Drawing from my interviews with protesting farmers on the highways of Haryana, India, the article traces the intertwined relationship between protests against the Farm Laws (2020) and farmers’ reactions to pandemic governance. The article closely examines the contentious repertoire of the protesters to understand how the protesters challenge and change the meanings of such long-standing concepts like home and family, rural and urban, through counter-hegemonic performances. They contest the narratives of a pandemic with narratives of intimacy and togetherness by bringing the home out on the highways. By narrowing the social distance, they also question the imaginary divides that create social hierarchies.

Citation: Bera, Malay. "Interrogating Social Distancing: Pandemic and Farmers' Protest in India". Cultural Analysis Forum Series 1 (2023): 1-21. https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~culturalanalysis/series/1/pdf/Bera.pdf