In this RTD Live Talk, I discuss India’s countrywide Covid curfew, the destruction caused by lockdowns, and the wider transfer of wealth and power taking place during the crisis.

The conversation examines how panic and state power can devastate fragile societies, especially where livelihoods are precarious and institutions are weak. India’s lockdown did not merely restrict movement. It exposed the country’s administrative incompetence, social fragility, and the moral indifference of those imposing policies from above.

Watch the full discussion below:

Key Takeaways

• Why India’s countrywide curfew was especially destructive for the poor and daily-wage workers
• How lockdowns transfer power to the state and wealth to those insulated from the damage
• Why fragile institutions make crisis policies far more dangerous in the Third World
• How panic, bureaucracy, and moral indifference worsen social and economic suffering
• What India’s Covid response revealed about governance, poverty, and institutional hollowness