India and the Pandemic

A collection of 24 essays on how India dealt with Covid-19 in 2020, published by Orient BlackSwan. The essays, with a detailed Introduction, cover the history of pandemics, the early stages, the lockdown, the law, impact on economy & society, and the future.
The India Forum

The India Forum

January 28,2021

In the past year, the novel coronavirus Covid-19 has affected every single part of the world. Over 1.5 million people have died; the global economy has contracted the deepest since the Second World War; and the gains over the decades in poverty eradication may have been erased. Amidst this, how did India fare in coping with Covid-19 in 2020? 

India and the Pandemic looks back at the historical, social, cultural, economic and political aspects of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country. The 24 essays in this volume, written by astute political and social commentators, offer rich insights into the impact of the pandemic, and the response of state and society. The essays tell us what we should have done early on, and what we should have done differently in dealing with this health and humanitarian disaster. They place the current pandemic within the broader history of infectious diseases. They provide valuable lessons for the future, telling us how we should think of organising human society differently if we are to prevent future pandemics. 

Written in 2020, these incisive essays offer a real-time window into the spread of the novel coronavirus disease in India. They make for a thought-provoking read for anyone interested in what happened during the first year of the pandemic.

The volume has an extensive and new Introduction written for the volume 

Section I — Early Stages of Covid-19 in India

Section II — Dealing with Pandemics in India’s History

Section III — Covid-19: The Initial Impact

Section IV — The Law, the Judiciary and Covid-19

Section V — The Lockdown and After

Section VI — Impact on the Economy

Section VII — Impact on Society

Section VIII — The Future

Available online on these pages at:

1. Orient BlackSwan

2. Amazon

3. Flipkart

4. Kindle Edition

 

This article was last updated on: March 11,2021

The India Forum

A Journal-Magazine on Contemporary Issues.

The India Forum

The India Forum welcomes your comments on this article for the Forum/Letters section.
Write to: editor@theindiaforum.in

The India Forum
Read also
In the absence of timely data from official agencies, private organizations and researchers have turned to designing large data surveys, often promoted by global philanthropies. There are questions about the transparency of the process, accountability and the working conditions of the enumerators.
Published On: March 18,2025 Updated On: March 21,2025
The popular discourse around the notion that laws enacted to protect women are being ‘grossly misused’ seems to have reached a fever pitch. The Supreme Court, itself, in the past has called it “legal terrorism”. But where are the statistics to remotely establish any such conclusion?
Published On: March 11,2025 Updated On: March 12,2025
'A culture where the rights of women and sexual and gender minorities can be wholly erased without even having to defend such a move clearly shows where the centre of power lies, and how it views those at the margins. '
Published On: March 10,2025 Updated On: March 14,2025