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Hostile Environments (Disease (Medical topography: The mapping of the…
Hostile Environments
Disease
Tropical diseases took hold very fast - cholera for example could kill within twenty-four hours of the onset of its agonising symptons.
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Death rates amongst troops a major concern, especially as more died of disease than in battle which was seen as a severe financial loss to British interests.
Venereal disease and other complaints deemed to be a result of immoral living amongst soldiers - especially hard drinking and prostitutes.
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It was a part of wider process of colonial knowledge formation which had its origins in the military-cartographic surveys of the late eighteenth century.
In the late 18th century, there was an underlying optimism about European acclimatisation.
The potential dangers of India's climate were acknowledged but it was thought that these could be overcome by making appropriate adaptations to lifestyle and environment - vegetarianism, construction of airy houses, wide streets, etc...
Climatic determinism: saw climate as the most important determinant of health, commercial and agricultural prosperity.
Most attention focused on health of troops. Many of the most important medical and sanitary investigations carried out in India before the 1870s, notably the Royal Commission of the Sanitary State of the Army in 1859 and the Cholera Commission of 1861, were prompted by official concern at the high level of sickness and mortality among the European soldiery.
Administrated the small pox vaccine in the subcontinet at the start of the 19th century to troops. They were also the first to be inoculated against cholera and plague at the end of the 19th century.
The medical service also had a responsibility for the European civilian population as they had to keep them healthy to keep the colonial state functioning.
They were less concerned with the health of the Indian population, except for how much they could come to threaten Europeans, particularly the ones who lived in the White Towns.
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Excessive drinking: Lifestyle, class aspect
During the Siege of Delhi in 1857, more troops died of dysentery, cholera and other diseases than fell in battle.
1817-24 Cholera pandemic began in Bengal and spread to SE Asia, China, Japan, the ME and southern Russia. 1827-35 Cholera pandemic spread to North America and Europe.
Attempts to control Cholera led to major improvements in sanitation in Britain as it was realised that the provision of clean drinking water could help curb the spread of diseases even before its pathology was understood.
Cholera is a waterborne pathogen which causes diarrhoea, muscle cramps and vomiting and is caused by contaminated food and water and associated with poor sanitation. It was attributed to India's climate and culture and little attention was paid to microbial study and eliminating mass poverty
When it was realised Cholera was related to poor sanitation, more care was given to the health of the Indian population. For example, Hindu pilgrimage sites were given better sanitation. However provisions were withdrawn when it became too expensive.
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Smallpox vaccine shown to be best way to prevent the disease. First wiped put in Europe but travelled to India and becomes endemic there.
Medical practices as they developed in British India were a result of continued power struggle between western and indigenous medicine systems
The expansion of state sponsored medical interventions in the health of local Indians saw the ascendency of western medicine over local traditions
The British borrow some indigenous practices to treat illnesses and diseases which were unknown to European medical communities.
Disseminating Western medicine to India was seen as part of the civilising mission of 'modernising' modern India. E.g. Western medical college opened in Calcutta in 1835.
Contagious Diseases Acts were made in response to growing number of these cases amongst the British military as many as one in every three reported illnesses among the rank and file soldiers. One of these involved testing prostitutes and if they were clean they would be allowed to continue their work which was controversial back home as it was seen as state sponsored prostitution.
Wildlife
Tigers were the most prominent number of large predators, but smaller creatures like snakes and mosquitoes could be even more deadly.
In pre-colonial India, he agrarian frontier represented a site of conflict and encounter between humans and large predators like tigers and Asiatic lions. Lions and tigers also had cultural and religious significance - they represented both power and danger. Due to their religious connotations, people would often avoid confrontation with animals.
Communities developed strategies of avoiding wild anmals to minimise the threat from them, although the threat was never eliminated.
Hunting and forest clearance both had a role in pre-colonial management of wild animals and some areas were even abandoned due to the high risk of predators - the boundary between the forest and the village was never discreet, static or absolute.
European History of Dangerous Wildlife: Wolves had been extensively hunted in early modern Europe to the point that they had been all but eliminated from the British isles and largely driven away from areas of human settlement on the continent. By the 18th century in Britain, the battle of survival had been won against wolves and then it became about leisure.
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The campaign to reduce/eliminate tigers was part of a wider process of settling, controlling and ordering the Indian landscape which also impinged on traditional ways of life for some Indian communities.
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Before 1857, policies were mostly implemented at a local level, but later the offensive against wild animals became more organised as the disarming of communities after the 1857 rebellion left them more vulnerable to wild beats.
As many as 65,000 tigers were killed for bounty between 1875-1925 and over 100,000 wolves were killed in a similar period.
Some thought the expansion of agriculture and the taming of forest lands would naturally reduce the number of predators by removing their habitat.
The British India Society which campaigned in the 1840s for greater production of colonial commodities like sugar and cotton was dubbed the 'Tiger-expelling-from-jungle-society' as they focused on reclaiming jungle land for cash crop production.
Eliminating the wildlife of India was seen as progress and as one of the improvements that colonial rule brought to India.
Some opposed the large-scale killing of tigers and other carnivores, arguing that they played an important role in controlling animals like deer that could be destructive for crops.
Game hunters complained about the execution of large predators as they didn't want the animals to go extinct as they wanted to continue hunting them.
