JOURNAL OF CRITICAL REVIEWS

ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 09, 2020 1897 EARTHQUAKE AND THE OUTBREAK OF CHOLERA AND KALA-AZAR IN COLONIAL : A STUDY

Amar Deka

PhD Research Scholar, Department of History,

Email ID: [email protected]

Received:26 January 2020 Revised and Accepted: 11 April 2020

ABSTRACT: The paper attempts to understand the catalytic role of the great earthquake of 1897 on the outbreak of cholera and transmission of kala-Azar among the natives of Assam. The paper also tries to analyse the responses and disease control measures of the colonial government in the closing years of the nineteenth century. Assam lies in one of the most active seismic zone in the world. This region has been experiencing innumerous earthquake since the time immemorial. On 12th June 1897 this region is struck by an earthquake of great severity with magnitude of about 9.7 on the Richter scale. The earthquake had created a great havoc. A large number of masonry buildings, houses, railways, telegraph lines and other govermnet facilities were converted into heap of ruins. It had tremendous impact on the drainage system of Brahmaputra and Surma- . The earthquake with incessant rain was followed by flood in many places. The earthquake had a negative impact on the general health of the people. The rate of transmission of kala-azar increased considerably. Diseaese like cholera, fever and malaria broke out in many places in epidemic form due to dislocation of water supply and sanitation system.

KEYWORDS: earthquake, epidemic, kala-azar Cholera, Assam

I. INTRODUCTION

Human history represents endless struggle with the extreme forces of nature such as flood, draught, tsunami, earthquake, volcanic eruption, hurricane, tornado etc. which causes destruction and disaster like situation. Among them, earthquake is one of the most devastating natural catastrophes that the humans have ever witnessed. It comes without warning, whether it is for seconds or minutes, to those who experienced it feels eternal.

Earthquake disasters are found to be the second most reported natural disaster (after flood) and the first among the geophysical disaster. The impact of the earthquake may vary according to the power, intensity, geographical localization (high density population) and level of development in the affected region. The direct cause of death in the aftermath of an earthquake is primarily seen as a result of building collapse and traumatic injuries. On many occasions, outbreak of infectious diseases has been reported as the earthquake disaster caused substantial population displacement which leads to formation of unplanned and overcrowded shelters, with limited access to food and safe water. The water supply/sanitation system and the degradation of sanitary conditions caused by the earthquake also resulted to outbreak of diseases.1 Earthquake, in many instances, leads to flooding causes by landslide, collapsing of dams, blocking up river channel with silt and debris. The impact of earthquake on the regime of river, especially on the morphology of the channel, has considerable influence on the flood potential of a region. For example, the erosive power of Brahmaputra along its bank has increased considerably after the Assam earthquake of 1950. Sadia town at the confluence of Dibong and Lohit disappeared in 1953. A major part of the and Palashbari towns were destroyed in 1954. As a result of the earthquake, extensive landslides occurred in the hill temporarily blocking the course of the Subansiri, Dibang and Dihang. Bursting of these temporary bunds created by the landslides after a few days released enormous amount of impounded water, producing devastating flood downstream. Carrying capacity of Brahmaputra and its tributaries reduced considerably due to heavy loads of sediments on its beds resulted to increased the intensity of flood in the surrounding low lands.2 Flood is the most common among the natural calamities. Immediate injuries and death that resulted from flood disasters are mostly caused by drowning and blunt trauma. After effect of flooding include outbreak of diseases caused by displacement of people into the overcrowded camps and cross contamination of water sources with toxic materials. Flooding is also usually followed by the proliferation of mosquitoes resulting in an upsurge of

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ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 09, 2020 mosquito-borne diseases like malaria.3 Natural disasters such as earthquake and flood dramatically increase the mortality and morbidity resulting from communicable diseases. The top five causes of death in emergencies and disasters include diarrhea, acute respiratory infection, measles, malnutrition and in epidemic zones, Malaria. In 1991, an earthquake in Costa Rica‟s Atlantic region was accompanied with a high increase in malaria cases. Furthermore, intermittent flo oding associated with El Nino-Southern Oscillation has been correlated with malaria epidemics in Peru.4

The paper attempts to understand the Catalytic role of the great earthquake of 1897 on the outbreak of cholera and transmission of kala-Azar among the natives of Assam. The paper also tries to analyse the responses and disease control measures of the colonial government in the closing years of the nineteenth century.

