Rituals, particularly religious rituals, may play a significant role in times of crises. Often, these rituals undergo revision in order to adapt to the changing needs of the time. In this paper, we investigate recent unofficially revised Hindu religious rituals as performed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The multifarious creative interplay between Hindu tradition and change is illustrated through four cases – the religious festival of Durga Puja, the devotional songs or bhajans, the ritual of lighting lamps or diyas, and the fire rituals or havans. We offer a systematic discourse analysis of online news articles and YouTube posts that illuminate several aspects of ritual revision during unsettled times. We focus on the changes that were made to ritual elements – who was in control of these alterations, how were these modifications made, and what potential benefits did these revisions offer to the community of ritual participants. Based on our findings, we highlight public policy implications regarding the involvement of diverse social actors, the creation of faith in science, the creation of feelings of unity and agency, and the amplification of local ritual modifications on a national scale.

仪式，特别是宗教仪式，可能在危机时期发挥重要作用。通常，这些仪式会进行修改，以适应时代不断变化的需求。在本文中，我们调查了最近在 COVID-19 大流行期间进行的未经官方修改的印度教宗教仪式。印度教传统与变化之间的多姿多彩的创造性相互作用通过四个案例来说明——杜尔加法会的宗教节日、虔诚的歌曲或bhajans、点亮灯或diyas的仪式以及火仪式或havans。我们对在线新闻文章和 YouTube 帖子进行了系统的话语分析，阐明了动荡时期仪式修订的几个方面。我们专注于对仪式元素所做的改变——谁控制了这些改变，这些修改是如何进行的，以及这些修改为仪式参与者社区提供了哪些潜在的好处。根据我们的研究结果，我们强调了公共政策对不同社会参与者的参与、对科学的信仰的创造、统一感和能动性的创造以及在全国范围内扩大地方仪式修改的公共政策影响。