Francesca Orsini, a London-based scholar and Professor Emerita at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), was denied entry to India and deported on Monday. Government sources indicate that she has been blacklisted for violating visa conditions.
According to officials, Orsini was blacklisted in March 2025 for violating the terms of her tourist visa. Immigration officials stopped her at the Delhi airport early Tuesday morning upon her arrival from Hong Kong, and she was subsequently deported. Sources within the Immigration Department stated that Orsini had been found engaging in research activities while in the country on a tourist visa, which is a violation of visa regulations. They explained that tourist visas are liberally granted, but tourists are not permitted to participate in political, religious, or research activities. Another official noted that Orsini had traveled to India in 2024 on a tourist e-visa but had spoken at a university and conducted research.
Government sources maintain that blacklisting individuals for visa violations is standard global practice. One official stated, "This is a standard global practice that if a person is found violating visa conditions, he/she can be blacklisted".
Orsini, who is of Italian origin, previously studied at the Central Institute of Hindi and Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi after completing her B.A. in Hindi from Venice University in Italy. The SOAS website mentions that she is currently finishing a book on the multilingual literary history of Awadh from the 15th to the early 20th century. She last visited India in October 2024. Orsini could not be reached for comment.
The action has drawn criticism from some quarters. Historian Ramachandra Guha described Orsini as "a great scholar of Indian literature, whose work has richly illuminated our understanding of our own cultural heritage". He added that deporting her without reason was "the mark of a government that is insecure, paranoid, and even stupid," in a post on social media platform X. Historian Mukul Kesavan also took to X, writing, "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".
Orsini is the author of "The Hindi Public Sphere 1920-1940: Language and Literature in the Age of Nationalism". Despite holding a valid five-year tourist e-visa, she was deported. According to reports, no official reason was initially provided to Orsini for the denial of entry; she stated that she was simply informed that she was "being deported".