II. ASSAM: A DISASTER PRONE REGION

Assam has been witnessing innumerous earthquake since time immemorial. This part of Indian subcontinent is situated in one of the most active seismic regions in the world. However, History of earthquake in Assam is limited by dearth of written historical sources as the historians used to focus mainly on political and social events. Earthquake, whether small or big, finds very little mention in their narratives. Yet, available data provides instances of some major earthquake which struck in this region. R.N. Iyenger through his intensive search of records in libraries, archives, archaeological memoirs, records of geological investigations and other sources of history provided a catalogue of eight earthquakes that struck various parts of Assam. The catalogue includes the earthquakes of Garhgaon during the reign of Suklemung alias Garhgaya Raja(1548 AD), Gajala (1596 AD), several earthquakes in Upper-Assam during the reign of king Suramppha alias Bagha Raja (1642 AD), three earthquakes in Upper Assam (April-May, 1649 AD) during the reign of king Jayadhwaj Singha, Kajali near Gauhati (1663 AD), Sadiya (February-August, 1697 AD), Tinkhang and Chraideo Hill (1714 AD), and Rangpur (1759 AD). Garhgaon earthquake as pointed out by Iyenger found mention in the Ahom which states “In Lakani Tao-Shinga (i.e.in 1548 AD) a vilolent earthquake took place, pebbles, sand and ashes came out bursting the surface of the earth…” Similarly, earthquake in Sadia (February-August, 1697 AD) found mention in the Tunkhungia Buranji (Ed. and Tr. Bhuyan) which records “In the month of Puh 1618, Bandar Phukan of the Chetia family constructed a fort at Puingdang under the orders of the king which took two months. In the same year there was an earthquake which continued for six months in an abortive fashion, from Phagu to Saon. The earth was rent as under at Sadiya, and Magur and Kawai fish appeared in the breaches. As sand and water appeared at that place the side of the hills crumbled down.”5 Assam is also a flood-prone country. Probably, the most common among the natural calamities in Assam is flood. Two great river flows through this region- Brahmaputra and Barak. Various myth and legends are attached to these rivers and is important route for trade and pilgrimage as well as for the invaders like Mughals. Flood caused by these two river system have profound impact on the lives, history and culture of the people living in the region. In Assamese society there is a saying that “Jui, Pani Aru Yuin” fire, water and white termite are the three agent of mass destruction.6 The frequent flood of the region destroy agriculture almost every year and create disaster like situation but at the same time filled their ponds with water and fresh pawn and fertile the region by their rich deposits of silt. Quite evidently, Assam has been a hunting ground of various epidemic and diseases such as malaria, small pox, Cholera, kalazar etc. These diseases have perished thousands of population of Assam. Traditional Assamese bez addressed the disease in in the following words “Khethali parbotor pora voila utpoti” here Khethali parbot means .7 Captain R.B. Pembertson, who was the joint commissioner of Manipur, had termed Assam as as the third most unhealthy place after Araccan and Rangoon.8 Shahibuddin Talish in his account Fathiya-i- Ibriah mentioned about the unhealthy climatic condition of Assam.9 III. IMPACT OF THE EARTHQUAKE ON DRAINAGE SYSTEM On 12th June, 1897 at around 5 P.M. in the afternoon, when most people were probably taking their evening tea, an earthquake of an unprecedented severity struck Assam with magnitude of about 8.7 (an estimate based on record of Milne‟s instrument [Richter 1958]). One of the greatest in the modern history and probably one of the largest in the world, the earthquake was confined not only to Assam and its adjoining areas, numbers of buildings in Calcutta were damaged or partially collapsed, and the tremor was felt up to Ahmadabad and Peshawar. The earthquake severely damaged buildings, houses, roads, bridges, railroads, schools, churches, temples and monuments, government facilities were destroyed, communications interrupted, and about 1,542 people died due to landslides and collapse of houses.10 Apart from the material and live loss, earthquake had a devastating impact on the drainage system of Assam, especially on Brahmaputra and Surma-Barak valley. The earthquake was accompanied by extensive landslips

