SRINAGAR: Immigration authorities at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport deported Francesca Orsini, a noted Hindi scholar and professor emerita at SOAS, University of London, around midnight on Monday–Tuesday, after she was found to have been blacklisted for violating visa conditions since March this year, according to a report published in The New Indian Express.
“Francesca Orsini was travelling on a tourist visa but was found to be violating its conditions. She has been on the blacklist since March 2025 for this reason. It is a standard global practice that anyone found breaching visa conditions may be blacklisted”, a source told The New Indian Express.
Officials explained that tourist visas are granted freely, but holders are not permitted to engage in political, religious, or research activities. They added that Orsini had previously been found conducting research during an earlier visit and was consequently blacklisted under existing international norms. “She was therefore deported in accordance with the rules,” the source said.
Orsini, acclaimed author of The Hindi Public Sphere 1920–1940; Language and Literature in the Age of Nationalism, had arrived at IGI Airport on the night of October 20-21 via Hong Kong after attending an academic conference in China.
Critics have condemned the move as excessive. Historian Ramachandra Guha in a post on X wrote, “Professor Francesca Orsini is a great scholar of Indian literature whose work has greatly deepened our understanding of our cultural heritage. To deport her without reason is the act of a government that is insecure, paranoid, and foolish.”
Unnamed GOI officials, on condition of “strict anonymity”, are suggesting Prof Francesca Orsini was blacklisted because she did ‘research’ which visiting India in a tourist visa.
Think about this for a second.
Orsini is a professor of Hindi, her most celebrated work is on the…
— Siddharth (@svaradarajan) October 21, 2025
Besides, historian Mukul Kesavan also commented on X, stating, “The NDA government’s hostility towards scholars and scholarship is staggering. A government ideologically committed to Hindi has banned Francesca Orsini — you couldn’t make this up.”
The visceral hostility of the NDA government to scholars and scholarship is something to behold. A government ideologically committed to Hindi has banned Francesca Orsini. You can’t make this up. https://t.co/PpP0kkGiVY
— Mukul Kesavan (@mukulkesavan) October 21, 2025
