Haṁso haṁsāo, Coronavirus ko dūr bhagāo: Hindi satire and humour as psychological and ideological resources during the COVID-19 crisis

This article presents the forms and functions pursued over the past years by satire and humour in the Hindi public sphere (Orsini 2002). The paper mainly focuses on the narratives concerning the COVID-19 pandemic and/or the policies implemented by the Indian government to manage the health crisis in India. Crucially, it is based on the results of an interdisciplinary investigation. Indeed, just like in other global contexts, humour and satire in the Hindi public sphere appeared through a multiplicity of channels. Along with the digital forms of satire and humour, traditional media and literature also paved the way for the narrativisation of the health crisis. This study combines a qualitative content analysis of the elements drawn from the World Wide Web along with a more descriptive analysis. The last section of the article will also address the satirical responses to the pandemic by Hindi literary satirists. It explores two intertwined thematic issues: the first deals with the adaptive coping functions embodied by Hindi satire and humour during the pandemic; while the second copes with the ideological value of the narratives, especially with regard to the response offered by the authors to the policies implemented by the Indian government to deal with the crisis in different phases of the pandemic.