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ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 09, 2020 and rock fall on hill slopes, subsidence and fissuring of the valley on ground, increase in river bed, changing of river course and widening of rivers. At several places an enormous amount of silting was thrown into the river by the subsidence of their bank and at certain places the rivers widened up. The sub-divisional officer of Sunamganj, for example, observed in his report that “the Surma and other rivers seem to have been widened” and deputy commissioner of Sylhet stated that in the Maulvi Bazar subdivision at the junction of Kusiara River, “the river appeared to have been widened up by some hundred yards”11 The banks of the rivers were cracked and that in many places subsidence of land had occurred. In the village of Jugirgaon, opposite of Sunamganj, 41 people fall into river and were drowned by the sudden subsidence of river, who were celebrating Muharam at the time of the earthquake.6 The channels were blocked with debris and silt, and huge timber had come down with the hill landslips. At some places rivers blocked up because of the landslips which deposited a large number of rocks and debris on the river. For instance, Therria River which was the route to the important bazaar of Bholaganj was entirely dried up because of the rocks and earth deposited on it. Earthquake was followed by immediate occurrence of flood in many places such as , , and Gauhati. The Brahmaputra at Gauhati , as shown by the river gauge rose more than 7 feet. The entire village around Barpeta were submerged, the same state of things prevailed in all low-lying parts of the district which were drained by rivers and small streams, the beds which were up heaved by the earthquake; in consequence of the upheaval they overflowed their banks and flooded the neighbourhood. Springs gushing out from below the earth also flooded many villages. Several rivers have changes their course. Pagladiya and Puthimari abandoned their original river courses to join their original river course. As a result, the earthquake of 1897 has significantly increased the intensity of flood in the region. These floods had produced fertile ground for spread many diseases, especially vector-borne diseases like malaria and kala-Azar which became more acute in the subsequent years of the earthquake. IV. 1987 EARTHQUAKE AND KALA-AZAR It is evident that natural calamities, such as earthquakes, famines etc., have at times followed the epidemic of kala-azar. The earthquake of 1934 that caused great devastation in North Bihar was followed by a outbreak of kal-Azar during the next few years. According to a report there were 90,000 cases of kala-Azar in North-Bihar. The earthquake of 1918 which affected Bengal and Assam was followed by an endemic wave of kala-Azar in these two provinces that continued till almost the end of 19th century. The earthquake, if severe cause the accumulation of rubble and debris of demolished house and a general increase of insanitary environments suitable for shelter and multiplication of the insect vector of kala-Azar, viz, the sandfly Phlebotomus argentipes, in large numbers. The population living in the midst of these ruins of dwelling places are very liable to be bitten the infected sand flies, and thus have increased the chances of developing kala-Azar. The severe earthquake that occurred in Assam in 1897, in the midst of an epidemic in Nowgong district, was followed by spread of kala- azar to the subdividion of Sivsagar district during the next two years and in the nowgong district itself the epidemic of kala-azar accounted for the death about 30 percent of the population.12 The first epidemic outbreak of kala-Azar occurred in the Garo hill district between 1875 -83 , the epidemic form of the disease being very probably introduced into the south-western part of the district from Rangpur district in the north-bengal where there had been a terribble epidemic between 1871-76. It is, however possible that Kala- Azar was present in a sporadic form in the Garo Hill district as early as 1869. The spread of this epidemic of Kala-Azar in Assam has been described in details by Roger. Kala-Azar affected the goalpara between 1882-87, extended southwards to Kamrup and to some villages on the North bank of river Brahmaputra and then reached in 1888. There was a road connecting Guwahati to Mangaldai subdivision in and Kala azar appeared in this area during the next year. The spread of Kala-Azar eastwards along the north-bank of the river was slow because of the lack of good roads. But the neighboring distric of Nowgong that was in direct communication with Guwahati () by the Assam trunk road was badly affected by kala-Azar during 1892-98. There was outbreak of kala-Azar in Golaghat subdivision in 1899 and it further extended to Sivsagar district.13

Similarly, earthquake and its subsequent flood were followed by exceptional unhealthiness accompanied with high mortality and low fertility. It had greatly affected the health and demography of the region. In the Mangaldai subdivision of Darrang containing a large agricultural population was severely affected by the kala- azar and flood which followed the earthquake of 1897. In the Khasi and Jayantia Hills even though the actualAnumber of death from the earthquake was only 916, but it had badly affected the general health of the people, B.C. Allen in the Census of 1901 has provided following extract pointed out by the Deputy Commissioner from his report:

