Stigma and fear during COVID-19: essentializing religion in an Indian context

The paper investigates how, during COVID-19, social groups in India were essentialized and stigmatized—particularly Muslims—through media narratives that framed a religious congregation (Tablighi Jamaat at Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz) as emblematic of an entire community. Drawing on Wagner and Semati’s theorization of essentialization and Critical Race Theory (CRT), the authors examine how negative, fixed attributes are ascribed to outgroups to dehumanize and marginalize them, leading to social cleavage. They argue that such essentialization was intensified in the pandemic context, where majoritarian rhetoric and media discourse highlighted minority religious identity, shifting focus away from healthcare, economic relief, and migrant needs. The study situates this within India’s history of identity-based polarization and asserts that media representation can aggravate stigma and fear, thereby hindering effective pandemic response. The paper outlines a conceptual analysis limited to print/electronic media and is organized into sections on essentialization, media’s role, stigma/fear during the pandemic, and conclusions.

The article synthesizes theoretical and empirical strands: (1) Essentialism and essentialization: drawing on Plato’s universals, Quine’s natural kinds, Campbell’s entitativity, and social-psychological work by Wagner, Holtz, and Kashima to explain how perceived homogeneity and essence construction underpin stereotyping and racism. Semati’s distinction between positive and negative essentialism and critiques of the 'clash of civilizations' frame the analysis of Islamophobia. (2) Critical Race Theory (Delgado & Stefancic) is used to interpret hierarchical social structures and the socially constructed nature of racialized/religious categories in India. (3) Media effects and representation: literature on repetition and priming (Anand & Sternthal; Campbell et al.; Malley & Strayer; Cushion et al.), third-person effects (Mutz; Tsfati & Cohen), and media’s role in shaping public belief (Happer & Philo) informs how repeated 'Muslim' tropes during COVID-19 produced negative priming and hostile attributions. (4) Stigma scholarship from infectious disease contexts (Barrett & Brown; Farmer & Kleinman; Person et al.; Baldassarre et al.; Wester & Giesecke) demonstrates how stigma impedes detection and care. (5) Indian political-sociological context: works on majoritarianism and nationalism are noted, with a stated gap regarding systematic analysis of media-driven essentialization during pandemics in India.

Conceptual and analytical essay employing qualitative discourse analysis of print and electronic media narratives during early COVID-19 in India, with illustrative headlines and reports (e.g., Al Jazeera, The Hindu, The Print, Reuters, The Guardian) used to examine how religious identity was foregrounded. The analysis is theory-driven, applying Wagner/Semati’s essentialization framework and Critical Race Theory to interpret media framing, metonymic attribution (subset projected as whole), and the psychosocial consequences (stigma, fear). The scope is limited to mainstream print/electronic media; social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, TikTok) are acknowledged but not systematically analyzed. No primary datasets were generated; the approach is interpretive rather than statistical content analysis.

• Media and political discourse in India essentialized a religious subset (Tablighi Jamaat) to represent the entire Muslim community, using metonymy to conflate a specific congregation with 'Muslims' broadly, thereby fueling Islamophobia.
• Repetition of religion-marked tropes (e.g., 'Muslim gathering', 'Tablighi Jamaat') alongside COVID-19 coverage produced negative priming and a Hindu–Muslim binary in public consciousness; acts of care were framed as rare exceptions across communal lines, reinforcing constructed binaries.
• Focus on communal identity diverted attention from crucial pandemic priorities (medical management, economic relief, migrant needs) and encouraged vilification (e.g., 'Corona-jihad'), despite lack of evidence for conspiratorial intent.
• Stigma and fear impeded timely detection and treatment: some individuals concealed travel histories or delayed testing (e.g., Markaz attendees), aggravating transmission; health workers faced attacks fueled by misinformation.
• Quantitative touchpoints cited in media discourse amplified communal framing: some outlets highlighted that 'Tablighis comprised 30% of cases' at a point in time, which facilitated communalization; an NGO (Evidence) reported 30 caste-based violence cases in Tamil Nadu during lockdown.
• Stigmatization extended beyond religion to caste and class (e.g., Dalits facing exclusion and discriminatory treatment in quarantine centers; sanitation workers attacked), revealing how existing social hierarchies intersect with pandemic stigma.
• Comparative governance indicates that participatory, scientifically informed approaches (e.g., Kerala’s decentralized model, engagement with religious heads) mitigated stigma and improved compliance, contrasting with regions where misinformation and polarization prevailed.

The findings demonstrate that essentializing media framings during COVID-19 translated into stigma and fear that undermined public health goals. By projecting the actions of a subset (Tablighi Jamaat) onto an entire community, the discourse fostered dehumanization and intergroup hostility, aligning with essentialization theory’s predictions about perceived homogeneity and immutable essence. CRT helps explain how these framings reinforce hierarchical control by majoritarian groups and deflect accountability for structural policy failures. Practically, stigma-induced concealment of exposure histories and hostility towards health workers hampered testing, tracing, and treatment, thereby exacerbating contagion. Conversely, culturally sensitive, inclusive governance and rational, depoliticized communication (as in Kerala) can counteract stigma and foster compliance. The analysis underscores media’s responsibility to avoid communalizing health crises and to support evidence-based, non-stigmatizing messaging that advances collective pandemic response.

COVID-19 exposed how derogatory, essentializing labels (e.g., 'Chinese-virus', 'Corona-jihad') can fracture social solidarity and inflict long-term psychosocial harm. In India, segments of media and political discourse communalized the pandemic by metonymically equating a subset with the whole Muslim community, fueling stigma and fear that hindered detection, treatment, and social cohesion. The paper calls for media objectivity and social responsibility, urging a shift from provocative to constructive criticism and from cultural-essentialist framings to a shared humanitarian ethos. Future research should systematically examine the role of social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp) and hate messaging in producing and amplifying essentialization during health crises.

• Analytical, theory-driven essay without primary datasets; illustrative media examples rather than systematic content analysis.
• Scope limited to print/electronic news media; social media platforms acknowledged but not analyzed.
• Focused on the Indian context and the specific episode of the Tablighi Jamaat; generalizability to other contexts/events may be constrained.
• Does not quantify media effects or measure stigma empirically; relies on secondary reports and theoretical interpretation.