Pandemic Politics in South Asia: Muslims and Democracy

Matthew J. Nelson

The Review of Faith & International Affairs, 2021, vol. 19, issue 1, 83-94

Abstract: In South Asia, entrenched social and political cleavages involving Muslims or particular groups of Muslims have shaped state efforts to address the global Covid-19 pandemic: Hindu nationalists blamed Muslims for introducing the virus to India; anti-Covid lockdowns extended severe constraints on civil liberties in Muslim-majority Kashmir; anti-state mullahs protested public-health restrictions in Pakistan; Taliban insurgents used the virus as a pretext to delegitimize Afghanistan’s elected government. If one pattern has prevailed across South Asia, however, it is a pattern pushing away from democratic forms of legitimacy: persistent and uneven applications of emergency power, in particular, have weakened the outlook for democracy.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1080/15570274.2021.1874164

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