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ABSTRACT
The arrival of the influenza pandemic and the end of the First World War had a definite impact on the policies associated with the development of public health infrastructure in the inter-war period. The influenza pandemic was crucial in generating awareness about the insufficient medical relief infrastructure for a city like Bombay (present day Mumbai) with a growing population. In this paper, I therefore elaborate on the politics surrounding funding of public health and development of hospitals in interwar Bombay. The paper uses health planning in the aftermath of the influenza pandemic as a lens to understand colonial power and transitioning governance in the late colonial period. It evaluates how colonialism operated through health planning and how it catalyzed the transformation of power relations between colonial and local Indian powers. Secondly, I argue that, while the government authorities designed plans, it was the native population that bore the financial responsibility of these projects. It becomes evident that the unwillingness displayed by the colonial state to improve healthcare infrastructure resulted in the native inhabitants taking it upon themselves to cater to the demands of the general population.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Fernando, “How the 1896 Plague Epidemic Shaped Mumbai”.
2 Kidambi, Making of an Indian Metropolis, 74.
3 Kidambi, “Housing the Poor in a Colonial City”, 57.
4 Ibid, 49–70.
5 Ibid.
6 Fernando, “How the 1896 Plague Epidemic Shaped Mumbai”.
7 Kidambi, “Housing the Poor in a Colonial City”, 57.
8 Ibid., 79.
9 Burnett Hurst, Labour and Housing in Bombay, 25.
10 Parpiani, “Urban Planning in Bombay”, 64.
11 Singh, “Bombay Fever/ Spanish Flu”, 38.
12 Ibid.
13 Ramanna, Health Care in Bombay Presidency.
14 A Preliminary Report on the Influenza Pandemic of 1918 in India (henceforth APROIP) by the Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India, 1919, General Department Compilation (henceforth GDC), File no. 353, 1918, Maharashtra State Archives (henceforth MSA).
15 Ibid.
16 Accompaniment to the December Agenda of the Corporation, Dr Turner, Executive Health Office, Bombay City, to Municipal Commissioner, Municipal Corporation of Bombay, 25 November 1918, GDC, File no. 353, 1918, MSA.
17 Ibid.
18 Ibid.
19 APROIP.
20 Catanach, “Plague and the Tensions of Empire: India, 1896–1918”, 149–71.
21 Arnold, Science, Technology and Medicine in Colonial India, 123.
22 Bombay Chronicle, October 16, 1918.
23 Sunday Chronicle, October 20, 1918.
24 Accompaniment to the December Agenda of the Corporation, File no. 353, 1918, GDC, MSA.
25 APROIP.
26 Accompaniment to the December Agenda of the Corporation, Dr Turner, Executive Health Office, Bombay City, to Municipal Commissioner, Municipal Corporation of Bombay, 25 November 1918, GDC, File no. 353, 1918, MSA.
27 Note by Abraham S. Erulkar, M. D., on the influenza in Bombay, File No. 353, 1918.
28 Social Service Quarterly, 1918, p. 127.
29 Note by Abraham S. Erulkar.
30 Ibid.
31 Sarkar, Modern India, 165.
32 Legg, “Dyarchy – Democracy, Autocracy, and the Scalar Sovereignty of Interwar India”, 45.
33 Ibid.
34 Ibid.
35 Metcalf, Ideologies of the Raj, 225.
36 Recorded by the Medical Relief Committee (henceforth RBMRC), File No. 1856 Pt. III, 1923, GDC, MSA.
37 Ibid.
38 Ibid.
39 File No. 1856, 1923. Also see, Bombay Act No. III of 1888: The City of Bombay Municipal Act 1888.
40 RBMRC.
41 Ibid.
42 Bombay Act No. III of 1888: The City of Bombay Municipal Act 1888.
43 Klein, “Urban Development and Death”, 726.
44 Ibid., 730.
45 After the First World War, there was a rapid increase in the population of the city, it almost doubled in the period between 1911 and 1951. See, Haynes and Rao, “Beyond the Colonial City”, 324.
46 Klein, “Urban Development and Death”, 735–6.
47 Ibid., 736.
48 Times of India, March 26, 1929.
49 RBMRC.
50 Ibid.
51 Ibid.
52 Report of the Medical Relief Committee (henceforth ROMRC), Part I, File No. 1856 Pt. II, 1923, GDC, MSA.
53 Ibid.
54 Statement showing the existing and projected hospital accommodation in the city of Bombay, File No. 1856 Pt. III, 1923, GDC, MSA.
