COVID-19 Pandemic and Popular Discourses in Jharkhand: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

COVID-19 has made its imprint in human history once again providing us the opportunity to reflect and interpret the pandemic from several dimensions. It has disturbed lives of people leading to cognitive reactions apart from its physical impacts. Given the historical backdrop of pandemics, this article attempts to explore the diverse perspectives of people regarding the COVID-19 pandemic through in-depth interviews of people belonging to different strata of the society. The narratives were interpreted into themes which fall into the areas that cover popular perceptions regarding the pandemic. The responses were found to be surprisingly very complex and syncretic, from theological–spiritual rationalisations to natural or political explanations and scientific and clinical causes. Despite all scientific and technological advancements till date, the belief system has not drastically changed from what has been gleaned from the ancient theological literature.

Keywords

Pandemic COVID-19 perception popular discourses

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Arao

D. A.

(2021). Pandemic discourse. Media Asia , 48(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1080/01296612.2021.1881290

Campbell

A. M.

(1931). The black death and men of learning. In History of science society publications. Columbia University Press.

Conrad

L. I.

(1982). Taun and Waba: Conceptions of plague and pestilence in early Islam . The Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient, 25(3), 268–307.

Kelkar

N. C.

(1944). The riddle of the curse in the Mahabharata. Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute , 25(1/3), 51–62.

Lane

E. W.

(1863). Arabic– English lexicon . Williams and Norgate.

Naphy

Spicer

(2000). The black death . Tempus Publications Pellecchia, U. (2017). Quarantine and its malcontents — How Liberians responded to the Ebola epidemic containment measures. Anthropology in Action , 24(2), 15–24.

Rosenberg

J. C.

(2020). What does the Bible teach us about pestilence, plague and global pandemics . The Joshua Fund.

Signoli

(2012). Reflections on crisis burials related to past plague epidemics. Clinical Microbiology and Infection , 18(3), 213–223.

Venables

(2017). ‘Atomic bombs’ in Monrovia, Liberia: The identity and stigmatisation of Ebola survivors. Anthropology in Action , 24(2), 36–43.

10.

Xue

Chen

Zheng

Zhu

(2020). Public discourse and sentiment during the COVID-19 pandemic. PLOS One , 15(9), e0239441. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.023944