Plague

Question 1

What were the three main anti-plague measures introduced

Answer 1

1. Segregation
2. Inoculation
3. Control of pilgrimage

Question 2

What was The Bengalee?

Answer 2

A Calcutta-based, nationalist newspaper run by the Hindu politician Surendranath Benerjea

Question 3

What was the Moslem Chronicle?

Answer 3

A newspaper with a wide Muslim readership that ran in Bengal

Question 4

What was the Third Plague Pandemic?

Answer 4

The global bubonic plague pandemic that began in Yunnan province, China, in 1855 and that was active until 1959

Question 5

When and where was the first case of the plague diagnosed in India?

Answer 5

The first case of the Third Plague Pandemic in India was diagnosed in Bombay in October 1896

Question 6

What was the Epidemic Diseases Act?

Answer 6

An Act that extended powers to state governments to take any measures they deemed necessary to prevent the outbreak and spread of dangerous epidemic diseases

Question 7

What was segregation?

Answer 7

The forced hospitalisation of plague victims and their families to avoid transmission of disease to other people

Question 8

Why did segregation reduce the number of plague cases reported? (source)

Answer 8

1. Muslims and high-caste Hindus, in particular, were against segregation policies. Pollution laws were particularly important amongst these groups. Indians considered hospitals places of pollution as there is no distinction made between different religious and caste groups.
   (Natasha Sarkar, ‘Plague Hits the Colonies’, 2014)
2. In cases of forced segregation, families were often split
3. Did not want male doctors examining women
   (The Bengalee, March 1898)

Question 9

What percentage of the population was Muslim and Hindu in 1901? (source)

Answer 9

65.5% Hindu and 20.1% Muslim

Census of India, 1901

Question 10

How does pollution travel according to Hindu theology? (source)

Answer 10

Up the caste system: lower castes pollute higher castes

Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger, 2002

Question 11

Why did Hindus fear pollution?

Answer 11

To be impure was to be unholy

Question 12

Why did the examination of a young woman by colonial doctors spark rioting in Bombay?

Answer 12

1. Female modesty and protection of women from external dangers was important in Indian culture
2. Pandita Ramabai, an Indian social reformer who championed women’s rights, was quoted in the 24 July 1897 edition of The Bengalee. She asserted that young women should avoid the ‘moral evils of the plague hospitals and segregation camps’ to protect their modesty and evidences ‘filthy’ conditions as the reason why.

Question 13

Why was it important to maintain women’s purity? (source)

Answer 13

It was believed that if a woman were exposed to pollutants, her position in the caste hierarchy would be undermined. Since the caste of a child is determined by its mother, Hindus believe that a woman’s caste status must be preserved.
(Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger, 2002)

Question 14

When was the shooting of Walter Rand?

Answer 14

22nd June 1897

Question 15

Who was Walter Rand?

Answer 15

The chairman of the Special Plague Committee in modern-day Pune

Question 16

How did medical experts believe the plague was spread in the late nineteenth century?

Answer 16

Through food, air and clothing.

Question 17

What did medical experts in the late nineteenth century say about the origins of the plague?

Answer 17

The mechanism of the plague bacillus was unknown. Indeed, Surgeon-General George Bainbridge, the head of the Indian Medical Service in Bombay in 1896, admitted that officials and doctors could not deal with plague effectively because their knowledge of the disease was insufficient and so it was felt that in lieu of a scientific cure, hygiene reform was the best approach.

Question 18

Who was Waldemar Haffkine?

Answer 18

A bacteriologist who created an anti-plague inoculation.

Question 19

When was Haffkine’s anti-plague inoculation ready for human trials?

Answer 19

January 1897

Question 20

Why was the anti-plague inoculation more successful than other anti-plague measures? (4)

Answer 20

Officials were more culturally sensitive when introducing the vaccine than they had been in the case of the segregation interventions.

The ‘Report of the Indian Plague Commission on Haffkine’s Antiplague Inoculation’ outlined that one of Haffkine’s main difficulties was to prepare a vaccine that would ‘not offend the religious feelings of the natives.

Municipalities cooperated with local community leaders and indigenous people were offered inoculation as an alternative to segregation.

Aga Khan III, Imam of the Shi’a Isma’ili Muslims, supported Haffkine and encouraged Muslims to be inoculated

Question 21

How did the plague vaccination intrude on cultural conceptions of gender?

Answer 21

Both Muslim and Hindu women were reluctant to expose their arms to men for vaccination

Question 22

How did the Government of India attempt to overcome objections to the anti-plague vaccine based on gender?

Answer 22

Female medical staff were introduced in some regions of India as inoculators, which meant that more women were able to access inoculation treatments

Question 23

Who opposed the anti-plague vaccine?

Answer 23

Some indigenous Indians perceived government measures as an attack on the body and feared rumoured side effects such as instant death, impotence or sterility.

Some Muslims believed the plague was God’s will and that they shouldn’t resist it. They were criticised by the Moslem Chronicle in April 1898

Question 24

Why did the Government of India attempt to control Hajj?

Answer 24

To reassure other countries that it was taking the proper precautions against the spread of plague

Question 25

What is Hajj?

Answer 25

An annual pilgrimage to Mecca

Question 26

What was the 1897 International Sanitary Convention?

Answer 26

Convention in Venice that allowed governments to take measures against mass migration of people who were at risk of disease

Question 27

How did the Moslem Chronicle react to controls on Hajj?

Answer 27

In February 1897, called the government ‘evil’. It argues that government interventions in religious practices is inappropriate

Question 28

How did the control of Hajj impact Muslim/Hindu relationships?

Answer 28

Increased tensions between the groups. Muslims strongly condemned the measure; Hindus called for a complete ban

Question 29

According to S. Polu, why were plague measures ineffective?

Answer 29

The government intervened in ways that were not culturally sensitive.
(S. Polu, Infectious Disease in India, 2012)

Question 30

What does M. Harrison argue about the success of plague policies?

Answer 30

Although culture was not a prerogative of the government, the anti-plague measures that they introduced were not totally disastrous
(M. Harrison, Public Health in British India, 1994)

Question 31

How does R. Zaman describe the assassination of Walter Rand?

Answer 31

The assassination of Walter Rand was a terrorist act that intended to prevent the British authorities from enforcing anti-plague interventions.
(R. Zaman, Bengal Terrorism, 2013)

Question 32

What does D. Arnold argue about the resistance to Western medicine and sanitation?

Answer 32

Anti-plague interventions prompted an unprecedented show of public resistance to Western medicine and sanitation
(D. Arnold, Colonising the Body, 1993)

Question 33

How does M. Harrison describe the assassination of Walter Rand?

Answer 33

The assassination was part of a wider feeling of distrust and resentment towards British rule

Question 34

What does D. Arnold suggest about the anti-plague inoculation?

Answer 34

Vaccines intruded on cultural practices and inspired fear.

D. Arnold, Colonising the Body, 1993

Question 35

How does S. Polu describe Muslims?

Answer 35

Not an integral group to India’s economy, but important political allies
(S. Polu, Infectious Disease in India, 2012)