Five Stages of Grief: 1896 Edition

The city of dreams, where many have walked the streets, and struggled for their dreams. Some make it big, many don’t. It is a gamble, after all. History is full of gambles that went well, alongside gambles that went horribly wrong.

The story of the Bombay Plague shows a series of solutions and strategies the British government tried to stop the plague in their precious port city. The efforts that went well, are amongst clauses of Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897. We reap the benefits of trial and error performed by people who couldn’t attribute the disease to anything other than bad odours (miasma).

The bubonic plague had already ravaged East Asian countries, and in September 1896 it sailed to Mumbai. The government felt it was unwise to cause great economic losses by closing a port in fear of a disease, since diseases were commonplace in this populated cotton mill destination. The denial of how grave the situation could become cost Bombay. The risk it turns out was not worth it.

Once the contagion had reached Mumbai, however, there was a prompt effort to stop the plague. Extremely severe restrictions were imposed by the government, which did not sit well with the population. Granted, the city was crawling with pests, had minimal open spaces, haphazard development of living spaces and with the plague was a disaster waiting to happen, but who ever wants to be stripped of their liberties?

The Bombay Plague committee was set up. Desperate efforts were taken to separate the healthy from the infected. Makes sense, right? Not really. It made the frightened population angry. Loved ones were taken away from them with very little warning or choice, they were taken to hospitals where they eventually perished.The bubonic plague had a mortality rate of upto 60%. Their houses were destroyed for the sake of disinfection. Rumors had spread about doctors killing patients to reduce their workload. Random inspections and evictions, followed by lack of segregation (according to caste, gender and religion. It was 1896.) caused surprise, surprise, multiple riots! Mill workers, sanitary workers, sweepers, local traders, dockworkers, waste disposal staff and the railway staff went on strikes at various points, or at the least threatened to stop working. Within a year the city came to a standstill.

Simply put, all communities reacted strongly against the Epidemics Act.

The government had to change its strategy. They agreed to respect religious sensibilities. Agreed to respect privacy. I mean, they tried. Public officials began to wash the streets and footpaths with lime. Lime water is highly alkaline, it was commonly used as a cost effective disinfectant against bacteria. The government advised that dwellings be disinfected and household objects exposed to sunlight.Terribly enough, they didn’t have the luxury of hand sanitisers (particularly the ones with glitter and floral scents) Millowners desperately tried to keep mills running. Food was scarce and the disease did not relent. Swarms of people fled back to their hometowns with a delusion of safety, but the disease ravaged the countryside alike. The plague or a famine? It was a bargain, with little return. The workforce had shrunk to one-fifth of its original size by 1897.

Flushing Engine cleansing infected Houses (Left), Deserted Village in Bandra (Right)

The plague ravaged the city for another 20 years, the population had gotten accustomed to the disease. The Epidemics Act still in action, the plague, after claiming millions of lives in India, was just another disease. The prominent cause of failure was not the Act itself, but the lack of trust and faith in the government. The final saving grace was a vaccine by Dr. Waldemar Haffkine (Haffkine Institute, previously called Government House was named after him) who saved a billion more people.

The outcome of this tragic epidemic was something unforeseen; the working class realised its power.

Improvements were seen in the standard of living for labourers, with mill owners and managers respecting them more than ever. Of course society learnt a lot: people accepted vaccines as life savers, laws were set to help India deal with such calamities in the future, we finally know what causes the Bubonic plague and the economy slowly revived. The municipal corporation of Bombay realised how disorganised the city was and decided to plan the city (Bombay City Improvement Trust, 1898). Roads were constructed to allow sea breeze to inner parts of Mumbai.

That is the beauty of history; it shows us how human behaviour remains the same irrespective of the time period. You see the five stages of grief in the wake of an epidemic; denial, anger, depression, bargaining and finally, acceptance. Followed by the sixth stage: growth.

Plague Rings drawn on the walls of an infected house, showing number of deaths (left); Government House, Parel. Now Haffkine Institute. (Right)

References:

1. Sarkar, A. (2014). The Tie That Snapped: Bubonic Plague and Mill Labour in Bombay, 1896–1898. International Review of Social History, 59(2), 181–214. doi:10.1017/S0020859014000157
2. Nadia Nooreyezdan (2020, May 4) How the 1896 Bombay Plague Changed Mumbai Forever. Retrieved from: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-bombay-plague-changed-mumbai
3. Suyash Verma (2020, April 7) How the Bombay Plague of 1896 Played Out. Retrieved from: https://science.thewire.in/society/history/how-the-bombay-plague-of-1897-played-out/
4. Pictures: Moss, C; Gatacre, W. F (1897) The Bombay plague epidemic of 1896–1897: work of the Bombay Plague Committee. Retrieved from: https://wellcomelibrary.org/item/b11821103#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&z=0.4826%2C0.3115%2C0.5274%2C0.5274