“From Outside and Inside”: Incorporating COVID-19 within the Konda Reddis’ Frame of Illness

During one of my conversations on illness and cure with a Konda Reddi 1 elder, he said that illnesses are approached in two frames. In one, the causation comes from inside the Konda Reddi territory, while the other comes from the outside. The treatment for both accordingly comes from the places of their origin. More recently, in 2023, as I reopened this conversation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, it was interesting to note that this frame of understanding was not followed. In the years 2020–2021, with overlapping global and country-wide lockdowns, and with everyday life centered around the pandemic, how did the Konda Reddis comprehend COVID-19? How did it impact their everyday lives? How did it change or not their response to illness? Did they see any reason to panic in this health emergency? This article sets out to explore these questions by situating the Konda Reddis’ level of connectedness to the connected globe and in looking at their dependence on both public health infrastructure and their self-reliance on ethnomedicine.