53
infection and progress.
" The disease did not break out here in epidemic form till the first week of March.
The infection ran into the town from Khánpur
on one side, Ludhiána on the other, and from
the Bet villages on the third. First of all Chamárs were attacked. The course of the
disease was very rapid. In four weeks the number of cases swelled up to 665 and deaths
to 375, and in the 5th week ending 29th March the cases for the week amounted to 609
and deaths to 397. In the following week cases fell down to 496 and deaths went up to 491,
and this was the highest figure ever reached in a week and was too terrible for a town of
this size. Luckily soon after that the "decline" set in. Its term was short and abrupt.
The plague was over before the middle of May. The total attacks were 2,730 with 2,162
deaths. The percentages of deaths to population and of deaths to cases were 10.77 and
79.19 respectively."
Classes and character of the people, their bearing
in the presence of the epidemic and attitude towards
plague measures.
(b) The majority of the population consists of Hindu agriculturists. Of 653
infected villages, 371 were inhabited chiefly by
Hind
s and 292 chiefly by Muhammadans.
Bearing in the presence of the epidemic.
Hindus were much more disposed to adopt precautionary measures, such as evacuation
and the avoidance of contact with the sick,
than were Muhammadans.
Mr. Silcock writes :—
" The first villages attacked were chiefly Hindu, and a state of panic ensued among the
Hind<u>s, who in many cases fled abandoning their houses and their sick, and great difficulties
were experienced in many quarters in discovering the dead bodies and having them burnt :
the cases are not rare where the sick were abandoned by all their friends and relations and
the dead bodies were not discovered for 2 or even 3 days and the funeral arrangements
had to be carried out by strangers, and in not a few cases Hind<u>s had to be buried and not
burnt. It is commonly reported that one of the chief reasons why the Muhammadans,
refused to leave their homes was that they had observed these actions of panic among the
Hind<u>s and determined that they at any rate would not abandon their sick, and that the
first fatwa issued by a Ludhiána Maulvi against evacuation had its origin in this feeling.
1 have reason to believe that this report is true : it is unquestionable that the attention and
care given by Muhammadans to their sick was remarkable, and it was always a point of
honour even at the height of the epidemic to attend the funerals of all friends and relations."
Both Hind<u>s and Muhammadans placed greater faith in the dictates of their spiritual
advisers than in the counsels of Government officers. Muhammadans accepted only such
measures as were advocated in the ' fatwas ' of leading Maulvis, and Hind<u>s were frequently
victimized by wandering " Sádhús."
With regard to Sádhús, Dr. Fateh Chand writes: —
" The dodges they played to deceive ignorant villagers were very amusing, and one of
them was that they used to take a number of wooden pegs, coloured their tops with red
paint, stuck them down into the ground round the village from one gate to the other, burnt
fire with frankincense, &c, at the gates, recited certain 'mantras' or verses of their own
and performed certain physical distortions. Having done so, they took a goat or a buffalo
and painted its forehead and tail, they passed the animal through the streets of the village,
and having received their promised presents in coin and kind they quietly decamped with
their treasure and never appeared again in that village. The results for the villagers who
were innocently deceived turned out disastrous in each case after their return into their
houses. Plague re-appeared with greater violence and carried away its victims in heaps."
Flight from infected places was very common. Dr. Fateh Chand notes : •—
" In villages it became an accepted practice that wherever plague broke out those
who had friends elsewhere went over to them with their families loaded in carts with their
chattels, &c. In towns the exodus has been a favourite step, to such an extent, that nearly
one-third population of Jagraon and about the same of Ludhiána left their homes, some
migrated to places of pilgrimage, and some to other large towns of the Province, such as
Amritsar, Lahore, Delhi and Mooltan. In the case of villages this exodus was one of the
most potent causes that helped-the propagation of plague far and wide in the interior of this
district."
Attitude towards plague measures.
Mr. Silcock notes :—
" No compulsory measures of any kind were attempted in the district, and the
attitude of the people has been naturally quiescent."
The villages opposed segregation and disinfection, and these measures were early
abandoned.
.