“DON’t LET the VIRUS INVADE your MIND!”: WORRIES and EXPECTATIONS in INDIA DURING COVID-19 (NOTES from the ETHNOGRAPHER’s DIARY, MARCH 8-25, 2020)

© 2020 Svetlana RYZHAKOVA

 2020  — № 1 (19)


Citation link:

Ryzhakova S. I. (2020). “Ne pozvol’ virusu vtorgnut’sja v tvoe soznanie!”: bespokojstva i ozhidanija v Indii v period COVID-19 (zametki iz dnevnika jetnografa, 8-25 marta 2020 g.) [“Do Not Let the Virus Invade Your Mind!” Worries and Expectations in India at the Time of COVID-19 (Notes from an Ethnographer’s Diary: March 8-25, 2020)]. Medicinskaja antropologija i biojetika [Medical anthropology and bioethics], 1 (19).


Author info:

Svetlana I. Ryzhakova, Dr. Hist. Sc., Leading Research Fellow, Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow).


Keywords: March 2020, COVID-19, India, ethnographic diary, fears

Abstract. Based on the ethnographic diary and several publications, this essay presents a chronicle of the days from March 8 to March 25, 2020, which the author spent in India – Delhi, Vrindavan and suburbs, at the University of Aligarh, Calcutta and Chennai. The notes, sketches, and impressions of these days outline the configuration of changes in Indian society that are occurring in connection with the beginning of the spread of the new coronavirus infection.


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