Studies in History, Volume 39, Issue 1, Page 12-28, February 2023.
The article tries to interrogate the gendered world of disease through an exploration of the deities associated with contagious diseases. The complex world of disease, cure and patient care was one infused with ideas of sacrality and notions of pollution and purity in the premodern period. The article will explore the anthropomorphizing of diseases into female deities at the local level and the Brahmanical attempt to transform these local goddesses. Ayurvedic works in Sanskrit, Tamil and Malayalam, talapurāṇa and folklore have been consulted to analyse the role and relevance of goddesses of disease, in addition to fieldwork in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
South Asian Migrations in Global History: Labor, Law and Wayward Lives
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Smallpox Under the Raj: Resistance Policies and the Indigenous Response in Colonial Malabar, 1800–1900
Studies in History, Volume 39, Issue 1, Page 51-70, February 2023.
This paper explores British efforts to combat smallpox in Malabar from 1800 to 1900 ce. Despite intense efforts, smallpox persisted due to fractured state policies, native resistance and public apathy. Epidemics such as smallpox, cholera, malaria and fevers posed serious threats to British colonial efforts in the Indian subcontinent, hindering colonial expansion. Smallpox, in particular, was prevalent throughout much of the region, including South India, for centuries. In Malabar, which was part of the Madras Presidency, the prevalence of smallpox presented significant challenges to the British during their colonial expedition, lasting well into the twentieth century. To sustain their rule, the British were compelled to implement several policies to combat the epidemic. British Malabar, one of the districts of Madras Presidency located on India’s western coast, had been rocked by the persistence of contagious diseases in the region. Smallpox caused millions of deaths and was considered one of the most severe and virulent of the diseases, responsible for more victims than all other diseases combined. Survivors often experienced disfigurement, therefore, it held a unique place in Indian and British attitudes towards disease, treatment and prevention. It was intertwined with religious beliefs and rituals. However, scholarly works on smallpox are limited in Malabar during the British colonial period. Vaccination was considered the most benevolent part of the European medicine under the civilizing mission in India.
This paper explores British efforts to combat smallpox in Malabar from 1800 to 1900 ce. Despite intense efforts, smallpox persisted due to fractured state policies, native resistance and public apathy. Epidemics such as smallpox, cholera, malaria and fevers posed serious threats to British colonial efforts in the Indian subcontinent, hindering colonial expansion. Smallpox, in particular, was prevalent throughout much of the region, including South India, for centuries. In Malabar, which was part of the Madras Presidency, the prevalence of smallpox presented significant challenges to the British during their colonial expedition, lasting well into the twentieth century. To sustain their rule, the British were compelled to implement several policies to combat the epidemic. British Malabar, one of the districts of Madras Presidency located on India’s western coast, had been rocked by the persistence of contagious diseases in the region. Smallpox caused millions of deaths and was considered one of the most severe and virulent of the diseases, responsible for more victims than all other diseases combined. Survivors often experienced disfigurement, therefore, it held a unique place in Indian and British attitudes towards disease, treatment and prevention. It was intertwined with religious beliefs and rituals. However, scholarly works on smallpox are limited in Malabar during the British colonial period. Vaccination was considered the most benevolent part of the European medicine under the civilizing mission in India.
Smallpox Under the Raj: Resistance Policies and the Indigenous Response in Colonial Malabar, 1800–1900
Studies in History, Volume 39, Issue 1, Page 51-70, February 2023.
This paper explores British efforts to combat smallpox in Malabar from 1800 to 1900 ce. Despite intense efforts, smallpox persisted due to fractured state policies, native resistance and public apathy. Epidemics such as smallpox, cholera, malaria and fevers posed serious threats to British colonial efforts in the Indian subcontinent, hindering colonial expansion. Smallpox, in particular, was prevalent throughout much of the region, including South India, for centuries. In Malabar, which was part of the Madras Presidency, the prevalence of smallpox presented significant challenges to the British during their colonial expedition, lasting well into the twentieth century. To sustain their rule, the British were compelled to implement several policies to combat the epidemic. British Malabar, one of the districts of Madras Presidency located on India’s western coast, had been rocked by the persistence of contagious diseases in the region. Smallpox caused millions of deaths and was considered one of the most severe and virulent of the diseases, responsible for more victims than all other diseases combined. Survivors often experienced disfigurement, therefore, it held a unique place in Indian and British attitudes towards disease, treatment and prevention. It was intertwined with religious beliefs and rituals. However, scholarly works on smallpox are limited in Malabar during the British colonial period. Vaccination was considered the most benevolent part of the European medicine under the civilizing mission in India.
This paper explores British efforts to combat smallpox in Malabar from 1800 to 1900 ce. Despite intense efforts, smallpox persisted due to fractured state policies, native resistance and public apathy. Epidemics such as smallpox, cholera, malaria and fevers posed serious threats to British colonial efforts in the Indian subcontinent, hindering colonial expansion. Smallpox, in particular, was prevalent throughout much of the region, including South India, for centuries. In Malabar, which was part of the Madras Presidency, the prevalence of smallpox presented significant challenges to the British during their colonial expedition, lasting well into the twentieth century. To sustain their rule, the British were compelled to implement several policies to combat the epidemic. British Malabar, one of the districts of Madras Presidency located on India’s western coast, had been rocked by the persistence of contagious diseases in the region. Smallpox caused millions of deaths and was considered one of the most severe and virulent of the diseases, responsible for more victims than all other diseases combined. Survivors often experienced disfigurement, therefore, it held a unique place in Indian and British attitudes towards disease, treatment and prevention. It was intertwined with religious beliefs and rituals. However, scholarly works on smallpox are limited in Malabar during the British colonial period. Vaccination was considered the most benevolent part of the European medicine under the civilizing mission in India.