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ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 09, 2020 The earthquake of 1897 caused a great change in the general health and material progress of the people……….It was followed by incessant rain, and, owing to exposure, anxiety, want and bad food, dysentery and fever was prevalent throughout the district during the latter half of 1897 and during 1898 and 1899.14 The Reverend Dr. John Robert writes of the : “Up to the time of the earthquake the whole of the district was fairly healthy and prosperous, but after the earthquake a most malignant kind of fever was very prevalent, and hundreds of people died of it. This lasted for about two years. I have been in the district for close upon thirty years, but I never saw such mortality as during the years 1898 and 1899. Another feature of the earthquake was a marked decrease in the numbers of births.”15 In south Sylhet even though the population in tea garden increased due to immigrants labourers but the population outside tea garden had decreased by 3.9% ten years owing to the severity of malaria fever. The Deputy Commissioner attributed this decrease to “the malaria wave which passed over the greater parts of the district during 1897 and 1898, when the mortality from the fever was enormous. The earthquake of the 12th June 1897 was followed by a most virulent outbreak of malaria fever in this subdivision, into the effect of which an extra Assistant commissioner was deputed to make an enquiry in 1899, when he found that many houses in Fenchuganj and sadr police station entirely depopulated.”16 Recommendation was made to shift the houses of native to shift to uninfected areas during the winter season when rate of infection become less. Except few cases the measures turned out to be failure.17 When the colonial authority failed to control the disease, they blamed the opium eating habit of the natives.

V. OUTBREAK OF CHOLERA

The affects of the earthquake in terms of general public health was not confined to kala-Azar alone. Choleraa broke out in many places just after the earthquake. In , due to complete dislocation of the station water supply and station drainage cholera, fever and dysentery broke out in native quarter.18 Same state of things prevailed in the other parts of the region. Gauhati, where cholera was hitherto little known by among the residence of town, broke out in epidemic form due to destruction caused by the earthquake to sanitation and water supply. Great havoc was caused by this disease in Dharapur in Palashbari tehsil, and in Galhati in Chhaygaon Tehsil.19 Many people were died in the Barpeta Shastra.20

VI. CONCLUSION

Earthquake and flood, quite frequent in Assam, served as catalyst for the outbreak of various diseases. The earthquake of 1897 had severely damaged buildings, houses, monuments, communication system, and government facilities. Apart from the material loss, it had a terrible impact on the general health of the natives marked by high mortality and low fertility. it served as catalyst for outbreak of diseases like kala- azar and cholera. In the subsequent years of the earthquake, the rate of transmission of diseases among the natives, especially Kala-Azar increased considerably. Cholera broke out in many places. Although, Cholera was controlled to some extent, the government failed to control kala-azar. This disease was not an immediate effect of the earthquake of 1897, the earthquake and the subsequent flood acted as a catalyst producing a fertile ground for its transmission, thereby, increasing the rate of infection.

VII. REFERENCES

1Kouadio, Isidore K. (2012). Infectious Diseases following Natural Disasters: Prevention and Control Measures. Expert Review of Anti-Infective Therapy, 10(1), 95-104. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1586/eri.11.155 2 Documentation on past disasters, their impact, Measures taken, vulnerable areas in Assam. Retrieved from http://www.mati.gov.in/docs/Training%20Materials%20DMC/Disaster%20Concepts/documentation_on_past_d isasters.pdf 3 Ibid. 4 Jafari, Najmeh., Shahsanai, Armindokht., & Memarzadeh, Mehrdad. (2011). Prevention of communicable diseases after disaster: A review. Journal of Research in Medical Sciences, 16(7), 956-962. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3263111/ 5 Iyengar, R.N. (1999). Earthquake history of India in medieval times. Indian journal of history of science, 34(3), 181-237.

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6 , Rajen. (2000). Social and economic 1853-1921. New Delhi: Manohar Publishers and Distributors. 7 Gunabhiram , „Alikhito Buranji‟, in N. Saikia (ed), Jonaki, Guwahati, 2001, p.532. 8 R.B. Captain Pembertson, Report on the eastern frontier of British India, Guwahati, 1977, p.160 as cited in , Kishor, Disease and medicine in : British health policies, Objectives and Social Impact, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 2011, Vol. 72, part-I (2011), pp.978-985. 9 Barbaruah, Hiteswar,Ahomar din, Guwahati, 1975, p.79 10 Proceedings of the Chief Commissioner of Assam in the Department Under the Control of the Home Department of the Government of India for the month of March, 1898. 11 Ibid. 12 Sen Gupta, P.C., (1951). A Report on Kala-azar in Assam. The Indian Medical Gezette, 86(6) p.266 13 Ibid. 14 Allen, op. cit. 15 Ibid. 16 Ibid. 17 Rogers, Leonard. (1897). Report of An Investigation of the Epidemic of Malarial Fever in Assam, or Kala- Azar. Shillong: Assam Secretariat Building, accessed on 06.10.2020, https://digital.nls.uk/indiapapers/browse/archive/75014200?mode=gallery_list&sn=78 18 Proceedings of the Chief Commissioner of Assam in the Department Under the Control of the Home Department of the Government of India for the month of March, 1898, p.5. 19 Ibid, Appendix IV, p.17. 20 Ibid, p.20.

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