi in the national conscience is of a man accused of having a role in the killings of hundreds of Muslims in communal riots. On a television show, Mr. Hazare recommended amputation and death for the corrupt. He has also said that drunkards should be flogged. And last month, when he was asked to comment on the government’s plan to allow foreign investments in the retail sector, Mr. Hazare compared foreign retailers to the East India Company, which once colonized India. He said: “The British came here for trading and commercial purposes and ruled this country for 150 years. How could the government forget it?”

It was exactly men like him from whom India had liberated itself in its struggle for modernity.

Also, he has declared that in the approaching state elections he will campaign against the Congress party — even if this means supporting other corrupt politicians. His priority, he has stated, is to punish the Congress for not passing his version of the Lokpal bill.

So a movement that was born in a farce has ended in a farce. But Mr. Hazare, despite the erosion of his credibility, still has support in the middle class because of its deep hatred of politicians. Also, the people who have walked long distances holding candles and wearing “I am Anna” caps are embarrassed to admit that they were wrong. They want to believe that a revolution can clean India of corruption, even though some of them have most likely done things like bribe nursery school officials to secure their children’s admissions.

Manu Joseph is editor of the Indian newsweekly Open and author of the novel “Serious Men.”