55 ROMRC.
56 Press Note dated 8 October 1924, File. No. 1856 Pt. III, 1923, GDC, MSA.
57 Times of India (henceforth TOI), December 11, 1923.
58 ROMRC.
59 Ibid.
60 Ibid.
61 TOI, January 24, 1924.
62 Letter No. 9405, 10 January 1924, File No. 1856 Pt. V, 1927, GDC, MSA.
63 Ibid.
64 ROMRC.
65 Ibid.
66 Notes with reference to Medical Relief and Teaching in the City of Bombay, File No. 1856 Pt V, 1927, GDC, MSA.
67 Ibid.
68 ROMRC.
69 Ibid.
70 Ibid.
71 Ibid.
72 Ibid.
73 Twining, “Poor Law Infirmaries and Their Needs”, 630–42.
74 Ibid, 641.
75 The National Archives – National Health Insurance Act 1911.
76 ROMRC.
77 Ibid.
78 Twining, “Poor Law Infirmaries and Their Needs”, 630–42.
79 Ibid.
80 Press Note, 8 October 1924, File No. 1856 Pt. III, 1923, GDC, MSA.
81 Ibid.
82 Ibid.
83 Ibid.
84 ROMRC.
85 Ibid.
86 Ibid.
87 Chopra, Joint Enterprise: Indian Elites and the Making of British Bombay, 11.
88 Birla, Stages of Capital, 75.
89 Chopra, Joint Enterprise: Indian Elites and the Making of British Bombay, 117.
90 Ibid., 118.
91 Ibid.
92 Ibid., 118–19.
93 Ibid., 119.
94 Sehrawat, Colonial medical care in North India.
95 Kavadi, “Philanthropy, Medicine, and Health in Colonial India”.
96 Ibid, 3507.
97 Press Note, 8 October 1924, File No. 1856 Pt III, 1923, GDC, MSA.
98 Ibid.
99 Ibid.
100 TOI, February 17, 1925.
101 Press Note, 8 October 1924, File No. 1856 Pt. III, 1923, GDC, MSA.
102 TOI, December 10, 1925.
103 Ibid.
104 TOI, April 24, 1924.
105 Press Note, 8 October 1924, File No. 1856 Pt. III, 1923, GDC, MSA.
106 Ibid.
107 Ibid.
108 TOI, December 10, 1925.
109 Ibid.
110 TOI, December 10, 1931.
111 TOI, December 10, 1925.
112 Peter, The Making of the National Health Service, 2–3.
113 Ibid.
114 Ibid.
115 Press Note, 8 October 1924, File No. 1856 Pt. III, 1923, GDC, MSA.
116 Ibid.
117 See Klein, “Urban Development and Death: Bombay City, 1870–1914”, 728–9. Also, Ramasubban and Crook, “Spatial Patterns of Health and Mortality”, 143–69.
118 Ramasubban and Crook, “Spatial Patterns of Health and Mortality”, 144–47.
119 TOI, December 9, 1926.
120 Press Note, 8 October 1924, File No. 1856 Pt. III, 1923, GDC, MSA.
121 TOI, December 10, 1925.
122 TOI, December 9, 1925.
123 Ibid.
124 TOI, December 10, 1925.
125 TOI, December 9, 1925.
126 TOI, January 7, 1927.
127 TOI, December 9, 1925.
128 Ibid.
129 TOI, December 9, 1926.
130 TOI, December 10, 1925.
131 Ibid.
132 Official website of the Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital, http://www.wadiahospitals.org/child-about-history.aspx]
133 TOI, December 10, 1925.
134 Ibid.
135 TOI, December 10, 1931.
136 Ibid.
137 Ibid.
138 Ibid.
139 Ibid.
140 TOI, December 10, 1931.
141 Ibid.
142 TOI, February 17, 1932.
143 TOI, December 10, 1931.
144 Ibid.
145 The main organizers of the lottery were Richard Duggan, Captain Spencer Freeman, and Joe McGrath.
146 Malcolm, review of The Irish sweep: a history of the Irish Hospitals Sweepstake, 1930–87, by Mary Coleman, Irish Studies Review, 2010, 366–68.
147 TOI, December 10, 1931.
148 Bhalachandran, review of Stages of Capital: Law, Culture, and Market Governance in Late Colonial India, by Ritu Birla https://reviews.history.ac.uk/review/892
149 Birla, Stages of Capital, 154.
150 Collier, “Hospital Lotteries Not Always the Best Bet”, 1643–44.
151 Ibid.
152 TOI, July 26, 1933.
153 Ibid.
154 Ibid.
155 TOI, March 16, 1932.
156 TOI, July 26, 1933.
157 TOI, January 15, 1934.
158 TOI, January 12, 1934.
159 TOI, January 15, 1934.
160 TOI, December 20, 1934.
161 TOI, September 16, 1932.
162 TOI, January 12, 1934.
163 TOI, April 26, 1937.
164 Ibid.
165 TOI, January 15, 1936.
166 TOI, April 26, 1937.
167 Ibid.
168 TOI, April 21, 1939.
169 Ibid.
170 Ramasubban and Crook, “Spatial Patterns of Health and Mortality”, 157.
171 Ibid.
172 Ibid., 153.
173 Dey, “Chawls of Bombay: An Introduction”. Note: Chawls are large buildings in Indian cities divided into many separate tenements, offering cheap housing.
174 Dossal, “A Master Plan for the City”, 3899.
175 Indorewala, “Resettling the City”, 12.
176 Satam, “India’s worst affected”.
177 Duggal, “Mumbai’s Struggles with Public Health Crises”.
178 Roy et al, “Mumbai Runs Out of Hospital Beds as COVID-19 Cases Continue to Rise”.
179 Duggal, “Mumbai’s Struggles with Public Health Crises”.
180 ‘Report on the State of Health in Mumbai’.
181 Duggal, “Mumbai’s Struggles with Public Health Crises”.
182 “The state of healthcare”.
183 Vedantam, “Healthcare is still unaffordable”.
184 Biswas, “Skewed Urbanisation and the Contagion”.
185 Vakulabharanam and Motiram, “What Past Responses to Health Crises Teach us About Indian Cities”.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Mrunmayee Satam
Dr. Mrunmayee Satam works as an Assistant Professor of History at Amity University, Mumbai. She completed her PhD from the Centre for Urban History at University of Leicester. Her thesis is titled, ‘Governing the Body: Public Health and Urban Society in Colonial Bombay City, 1914–45’. Dr. Satam’s research interests include Urban History, Social History of Health and Healthcare, Colonial History and Modern South Asian History.