Crisis as Opportunity: Exploring the Hindu Nationalist Politics of ‘Seva’ During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Kerala, South India

The chapter examines how Hindu nationalist social service organizations, specifically the Deseeya Seva Bharathi (DSB), reconfigured the religious conception of ‘seva’ to advance the project of constructing a Hindu social identity during the COVID-19 pandemic in the state of Kerala. The southern Indian state of Kerala has remained an exception in the story of the rise of the Hindu nationalist movement in contemporary India, which has repeatedly failed to make any considerable political inroads in the state. However, the disastrous economic consequences and livelihood challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic in the state, which was heavily dependent on foreign remittance and service industries, have opened up new spaces of engagement for Hindu nationalists. Drawing on the fieldwork conducted in central Kerala during the pandemic, this chapter will elaborate on how the DSB used the crisis moment of the pandemic to reach out to economically and socially disadvantaged communities using the language of ‘seva’ to build a Hindu social identity, imbued with the influence of majoritarian Hindu nationalist politics. The chapter argues that the DSB’s articulation of ‘seva’ as a distinct and superior form of social service that is ‘selfless’, ‘non-instrumental’ and ‘non-reciprocal’ is significant in understanding the growing appeal of Hindu nationalist social service in the contested political sphere of Kerala, which is marked by competing social provisions by the state as well as other secular and religious groups. The chapter notes that the reconfiguration of ‘seva’ as a continuous religious concept enables Hindu nationalists to attain greater acceptance and legitimacy than even the secular state welfare could achieve, while also concealing the inherent instrumental nature of its social service towards the construction of a Hindu social identity in the region.