55
Surgeon broke down under the work of compiling statistics from over 300 daily plague
reports. Patwárís then sent their reports to the Tahsil Offices, in which tahsil reports were
prepared : these were sent daily to the Civil Surgeon, who prepared from these the district
daily plague reports. However when the epidemic was at its height, it was impossible to
maintain accurate records.
Mr. Silcock notes :—
" In March during the height of the epidemic the recording and "reporting agencies
both broke down, and for a week or 10 days the death figures reported cannot be relied on
as exhaustive. When, as was the case in many villages, the Lambardárs were dead,
the chaukídárs dead, and the villagers scattered in isolated groups all round the villages,
and the Patwárís, who were the reporting agents, afraid to venture outside their own
village, it is not to be wondered at that the statistics should be defective.
" Cases have been recorded as they were reported, but during March and April it was
practically impossible to obtain any sure approximate statement of cases. Even in the town
of Ludhiána deaths could only be discovered by counting the funerals which passed out of
the octroi posts and by stationing men at the various burying grounds and burning ghâts."
Evacuation.
(f) With regard to evacuation the
Deputy Commissioner notes :—
" Evacuation was the measure generally adopted by Hindu villages. It took place
sometimes as soon as rats began to die, but more frequently when several cases had occurred
among the inhabitants. This action was very marked during the height and the close of
the epidemic : at the commencement the people had no experience and did not believe
in the advantages of evacuation. There are numerous instances of fakirs having induced
the people to remain in on the ground that they had performed the necessary expiatory
ceremonies and that the village was safe ; and other cases in which even villages that had
evacuated were induced by these fakirs to return. In all cases the results were disastrous,
but the fakir had got his money and vanished. In the end the fakirs were, I understand,
unable to obtain any credence.
" With Muhammadan villages the case was different. Very few Muhammadan
villages went out, and in cases where the villages had a mixed population, when the Hindu
inhabitants went out, the Muhammadans remained in and suffered accordingly.
" The reason was that the village Mullahs were all strongly opposed to evacuation,
and on the strength of a verse in the Quran proclaimed that any Muhammadan leaving his
house would be a ' Káfir '. "
This teaching originated, it was understood, with the leading Maulvis of Ludhiána
Town, but when they were reasoned with well and were shown the harm their teaching had
caused, they gave this opinion publicly that the view in question had been misunderstood, and
that its real meaning was that people should not abandon their houses and fly to some other
villages and so spread the disease, and that it was in no way opposed to people leaving
their houses and living outside the village, provided they did not go into the village
limits.
"' Fatwás ' were obtained from these Maulv<i>s and printed and distributed among the
Muhammadan villages, and Muhammadan officials were sent to talk to the village Mullahs
and people and let them know what the decision of Ludhiána was ,on the point. As far as'
can be seen at present the difficulty has been overcome and I am informed by influential
Muhammadans that when the plague season comes round again all Muhammadan villages
will be ready to evacuate."
Extent of evacuation and its effects.
Mr. Silcock writes :—
With regard to the extent to which evacution was practised and its effects
" Thirty-three villages were evacuated completely when rats began to die, and
these all escaped plague.
u One hundred and seventy-four villages were evacuated completely, after there had
been cases of plague, but many of these did not go out until the disease was well established,
and the result was that there were numerous deaths in camp of persons who had become
infected before they left the village. The recorded statistics show that in these 174 villages
there were 1,184 deaths before evacuation and 3,360 in camp afterwards.
"Three hundred and fifty-six villages were partially evacuated, and the recoided
deaths in these villages are 29,587 in the village and 8,187 in camp. The word ' partially
must be here taken to mean anything from <ss>th to <ss>rds, and without knowing the actual
proportions it is not possible to found any argument either for or against evacuation on the
difference in number between those who died in the village and those who died outside.
" One hundred and thirty-five villages only, out of the 653 attacked, elected to remain
in. The deaths in these villages are reported to be 3,665 only : this works out as 6.10 per
cent. only on the population of the villages, a very low percentage when it is considered that
the mortality percentage for the whole district is 7.10.