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This chapter discusses the evolution of the body politic since its theoretical inception in Modern Age to its contemporary imagination in COVID-19 as a biopolitical mass. The study creatively draws on the visual culture of the body politic, starting from Hobbes’s Leviathan to its concurrent nationalistic imaginations. A cultural studies approach helps in our understanding of society as a discursive entity that metamorphoses according to the larger shifts in global events and cultural trends. A critical point of entry is to demonstrate the relevance of the political philosophy of the body politic as a living system. The visual culture of the body politic invites further discussion than its treatment as an organ of metaphors (head, arms, body, etc.) signifying political units. The chapter cuts through the imagination of the body politic in the Indian context and hypothesizes the social body with a set of immunities and the immune system. It specifically draws on the figures of Virat Purusha and Bharat Mata in the nationalistic discourse of India. It pictures these figures as a social body with an immune system that is triggered during a public health crisis like COVID-19. The chapter treats these visual texts as metaphoric illustrations to understand the collective responses of the Indian community vis-à-vis an imagined community. Developing on these histories, imaginations, and theories, the chapter introduces the concept of “Indian Immunity” as a reworking of Priscilla Wald’s “Imagined Immunities,” which in itself is drawn from Benedict Anderson’s “Imagined Communities.” The proposed concept shall delve into collective belief systems and cultural practices generated by fear and anxiety rather than out of scientific reality. Such a close awareness of Indian Immunities, that is, how our society responds to a public health crisis, enables us to function in a more educated manner. It shall further help us to keep the body politic in check from becoming “auto-immune” to itself by identifying visual culture as a means to assess community response to contagion.

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Indian Immunities

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年

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  • Thiyagaraj Gurunathan

摘要

This chapter discusses the evolution of the body politic since its theoretical inception in Modern Age to its contemporary imagination in COVID-19 as a biopolitical mass. The study creatively draws on the visual culture of the body politic, starting from Hobbes’s Leviathan to its concurrent nationalistic imaginations. A cultural studies approach helps in our understanding of society as a discursive entity that metamorphoses according to the larger shifts in global events and cultural trends. A critical point of entry is to demonstrate the relevance of the political philosophy of the body politic as a living system. The visual culture of the body politic invites further discussion than its treatment as an organ of metaphors (head, arms, body, etc.) signifying political units. The chapter cuts through the imagination of the body politic in the Indian context and hypothesizes the social body with a set of immunities and the immune system. It specifically draws on the figures of Virat Purusha and Bharat Mata in the nationalistic discourse of India. It pictures these figures as a social body with an immune system that is triggered during a public health crisis like COVID-19. The chapter treats these visual texts as metaphoric illustrations to understand the collective responses of the Indian community vis-à-vis an imagined community. Developing on these histories, imaginations, and theories, the chapter introduces the concept of “Indian Immunity” as a reworking of Priscilla Wald’s “Imagined Immunities,” which in itself is drawn from Benedict Anderson’s “Imagined Communities.” The proposed concept shall delve into collective belief systems and cultural practices generated by fear and anxiety rather than out of scientific reality. Such a close awareness of Indian Immunities, that is, how our society responds to a public health crisis, enables us to function in a more educated manner. It shall further help us to keep the body politic in check from becoming “auto-immune” to itself by identifying visual culture as a means to assess community response to contagion.