BANGALORE, India — The three stars and the red-and-blue ribbon on his shoulder strap indicate that M. L. Purushotham is a police inspector. But his unofficial job title might well be this: redeemer of relationships and savior of marriages.

A typical case these days for Mr. Purushotham, who works out of the Yeshwantpur police station in west Bangalore, involved a couple in their 20s, well educated and working for different multinational corporations. She was from the eastern state of Orissa, and he from Tamil Nadu, in the south.

When the young woman walked into the police station, she told of how they had met, fallen in love and moved in together. But after nine months of living together, they were breaking up at the insistence of the man’s parents, who were upset at the violation of tradition. She wished to marry, she said, but he was resisting. The woman asked to file a criminal complaint against him for using the promise of marriage as a ruse.

As tumultuous societal changes transform Bangalore, many young middle-class Indians are struggling to cope. They arrive in the city for work and live away from their families. Unmoored from home and community, many are taking their problems to the only symbol of authority that is accessible around the clock: the police.