“India Lay before Us”: The Asiatic Researches, William Jones, and the Orientalist Construction of “Indian Literature”
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Accounting [in] History; Accounting History Review Annual Conference; Edge Hill University Business School
The Hospitality of Ghosts: Remembering Epidemics in Modern Bengal, c. 1880–1980
Studies in History, Volume 39, Issue 1, Page 29-50, February 2023.
Memory studies have long demonstrated the need to critically assess the way societies remember significant, and particularly traumatic, events. The overwhelming focus of these studies has been on conquests, political riots, wars and holocausts. Very little account has been taken of the way epidemics are remembered. Yet, epidemics produce similar social disruptions and anxieties about the future as the varied episodes of political violence. Societies need to grapple with loss of life, grief, insecurity and their own reproduction through the stabilization of mnemonic frames. One of the most potent forms of social memory is engendered in ghost lore. In this article, I track one set of such ghost stories circulating in Bengal in the wake of the ravages of cholera and malaria in the late nineteenth century. By tracking the reframing of these stories, I show how the meanings and values conveyed through them changed over nearly a century. I argue that since the very basis and structure of the social collective invoked and reflected in these stories changed in the period, it is better to think of the collectives as multiple spectral communities sharing the same historical trauma rather than a single, unchanging society. Finally, I urge historians to rethink when epidemics end by paying greater attention to their long mnemonic and social afterlives that continue to unfold long after the cessation of the biological events.
Memory studies have long demonstrated the need to critically assess the way societies remember significant, and particularly traumatic, events. The overwhelming focus of these studies has been on conquests, political riots, wars and holocausts. Very little account has been taken of the way epidemics are remembered. Yet, epidemics produce similar social disruptions and anxieties about the future as the varied episodes of political violence. Societies need to grapple with loss of life, grief, insecurity and their own reproduction through the stabilization of mnemonic frames. One of the most potent forms of social memory is engendered in ghost lore. In this article, I track one set of such ghost stories circulating in Bengal in the wake of the ravages of cholera and malaria in the late nineteenth century. By tracking the reframing of these stories, I show how the meanings and values conveyed through them changed over nearly a century. I argue that since the very basis and structure of the social collective invoked and reflected in these stories changed in the period, it is better to think of the collectives as multiple spectral communities sharing the same historical trauma rather than a single, unchanging society. Finally, I urge historians to rethink when epidemics end by paying greater attention to their long mnemonic and social afterlives that continue to unfold long after the cessation of the biological events.
The Hospitality of Ghosts: Remembering Epidemics in Modern Bengal, c. 1880–1980
Studies in History, Volume 39, Issue 1, Page 29-50, February 2023.
Memory studies have long demonstrated the need to critically assess the way societies remember significant, and particularly traumatic, events. The overwhelming focus of these studies has been on conquests, political riots, wars and holocausts. Very little account has been taken of the way epidemics are remembered. Yet, epidemics produce similar social disruptions and anxieties about the future as the varied episodes of political violence. Societies need to grapple with loss of life, grief, insecurity and their own reproduction through the stabilization of mnemonic frames. One of the most potent forms of social memory is engendered in ghost lore. In this article, I track one set of such ghost stories circulating in Bengal in the wake of the ravages of cholera and malaria in the late nineteenth century. By tracking the reframing of these stories, I show how the meanings and values conveyed through them changed over nearly a century. I argue that since the very basis and structure of the social collective invoked and reflected in these stories changed in the period, it is better to think of the collectives as multiple spectral communities sharing the same historical trauma rather than a single, unchanging society. Finally, I urge historians to rethink when epidemics end by paying greater attention to their long mnemonic and social afterlives that continue to unfold long after the cessation of the biological events.
Memory studies have long demonstrated the need to critically assess the way societies remember significant, and particularly traumatic, events. The overwhelming focus of these studies has been on conquests, political riots, wars and holocausts. Very little account has been taken of the way epidemics are remembered. Yet, epidemics produce similar social disruptions and anxieties about the future as the varied episodes of political violence. Societies need to grapple with loss of life, grief, insecurity and their own reproduction through the stabilization of mnemonic frames. One of the most potent forms of social memory is engendered in ghost lore. In this article, I track one set of such ghost stories circulating in Bengal in the wake of the ravages of cholera and malaria in the late nineteenth century. By tracking the reframing of these stories, I show how the meanings and values conveyed through them changed over nearly a century. I argue that since the very basis and structure of the social collective invoked and reflected in these stories changed in the period, it is better to think of the collectives as multiple spectral communities sharing the same historical trauma rather than a single, unchanging society. Finally, I urge historians to rethink when epidemics end by paying greater attention to their long mnemonic and social afterlives that continue to unfold long after the cessation of the biological events.
Introduction
Studies in History, Volume 39, Issue 1, Page 7-11, February 2023.
Introduction
Studies in History, Volume 39, Issue 1, Page 7-11, February 2023.