Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the challenges faced by a Sikh humanitarian group operating into India during the compound crises of political protest and COVID-19. What, it asks, are the stakes of such diasporic work in a contemporary India marked by increasing levels of religious and sectarian intolerance?

Paper long abstract:

In autumn 2020, farmers began what would become a year-long protest against the Hindu-nationalist government’s plans to open the Indian agri-food market to national and international competition. The UK-based Sikh organisation Khalsa Aid initiated support for the protesting farmers, an action for which they were labelled ‘anti-national’ and ‘secessionist’ by multiple media organisations, eventually receiving a summons from the Indian National Investigation Agency. As this investigation was ongoing, a second wave of coronavirus infections overwhelmed hospitals and left many without access to medical care. To bridge the gaps left by government and private healthcare provision, Khalsa Aid continued working, setting up what became known as ‘oxygen langars’, sites that provided oxygen canisters or concentrators free of charge. Utilising a method demanded by the pandemic moment – media analysis (both traditional newspapers and social media) – this paper investigates the challenges and opportunities of such diasporic humanitarian work in contemporary India, focussing on Khalsa Aid and the second wave of COVID-19 infections. This was a moment in which the power of the state to protect its citizens was called into question. Unlike prior anthropological work on religious humanitarian work in India which emphasises its function as an enactment of ‘national integration’ (Copeman 2009), this paper focuses not on state building but anxiety about its status. I argue that the compound nature of these crises and the prominent action of Sikh organisations elicited competing discourses about the validity of a state that has cast itself in opposition to minority groups.