Even thought the Indians knew the internal workings of the forests and the wildlife more than the British but they wanted to avoid arming the Indians as they could then have rebelled against the British.
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Hunting of large game became a common past time amongst British residents in India. It had a mark of heroic status in pre-colonial India. As many as 20,000 tigers were shot for spot between 1860 and 1960.
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The reduction of the overall population of carnivores likely reduced the human death toll although the accompanying pressure on their habitats and wild prey also have driven these predators to prey on crops and humans more than they may have previously.
Famine
Only 1/4 of land was cultivated in India when Britain arrived. Even in this area, the land was based on a mix of hunter-gathering and not a settled agrarian society as it came to be under British rule. Only Britain put tax on the land did it become more settled.
Rotational practices gave way and there was a change in the interaction between humans and the land. The British were improving mans interaction with nature by settling them down and teaching them domesticated practices.
Terrible famines destroyed the view of India has a bountiful place and made people see it as an area of dearth and scarcity
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Long term erosion of agricultural productivity and economic depression under the EIC all put pressure on India's peasants, artisans and other working classes.
The famines made India be seen as a place of moral and material poverty. The abundance of the Indian landscape was offset by images of under population, death and poverty.
A lot of famines were exacerbated by unfair demands of revenue by the British, not just the extreme climate conditions as these always persisted anyway
Thousands of starving peasants fled their homes in search of food, many travelling to the great cities of India. This led to diseases spreading at an alarming rate and the dead and dying littering the streets of urban centres such as Calcutta and Madras.
In famine conditions, people did whatever they could to survive including selling their cattle, their implements, eating leaves, bark and the seed corn they would need for the next crop.
Many children (and some adults) only survived famines because they became slaves in European or Indian households,
Images of vulnerable famine victims such as women and children tapped into the humanitarian Europeans who felt more sympathy from these victims than from men. Men were seen as beggars or parasites who leeched off the upper classes in Indian society
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Famine relief funds were set up in Calcutta and other urban centres and colonial newspapers like Friend of India reported regularly on the course of the famine and donations to the fund, encouraging both European and wealthy Indian residents to contribute generously for immediate famine relief. However many starving peasants died before they could reach the relief centres.
Responsibility for relief was not put on the state but on the rich and upper class Europeans and Indians who were expected to be generous and charitable.
McAplin: The Sixteenth century saw a shift in Europe from famines caused by chronic food shortages to ones caused by a lack of purchasing power - from crises caused by scarcity to those of unequal distribution.
Famines did not begin with colonial rule and serious scarcities dotted the pre-colonial period. Such as the Bihar famine of 1670-1 which resulted in thousands of deaths (as many as 100-300 daily). This also led to a spike in slave trading activities and undermined local industries such as weaving and ship building
Debate over whether the famines increased in frequency and severity during colonial rule or whether they were simply better recorded, although most historians now agree that high and inflexible land tax, combined with the laissez faire economic policies imposed by the colonial state made famines more likely to occur.
As late as 1880, the Famine Committee claimed that the famines were due to drought and not British colonial policies.
British Perceptions
Varied tropical environments could be threatening for European travellers and traders , especially when many of them would die during the early years of colonial expansion
Death was a constant presence for the British in early colonial India, and mortality rates were exceptionally high, even by the standards at the time.
Survival rates among upper classes improved significantly over time, although mortality among the rank and file soldiers remained alarmingly high throughout the nineteenth century.
Fatal misfortune could overtake even the most robust of individual and the life expectance of a new recruit was colloquially estimated at two monsoons.
The British died from a variety of causes. Environmental factors such as storms and monsoons, diseases, insects and wildlife.
When many nineteenth century observed the crowded British burial grounds they saw in them the high human cost of the expanding empire.
Maria Graham: "The greater number of those buried here are under five-and-twenty years of age!" - said of the South Park Street Cemetery. "It's a painful reflection...to consider the number of young men cut off in the first two or three years of residence in this climate.
Upper and middle classes had access to good living conditions, hygiene and medicine. A lot more than the impoverished Indians. Yet still death was a constant threat for them
Mental health issues were almost common" loneliness, desperation and anxiety were common
British women wrote about problems with childbirth, stillbirth and children dying as well as their loneliness and isolation in Indian society.
Maria Graham: India thought of as a land of potential abundance and tropical fertility and simultaneously one of danger, death and dearth.
The British came to India, not with the intention of settling down, but with the plan to return to England after taking advantage of the country as much they could.
The topography of India was viewed very differently by the British than it was in Europe. Not used to jungles, desserts and marshlands
India had originally been thought of as a land of sophisticated cultures and civilisations: this idea came from merchants who perpetuated this view. This is one of the reasons that the British wanted to exploit India. India was thought to be very fertile both with natural and material abundance.
Environment
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Ferocious rivers, huge mountains, swamps and marshlands all posed new challenges for the British.
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The EIC and the Crown were both on a mission in order to extract wealth, govern and make profit.
Arnold: "The land itself appeared to be deadly...malignant miasmas emanated from every swamp, graveyard, and jungle."
It was considered that different environments were superior to others. The temperate climate of Europe was seen to be ideal as it encouraged industry, innovation and energy. However, people living in warm countries were considered naturally indolent, unproductive and hot-tempered. Meanwhile those in the colder climates were frigid, stiff and unbending.