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  • Epidemic Malaria and Hunger in Colonial Punjab: Weakened by want by Sheila Zurbrigg
  • Mrunmayee Satam
Epidemic Malaria and Hunger in Colonial Punjab: Weakened by want By Sheila Zurbrigg. Abingdon: Taylor and Francis Books, 2019.

In colonial South Asia, malaria occupied a high position "among the epidemics of death" (1). Writings on epidemic malaria in colonial India have largely focused on the role of medical intervention while evaluating the causes for decline in the mortality rates during the interwar period. Sheila Zurbrigg's meticulous reading and interpretation of colonial records in India and the UK offer an important breakthrough in understanding the epidemic history of colonial India. The author unveils the contribution of acute hunger to the occurrence of recurrent and severe malaria epidemics in colonial Punjab. Zurbrigg is a practitioner of medicine and an independent scholar from Toronto, Canada, and the book is a product of her private long-term research on history of malaria mortality in colonial South Asia.

The author begins by stating the importance of the 1911 inquiry report "Malaria in the Punjab" by Major S.R. Christophers. In the report, Christophers outlines excessive rainfall and "scarcity" as two major determinants for epidemic malaria in the Punjab Province. Here, the term "scarcity" implies hunger or starvation due to high food prices. At the turn of the century, there was a clear political agenda behind exclusion of terms such as "hunger" or "starvation" from the colonial state. Despite the relevance of starvation, Zurbrigg finds that the cause has not been scrutinized in the epidemiological studies at all. There were predominantly two reasons for the same: the germ-centric explanation of diseases, overlooking the socioeconomic considerations, and the emphasis on medical intervention to address the high mortality rates. In the case of malaria being confirmed, the medical intervention administered was the distribution of quinine.

Zurbrigg argues hunger in Punjab was largely a result of the laissez-faire policies adopted by the colonial state. The province was a major producer and exporter of food grains and therefore made significant contribution to the land revenue collection in colonial India. During conditions of famine, the British government refused to intervene and reduce the prices of food grains, resulting in large scale suffering of the masses. Chapter Four is the most incisive as Zurbrigg uses Christophers' study as a reference point, to conduct a detailed investigation of data on rainfall, entomology, malarial disease rates and mortality figures. Using aggregate regression analysis, the author establishes "the close relationship of autumn fever (malaria) mortality to monsoon rainfall and prevailing wheat price between 1868–1908" (140). For the period under consideration, she argues that the food grain prices were high because of the expansion of the railway network and large-scale export of wheat from Punjab. With a reduction in the demand for wheat in the early 1890s, decline was also reflected in the mortality figures associated with malaria epidemic.

In Chapter Nine, Zurbrigg turns her attention to the declining mortality rates following the malaria epidemic of 1908 and traces "specific vector control programs, flood control work undertaken post-1908, and trends in availability and access to quinine, and the likely impact of such programs on incidence and severity of malaria in the province" (32). The author concludes that none of the abovementioned factors had a significant impact on the decline recorded. Instead, it was the growing discontent and the emergence of the Indian national movement that compelled the British government to implement famine prevention measures in the subcontinent, which resulted in the decline of the mortality rates for malaria. In addition, at the turn of the century, three colonial reports—"Famine Commission Report," "Malaria in the Punjab" and "Malaria in the Duars"—forced the colonial state to "formally acknowledge the role of its neglect" (404). Zurbrigg offers a detailed investigation into the impact of the malaria control program and famine relief on declining mortality rates in the first half of the twentieth century. While the malaria control program had a limited impact on the decline, the work done by the Famine Commission of 1901 was vital. The Famine Commission of 1901 identified the agricultural misery in the subcontinent as a crisis which required...

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