Nilsen, Alf Gunvald2021-08-112021Alf Gunvald Nilsen (2022) India’s pandemic: spectacle, social murder and authoritarian politics in a lockdown nation, Globalizations, 19:3, 466-486, DOI: 10.1080/14747731.2021.1935019.1474-7731 (print)1474-774X (online)10.1080/14747731.2021.1935019http://hdl.handle.net/2263/81232This article maps and analyses the trajectory of India’s Covid-19 pandemic from its onset in early 2020 until the outbreak of the country’s devastating second wave a little over a year later. I begin with a critique of the lockdown policy of the right-wing Hindu nationalist government of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which served as a political spectacle rather than a public health intervention. I then proceed to detail how India as a lockdown nation witnessed forms of social suffering and political repression that can only be truly understood in light of how the trajectory and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was shaped by two preexisting crises in India’s economy and polity. In conclusion, I reflect on the likely political outcomes of the pandemic, considering both the impact of its second wave, and the emergence of oppositional sociopolitical forces in the country.en© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an electronic version of an article published in Globalizations, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 466-486, 2022. doi : 10.1080/14747731.2021.1935019. Globalizations is available online at : https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/.glo20.IndiaCOVID-19 pandemicCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)LockdownSpectacleSocial murderAuthoritarian populismPostprint Article