London-based Hindi scholar Francesca Orsini stopped from entering India: Report

Francesca Orsini, a Hindi scholar and professor at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, was allegedly stopped from entering India on Monday despite having a valid five-year visa, The Wire reported.

Orsini had arrived in Delhi from Hong Kong after attending an academic conference in China, according to the news portal. However, the immigration authorities allegedly denied her entry into the country.

The scholar claimed that no reason was provided for the denial.

“I am being deported,” The Wire quoted her as saying. “That is all I know.”

Orsini, an undergraduate in Hindi from Venice University in Italy, studied in New Delhi at the Central Institute of Hindi and Jawaharlal Nehru University. She completed her PhD at SOAS, which is part of the University of London.

Her works include East of Delhi: Multilingual Literary Culture and World Literature, Print and Pleasure: Popular Literature and Entertaining Fictions in Colonial North India and The Hindi Public Sphere 1920-1940: Language and Literature in the Age of Nationalism.

Orsini is currently professor emerita of Hindi and South Asian Literature at SOAS’ School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics.

Similar cases in recent years

Several scholars and activists have similarly been denied entry into India in recent years.

In February, Indian-origin anti-caste activist Kshama Sawant alleged that the Indian government had denied her an emergency visa thrice to visit her ailing mother in Bengaluru, claiming that her name...

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