Francesca Orsini, University of London Professor Deported From IGI Airport; Who Is She And Why No Entry Into India?

Francesca Orsini Deported: Francesca Orsini, a scholar of Hindi and professor emerita at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, was deported on Monday, soon after she arrived in New Delhi from Hong Kong, creating a huge outrage. News agency PTI, quoting a source in the Ministry of Home Affairs, reported that the professor was deported from the IGI Airport over alleged violation of visa conditions.

Francesca Orsini On A 'Black List'

PTI sources said Orsini has been on a 'Black List' since March 2025 for violation of visa conditions. "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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Who Is Francesca Orsini?

Francesca Orsini, a UK-based Hindi scholar, is known for her book - The Hindi Public Sphere 1920-1940: Language and Literature in the Age of Nationalism. She is Professor Emerita of Hindi and South Asian Literature at the SOAS, University of London, where she has been a key figure since joining in 2006 after teaching at the University of Cambridge for over a decade. Her work emphasises multilingualism in South Asian literary cultures.

Government Criticised For Deporting The Professor

Historian Ramachandra Guha slammed the government over her deportation, saying to deport her without reason is the mark of a government that is insecure, paranoid, and even stupid. Guha, on X, termed Orsini a great scholar of Indian literature, "whose work has richly illuminated our understanding of our own cultural heritage."

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

Another historian, Mukul Kesavan, aimed at the government, saying 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.

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Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Sagarika Ghose tweeted, "Shocking and sad. Francesca Orsini is a world renowned scholar of South Asian literature and Hindi who has been deported despite her valid visa. The narrow-minded and backward looking @narendramodi regime is destroying the open-minded scholarship and excellence India has always stood for."

Orisini had reportedly last visited India in October 2024.
(With PTI inputs)