Politics meets healthcare? Religious misinformation in India during the COVID-19 pandemic
India has recently become a hotspot of misinformation: the COVID-19 brings a new opportunity for the rumor-spreaders. Of various categories, religious misinformation seems harmful for both Indian society and public health. In this paper, therefore, I tried to sketch a few necessary aspects of religi...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember Surabaya
2020-12-01
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| Series: | Jurnal Sosial Humaniora |
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| Online Access: | http://iptek.its.ac.id/index.php/jsh/article/view/8119/5288 |
| Summary: | India has recently become a hotspot of misinformation: the COVID-19 brings a new opportunity for the rumor-spreaders. Of various categories, religious misinformation seems harmful for both Indian society and public health. In this paper, therefore, I tried to sketch a few necessary aspects of religious misinformation in India during the COVID-19. From the previous literature and ongoing trend of Indian misinformation, I identified two important phenomena: (a) Though Muslims produce more spiritual misinformation, most of the religious misinformation targeting Muslims is inspired by Islamophobia; (b) misinformation that tries to champion Hinduism is more related to the contemporary political ideologies of India. I also tried to explain how religion as a political issue relates to public health |
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| ISSN: | 1979-5521 2443-3527 |