Author Archive

Pranav Kohli

Pranav Kohli holds an MPhil in Race, Ethnicity and Conflict from Trinity College Dublin. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Anthropology from Maynooth University, Ireland. His doctoral research examines the intervention of Hindutva discourses in first-hand memories of the Partition of India.

The global Covid-19 pandemic has led an alarming transformation of the world’s social, economic, and political life. In that context, it is important to understand how the pandemic has added momentum to India’s inertial slide into a full-fledged Hindu majoritarian state. In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government has seized upon this public health emergency as an opportunity to strengthen its hold on Indian society. In this article, we examine how the Covid-19 pandemic has provided Modi’s single-party national government with fertile ground for advancing its Hindu nationalist project.  Vigilante Blame Culture  The global spread of Covid-19 has provided Hindutva organisations, which seek to merge Hindu and Indian identities, with a fresh target for their nationalist propaganda. In line with …