Public health messaging during the Covid-19 pandemic has emphasized protecting oneself and family members by avoiding, isolating, and distancing. Among forward castes in India, such messaging has offered a veneer of modern reasoning for historical discrimination premised on “touch avoidance” caste practices—directed this time towards the Muslim. Prejudice against the Muslim and the anxiety about … Continue reading The Threat of Touch: Othering Bodies During the Covid-19 Pandemic