Mangling the COVID Crisis: India’s Response to the Pandemic

Using a cultural and social identity lens to understand pandemic responses in the US and India

“…High power distant nations such as India more willingly accept differences in power and wealth, whereas low power distant nations such as the United States encourage equality amongst their members (Rinne et al, 2012). In India, the central government unilaterally announced a 21-day lockdown in the early days of the pandemic including closure of schools to prevent the spread of the virus, and all state governments and local governments in India followed it meticulously (Ganguly, 2020). People and employees in high power distance cultures tend to seek guidance from their superiors rather than from peers (Smith et al, 2002).…”

“…Responses to the pandemic while driven along partisinal lines in the US, diverged along a different in-group out-group dynamic in the Indian context, anchored around a particular group identity of migrant workers stranded in urban cities amidst a pandemic. Many have argued that the pandemic left migrant workers in India most vulnerable and caught in the crosshairs amidst a strict lockdown measure instituted by the Indian government in the early days of the pandemic as part of its public policy measures to curtail the spread of the virus (Ganguly, 2020;Suresh et al, 2020).…”

“…Examining India's response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the first wave, (Trivedi, 2020) finds that degree of infection and deaths have varied across countries, with the deaths from the Covid-19 virus in India being a fraction of deaths compared to other large and populous countries. One of the measures to control the pandemic that India undertook was to put in place a stringent lockdown which extended for a period of several months (Suresh et al, 2020;Trivedi, 2020;Ganguly, 2020). The Indian government announced a decision to impose an initial 21-day nationwide lockdown in the early days of the pandemic in an attempt to limit community spread of the virus (Ganguly, 2020).…”

“…One of the measures to control the pandemic that India undertook was to put in place a stringent lockdown which extended for a period of several months (Suresh et al, 2020;Trivedi, 2020;Ganguly, 2020). The Indian government announced a decision to impose an initial 21-day nationwide lockdown in the early days of the pandemic in an attempt to limit community spread of the virus (Ganguly, 2020). The lockdown prohibited most economic activity and limited movement outside of one's home only for essential things such as procuring groceries or seeking medical assistance.…”

“…Given the cramped conditions in which much of the urban poor live amidst densely populated settings, the scope for social distancing was limited in the first place. With economic activity coming to a standstill, and with the sudden announcement of the lockdown, it left close to 40 million migrant workers abruptly stranded in the country (Ganguly, 2020).…”