Highlights:
- Francesca Orsini, a noted Hindi scholar, was deported from India despite holding a valid visa.
- Sources said she had been blacklisted since March 2025 for violating visa rules.
- Her husband confirmed that no explanation was given by immigration authorities.
- Orsini, Professor Emerita at SOAS, is the author of The Hindi Public Sphere 1920–1940.
- Ramachandra Guha and Sagarika Ghose criticized the deportation as “paranoid” and “shocking.”
Francesca Orsini, a celebrated London-based scholar of Hindi and South Asian literature, was denied entry into India on Monday despite holding a valid tourist visa. According to sources quoted by News18, Orsini has been on India’s blacklist since March 2025 for allegedly violating visa conditions.
“She was travelling on a tourist visa but was found to be in breach of visa rules. Being blacklisted for such violations is a standard global practice,” a government source told the outlet, adding that misuse of a visa can result in restrictions even if it remains valid.
Orsini, Professor Emerita at SOAS, University of London, arrived at Delhi airport on October 21 via Hong Kong after attending an academic conference in China. Immigration officials reportedly stopped her upon arrival and placed her on a return flight to London, also via Hong Kong, rather than allowing her to take a direct route home.
Her husband, Peter Kornicki, emeritus professor at the University of Cambridge, confirmed to ThePrint that Orsini was given no explanation by authorities at the airport before being deported. The Wire reported that Orsini had planned to visit friends during her stay and had last travelled to India in October 2024 without any issue.
This incident marks at least the fourth time in recent years that a foreign academic has been denied entry into India despite possessing valid travel documents. Orsini is widely regarded for her contributions to Indian literary scholarship, particularly her seminal 2002 work, The Hindi Public Sphere 1920–1940: Language and Literature in the Age of Nationalism, which remains a cornerstone in the study of Hindi and Indian cultural modernity.
Her deportation has triggered widespread criticism from scholars and public figures. Historian Ramachandra Guha condemned the move, writing, X: “Professor Francesca Orsini is a great scholar of Indian literature, whose work has richly illuminated our understanding of our own cultural heritage. To deport her without reason is the mark of a government that is insecure, paranoid, and even stupid.”
Echoing similar sentiments, Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghose called the incident “shocking and sad.” She wrote, “Francesca Orsini is a world-renowned scholar of South Asian literature and Hindi who has been deported despite her valid visa. The narrow-minded and backward-looking @narendramodi regime is destroying the open-minded scholarship and excellence India has always stood for.”
As outrage grows, the case has once again raised concerns over India’s tightening stance on foreign academics and researchers — a move many see as undermining the nation’s global reputation as a hub of cultural and intellectual exchange.
