HOW THE THIRD PLAGUE PANDEMIC SHAPED MODERN INDIA
1. 1896-1897. Ships from Hong Kong unleash the 3rd plague pandemic in India.
2. With no vaccine, no antibiotic and next-to-nothing hospitals, the black malady rages across the land. By the time, the acute phase is over,it has killed more than 10 million people. The port cities of Bombay, Karachi and Calcutta get the worst of it.
3. It also results in 2 incidents that initiate lasting impacts on India's sociopolitical firmament.
4. The british govt has a nasty, high-handed approach to the plague problem; probably, their racist dislike for blackie/browine Indians (whom they consider sub-human) and europe's collective nightmares of the medieval black death have a role. Plus, plague doesnt really distinguish between the european and native parts of the cities.
5. Hence, in the Bombay Presidency, the colonial army is ordered to 'clean up' the (dirty) Indian quarters. And the gora soldiers are brutal - practically making no distinction between rats and Indians. Houses and slums are smashed, household goods piled and set on fire, men and women asked to strip and stand naked outdoors while doctors and officers pass summary-judgments on who is sick and to be quarantined. The people are terrified. The body-search and humiliation of the womenfolk - many of whom had never stepped outdoors before - hits damn hard.
6. The rising star of Maharashtrian politics, Bal Gangadhar Tilak launches a scathing attack thru' his newspaper Kesari against such inhumanity in the name of hygiene. But Walter C. Rand, senior ICS and chief of the Plague committee of Poona city does not give a damn.
7. And then, on 22nd June, 1897, the Chapekar brothers - Damodar, Balakrishna and Vasudeo, along with their friend Ranade - shoot Rand dead. It is the successful culmination of a detailed plan - they had done their recce well, studied Rand's routes, identified his carriage and had collected both swords and revolvers.
8. The timing is perfect too - the night of the celebration of the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria's reign. And, as Rand (and his deputy Lt. Ayerst) are on the way back from the european club , the Chapekars ambush them. 2 shots - Ayerst dies instantly, Rand at the hospital.
9. The incident sends shockwaves throughout the empire - the first bonafide political assassination in British India, the planned murder of a senior officer of Her Majesty's government, sedition plain and simple.
10. Unable to get hold of the assassins immediately, the govt, arrests Tilak for what we'd today call 'his hate speech and articles'. Quick shoddy trial = 6 years jail !
11. Tilak's arrest however, has the opposite effect. Not only the Marathi population, even those of the bengali intelligentsia and the early congress moderates who had been critical of the assassination, are deeply disturbed as to why writing newspaper articles would lead to jail??
12. As for the Chapekar brothers, not surprisingly, they are soon arrested. After all, the bounty was too big. Damodar is apprehended first. The trial is quick and he is hanged. Balakrishna and Vasudeo manage to evade the police for a while. Passionate to their cause, they even dramatically kill two informers who had helped in the arrest of Damodar. But then the hangman's noose closes on them too. To many contemporary Indians, they had been hotheads who had harmed the gentleman's way to politics. But Time has ensured the immortality that their bravery deserved - 120 years later, their names still evoke big respect, most in their native Maharashtra.
13. In Calcutta, something different happens. Swami Vivekananda, a formal monk who is conscious that he carries 'the burden of the colonized', has just set up the Ramakrishna Mission. It is a neo-vedantic order of monks who, as part of their religious calling, will 'serve man to serve God'. Land has just been purchased and architects are being consulted for the new monastery when plague hits the city!
14. Vivekananda is true to his ideals. He declares that all the gods and all the scriptures can wait - we will care for the living god first. Hence, for the first time in a 1000 years since the demise of the Buddhist Sangh, Indian sanyasis step out to systematically redress social problems of their land. The people are stunned, 'hindu monks cleaning muck and shit???!!!' Vivekananda's most famous disciple, the Irish-born Sister Nivedita, leads from the front. The professionalism of their effort earns praise even from colonial administrators.
15. A century later, amidst all its ups and downs of political inclinations, the RKM is still the pioneer and big expert of disaster management and relief.
16. There is another continuity with that past. In 1897, the colonial government had passed the Epidemic Act 'Whereas it is expedient to provide for the better prevention of the spread of dangerous epidemic disease...'. In Mar-2020, it is the same act that is being invoked today for fighting COVID-19. References and photographs sources: https://indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/10469/1/the_epidemic_diseases_act%2C_1897.pdf https://www.thebetterindia.com/147005/news-history-pune-dignity-chapekar-brothers/ https://indianexpress.com/article/research/mumbai-flood-2017-if-bombays-drainage-system-led-to-the-plague-of-1896-august-29-showed-mumbai-isnt-any-better-off/ https://archive.org/details/b24974523_0001/mode/1up
2. With no vaccine, no antibiotic and next-to-nothing hospitals, the black malady rages across the land. By the time, the acute phase is over,it has killed more than 10 million people. The port cities of Bombay, Karachi and Calcutta get the worst of it.
