India’s prime minister Narendra Modi is, if nothing else, a showman. His cult of personality, and the governing style of his far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), emphasize spectacle and image management. For many years it seemed that no matter what controversy he got into, or however lackluster his party’s performance, Modi could spin his way out of it and emerge more popular than ever. This has been true since Modi’s early days in national politics, as he escaped the sobriquet “butcher of Gujarat” (due to his alleged complicity in anti-Muslim riots in 2002) and rebranded himself as a champion of economic development, with the help of a US lobbying firm.

More recently, during the early days of the coronavirus-induced lockdown, Modi introduced a new look: the wise, long-bearded Hindu sage-turned-ruler. But now, India — and the world — is seeing other images and hearing stories that are drowning out Modi’s careful brand curation: cities having to build impromptu crematoria in parks and empty lots to handle a sharp spike in COVID-related deaths; huge shortages of critical health equipment, particularly oxygen; angry crowds outside vaccination centers, where doses are in short supply; and countless stories, on social media, in the news, and in person, of untold suffering and death.

How did India get to this point? It is sobering to read Mike Davis’s early reflections on the pandemic, back in March 2020. He noted that in the 1918–19 pandemic, 60 percent of all deaths worldwide occurred in India, then under British colonial rule. “This history — especially the unknown consequences of interactions with malnutrition and existing infections — should warn us that COVID-19 might take a different and more deadly path in the dense, sickly slums of Africa and South Asia.”