Should I avoid overnight flights from Dubai to India?

First, I would like to talk about the punishment flight part. It is a punishment not because it is a flight to India, but because it is an international round trip (or turn around) and because it is at night. So, the crew will have to manage their sleeping time before the flight to be able to wake up late to report for this long, boring international flight with a two hours ground time in the airplane, and they usually will fail to manage the sleeping time before the flight, so they go sleepy and in slightly bad mood. Hence the punishment flight. Same applies for the passengers, they will be sleepy and might be in bad mood if they did not manage to sleep, and usually sleeping in airplanes is not a comfortable thing to do.

Regarding the unruly passengers and dirty airplane parts, majority of the passengers in flights to India are from the laboring/working class who originate from slums or small villages with little to zero knowledge about using airplane facilities in addition to being shy about asking on how to use them. Hence the dirty airplane which is interpreted as unruly passengers by some, because last time I checked unruly passengers are more like violent (verbally, physically, etc.) passengers, and I can assure you that Indian people are the sweetest possible passengers ever.

Bottom line, Go for the flight. If I was given a choice between night and day time flight to India I would pick up the night flight because most passengers would be sleeping and it will be way smoother and more quite.

I have taken these night flights from Dubai to India several times, as recent as a month ago. I did not find any passengers to be unruly or the plane to be dirty. It is true that there are many working class (construction workers, airport maintenance staff etc.) people from India in Dubai and just like everyone else, they try to save a penny when it comes to buying flight tickets. So it is true that you may find these people on the flight but I have never seen anyone getting unruly or rude or annoying for that matter. I mean, who doesn't want to save? I see no reason for anyone to avoid these flights for the reasons mentioned because they are not true. Go for it, take these flights and write about your experience!

As a frequent traveler to India from UK. I'd consider myself have much experience about flying by both the direct flights and the cheap flights through Dubai (really is not that cheap compare to direct flights but surely you can save some money if you book your tickets quiet earlier).

Working Class Flight ?

Yes, it's 100% true that most of the passengers traveling from Dubai to India are less paid Indian workers but they are absolutely very nice people to travel with them. Even in the direct costly flights I used to see the people behaving very rude to crew members/co-passengers but I have never seen such things in those cheap flights. Contradictorily some of the crew members used to behave partially to some poor passengers by the way they look and dress.

Dirty Flight ?

No, it's not 100% true. But I wouldn't tell I have never experienced. In those flights some of the passengers are quiet new to flights so they may not familiar with some minor stuffs how to use it. But it's absolutely tolerable as a shared user.

Final word

Just try once. Definitely you will travel again in those flights.