Francesca Orsini, a distinguished scholar of Hindi literature and professor emerita at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, was recently denied entry into India and deported from Delhi airport. The incident occurred late on a Monday when Orsini arrived in Delhi from Hong Kong but was stopped by immigration officials and sent back without being allowed to enter the country. Senior government officials cited an alleged “violation of visa conditions” during her previous visits as the official reason for denying her entry. However, Orsini herself, who was on a flight back to London, stated she was given no clear explanation beyond the fact that she was being deported.
Orsini’s husband, Peter Kornicki, an Emeritus Professor of Japanese at the University of Cambridge and fellow of the British Academy, confirmed to The Indian Express that she had arrived in Delhi from Hong Kong and was subsequently deported back to Hong Kong, with no official reasons provided for this action. When asked about the alleged visa violations or whether Orsini had recently attended any conferences in India, Kornicki said he was unaware of any such events or violations.
Originally from Italy, Francesca Orsini began her academic journey studying Hindi during her undergraduate years in her home country. She later pursued further studies in India at the Central Institute of Hindi and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi, developing a deep and lasting connection with the country and its language. Over her long career, she has become widely recognized for her scholarly contributions to Hindi literature, especially in the context of modern nationalism and literary history.
One of her notable works is the book *The Hindi Public Sphere 1920-1940: Language and Literature in the Age of Nationalism*, published by Oxford University Press in 2002. This book, which was part of her doctoral research completed at SOAS, explores the role of the Hindi language in shaping nationalist sentiment during the early 20th century. Through careful analysis of journals and literary works of the time, Orsini sheds light on how language and literature intersected with the political movements and social changes of that era.
Throughout her academic career, Orsini has held positions at prestigious institutions. In addition to SOAS, where she spent over three decades until her retirement in 2021, she has taught at the University of Cambridge. In 2013-14, she was a Fellow at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute, further cementing her reputation as a leading scholar in her field.
Orsini’s engagement with India extends beyond academia; she has a lifelong association with the country, having studied Hindi there for many years and conducted extensive fieldwork. A Delhi University professor and friend of Orsini, who wished to remain anonymous, described her as someone deeply involved in both contemporary and medieval Hindi literature. Much of her research involves oral traditions, requiring her to meet local scholars, collect oral histories, and translate texts. According to this professor, Orsini’s recent visit to India was intended to be one of her usual annual trips to continue her scholarly work and maintain her close ties with Indian academia.
Alok Rai, a former professor at Delhi University’s Department of English and a longtime acquaintance of Orsini, reflected on her connection to India, saying she initially came to the country to learn Hindi but soon fell in love with it. Rai praised her meticulous scholarship, highlighting her detailed textual studies of both modern and older Hindi texts. He also noted that Orsini is a scholar of Urdu and has studied Persian, demonstrating her broad linguistic expertise within South Asian literary traditions.
Orsini’s contributions to the academic and literary community in India include delivering key lectures on Hindi literature and its multilingual dimensions. In October of the previous year, she presented the second Shamsur Rahman Faruqi Memorial Lecture, titled “The Purab: A Multilingual Literary History,” organized by the Dastangoi Collective in Delhi. She also gave lectures at Dr B R Ambedkar University Delhi and Delhi University in 2020, discussing topics such as literary history and world literature. Her lecture at Delhi University focused on the epic poem *Padmavat* by Malik Muhammad Jayasi, a significant work in the medieval Hindi literary canon. In 2021, she delivered the BN Ganguli Memorial Lecture at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, addressing the theme “Hindi Internationalism: Literature and the Cold