Abstract. India fell into a «perfect storm» in 2020. At the beginning of the year, opposition-backed protests against Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, resulted in clashes with Hindu activists. After that, a pandemic hit the country. The lockdown announced by the government led to a partial collapse of the service sector of the economy in cities and to a massive exodus of part of the urban population to villages. In May–June, clashes began on the India–China Line of Actual Control, which resulted in human casualties. Nevertheless, the government of Narendra Modi managed not only to keep the situation under control, but also to strengthen its position.