Socialized medicine has always been political: COVID-19, science and biopower in India

In this article, we discuss the tensions surrounding science, biopower, and citizenship that have been thrown into sharp relief by the COVID 19 pandemic. We situate these tensions in the epistemological and political conflict between science, public health education, and alternative medical systems that has been rekindled by the pandemic in India. To do so, we critically examine media articles and health education documents in the form of illustrated narratives/posters to show how education, science, and biopower are inseparable; and must therefore be considered an important part of any programme of critical justice-oriented science education. We employ a biopolitical framework, drawing largely from the work of Michel Foucault, to expose relevant sociopolitical tensions between tradition and modernity, truth and power, governance and science, which are invoked in times of crisis (such as pandemics) and give shape to fundamentals issue of science and citizenship. This article attempts to add to the conversation begun by Flavia Rezende et al.’s (2021) “South Epistemologies to invent post-pandemic science education”, who related the COVID-19 pandemic to the political situation in Brazil emphasizing the necessity to reclaim indigenous ways of being and relating to nature. We draw implications for science education research and praxis that exceed any one pandemic or political crisis.