Pandemic, Religiosity and Sectarian Conflict

Abstract

This thesis is an exploration of the link between threats like COVID-19 pandemic and the rising manifestations of xenophobia in collectivist & individualist societies. It explicates this relationship by conceptualizing the factors that can manifest intergroup conflict within a country. As disease exposes the fault lines within a society, this study uses the cases of India, Sri Lanka and USA to see how different societies have resulted in different levels of harassment and violence against a marginalized group. India has displayed a great increase in instances of violence & mob violence, whereas in the US there have been more cases of harassment and hate crimes reported by individuals. On the other hand, Sri Lanka‘s example showed that limited role of social media has curbed the impacts of violence to a great extent in the country. The thesis then turns to the subject in Pakistan‘s context, as it explores the sectarian dimension and the rise in Shia-Sunni conflict within the country, a fault line that has impacted the peace and stability of the country. Findings have shown that increased polarization has resulted as lack of movement and increased use of social media have resulted in a limited exposure to the outgroup. However, due to a well-controlled COVID-19 response although sectarian tensions have festered, aside from a few incidences of mob violence, no major upticks in violence were observed.