Abstract

The religious responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Hindu India were manifold and, at times, publicly contested, which raises the question of which societal differences became visible and were augmented as the pandemic unfolded. Based on observations mainly from the first coronavirus wave in 2020, this article argues that the limited religious innovation that ensued gave rise to a lively public debate that revealed marked differences within the Hindu community, that the pandemic offered new possibilities for affirming Hindu identities while othering Muslims, and that it accelerated the transition to online religious services in prominent temples while pausing the activities in others, thus augmenting a marked digital divide that may well outlast the pandemic. Pandemic religious changes notwithstanding, the article concludes that most of the changes were ephemeral and produced minor jolts rather than major transformations.

Highlights

  • The religious responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Hindu India were manifold and, at times, publicly contested, which raises the question of which societal differences became visible and were augmented as the pandemic unfolded

  • November 2021 limited­­religious innovation that ensued gave rise to a lively public debate that revealed marked differences within the Hindu community, that the pandemic offered new possibilities for affirming Hindu identities while othering Muslims, and that it accelerated the transition to online religious services in prominent temples­while pausing the activities in others, augmenting a marked digital divide that may well outlast the pandemic

  • Given the location and demographics of my field site, I have richer material from Uttar Pradesh and Delhi than from other parts of India, and on non-Dalit working-class Hindus from the so-called Other Backward Classes (OBCs) than from other social segments, though I draw on my former research amongst middle-class Hindus of upper-caste descent in Kanpur, Haridwar (Uttarakhand) and Delhi

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Summary

Worship and the virus in Hindu India

The religious responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Hindu India were manifold and, at times, publicly contested, which raises the question of which societal differences became visible and were augmented as the pandemic unfolded. Government officials were quick to criticize the organizers for failing to cancel the event and the foreign delegates for misusing their tourist visas, and its treatment of Tablighis suspected of carrying the virus was unusual­ly strict: according to news reports, the response ranged from imposing 32-day quarantines (Dev 2020) and visa cancellations (Mahapatra 2020), to 10-year bans on entering India (Jain 2020), and being taken into custody (Thapar and Wahidi 2020) At this point, rumours about behaviour in quarantine began to circulate: some had allegedly assaulted and spat at the staff, including doctors (OpIndia 2020), whereas others had reportedly thrown urine-filled bottles to spread the virus even further (Sengar and Srinivasan 2020). The Tablighi conspiracy theory is a useful reminder that pandemic scapegoating does not occur in a political vacuum

Uneven digital acceleration
Findings
Concluding remarks
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