3. It also results in 2 incidents that initiate lasting impacts on India's sociopolitical firmament.
4. The british govt has a nasty, high-handed approach to the plague problem; probably, their racist dislike for blackie/browine Indians (whom they consider sub-human) and europe's collective nightmares of the medieval black death have a role. Plus, plague doesnt really distinguish between the european and native parts of the cities.
5. Hence, in the Bombay Presidency, the colonial army is ordered to 'clean up' the (dirty) Indian quarters. And the gora soldiers are brutal - practically making no distinction between rats and Indians. Houses and slums are smashed, household goods piled and set on fire, men and women asked to strip and stand naked outdoors while doctors and officers pass summary-judgments on who is sick and to be quarantined. The people are terrified. The body-search and humiliation of the womenfolk - many of whom had never stepped outdoors before - hits damn hard.
6. The rising star of Maharashtrian politics, Bal Gangadhar Tilak launches a scathing attack thru' his newspaper Kesari against such inhumanity in the name of hygiene. But Walter C. Rand, senior ICS and chief of the Plague committee of Poona city does not give a damn.
7. And then, on 22nd June, 1897, the Chapekar brothers - Damodar, Balakrishna and Vasudeo, along with their friend Ranade - shoot Rand dead. It is the successful culmination of a detailed plan - they had done their recce well, studied Rand's routes, identified his carriage and had collected both swords and revolvers.
8. The timing is perfect too - the night of the celebration of the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria's reign. And, as Rand (and his deputy Lt. Ayerst) are on the way back from the european club , the Chapekars ambush them. 2 shots - Ayerst dies instantly, Rand at the hospital.
9. The incident sends shockwaves throughout the empire - the first bonafide political assassination in British India, the planned murder of a senior officer of Her Majesty's government, sedition plain and simple.
10. Unable to get hold of the assassins immediately, the govt, arrests Tilak for what we'd today call 'his hate speech and articles'. Quick shoddy trial = 6 years jail !
11. Tilak's arrest however, has the opposite effect. Not only the Marathi population, even those of the bengali intelligentsia and the early congress moderates who had been critical of the assassination, are deeply disturbed as to why writing newspaper articles would lead to jail??
12. As for the Chapekar brothers, not surprisingly, they are soon arrested. After all, the bounty was too big. Damodar is apprehended first. The trial is quick and he is hanged. Balakrishna and Vasudeo manage to evade the police for a while. Passionate to their cause, they even dramatically kill two informers who had helped in the arrest of Damodar. But then the hangman's noose closes on them too. To many contemporary Indians, they had been hotheads who had harmed the gentleman's way to politics. But Time has ensured the immortality that their bravery deserved - 120 years later, their names still evoke big respect, most in their native Maharashtra.
13. In Calcutta, something different happens. Swami Vivekananda, a formal monk who is conscious that he carries 'the burden of the colonized', has just set up the Ramakrishna Mission. It is a neo-vedantic order of monks who, as part of their religious calling, will 'serve man to serve God'. Land has just been purchased and architects are being consulted for the new monastery when plague hits the city!
14. Vivekananda is true to his ideals. He declares that all the gods and all the scriptures can wait - we will care for the living god first. Hence, for the first time in a 1000 years since the demise of the Buddhist Sangh, Indian sanyasis step out to systematically redress social problems of their land. The people are stunned, 'hindu monks cleaning muck and shit???!!!' Vivekananda's most famous disciple, the Irish-born Sister Nivedita, leads from the front. The professionalism of their effort earns praise even from colonial administrators.
15. A century later, amidst all its ups and downs of political inclinations, the RKM is still the pioneer and big expert of disaster management and relief.
16. There is another continuity with that past. In 1897, the colonial government had passed the Epidemic Act 'Whereas it is expedient to provide for the better prevention of the spread of dangerous epidemic disease...'. In Mar-2020, it is the same act that is being invoked today for fighting COVID-19. References and photographs sources: https://indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/10469/1/the_epidemic_diseases_act%2C_1897.pdf https://www.thebetterindia.com/147005/news-history-pune-dignity-chapekar-brothers/ https://indianexpress.com/article/research/mumbai-flood-2017-if-bombays-drainage-system-led-to-the-plague-of-1896-august-29-showed-mumbai-isnt-any-better-off/ https://archive.org/details/b24974523_0001/mode/1up
