Social distancing in a deeply fragmented society like India is both vertical – along class and caste lines – and horizontal, involving the separation of people within the same groups. India’s already entrenched hierarchies of power meant vertical distancing was quickly introduced. But horizontal social distancing has posed as a much bigger problem.
With the lockdown, the more privileged groups in Indian society have quickly established greater social distance between themselves and others around them. It simply required a widening of existing hierarchical power structures in society, which are often based on class and caste.
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