India, Sept. 10 -- Manasi Sahoo keeps adjusting her mangalsutra (a necklace worn by Hindu women to denote she is married) during a video call. Educated till class V in a village school, where the teacher was mostly absent, she looks askance at her sister-in-law, Putuli, when asked if she understands the word tariff. Both work in a shrimp-processing factory, which is located on the border of Kendrapada and Balasore districts in Odisha. Till the last month, the two had not the faintest idea of who Donald Trump is, and what his trade tactics are. Now, they know and fear him as some foreign and alien evil.

Since the first week of August, rumours and whispers were whirling and swirling about a possible closure of the processing plant where Ma...