University of London's Hindi professor deported from IGI Airport

NEW DELHI: A professor associated with the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London was deported from the IGI Airport over alleged violation of visa conditions, sources said on Tuesday.

Francesca Orsini, a scholar of Hindi and professor emerita at SOAS, was deported Monday, soon after she arrived from Hong Kong, a source in the Ministry of Home Affairs said. Orsini has been on a 'Black List' since March 2025 for violation of visa conditions, they said.

"Francesca Orsini was on a tourist visa, but she has been violating visa conditions," the source said. "This is a standard global practice that if a person is found violating visa conditions, he/she can be black listed," the source said.

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The scholar is known for her book, The Hindi Public Sphere 1920-1940: Language and Literature in the Age of Nationalism. Reacting to her deportation, historian Ramachandra Guha termed Orsini 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," Guha wrote on X. Mukul Kesavan, another historian, said 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," Kesavan wrote on X. Orisini had reportedly last visited India in October 2024.