56
C. Ward.
The following extract is from the report of Captain Cuppage,
District Officer, C. Ward :—
It was not until some time bad elapsed after receipt of the instructions to
encourage inoculation that the actual work of inoculation was commenced in C,
Ward. Knowing that a greater portion of the population of this district comprised
wealthy high-caste Hindus and Jains, I deemed it inadvisable to plunge in medias
res without first preparing the ground. It is, perhaps, needless for me to say that this
preliminary preparation necessitated the greatest caution, required a considerable
amount of tact, and above all things patience. Before taking any other steps, I got
as many as possible of the leading men of the various communities in the district into
my confidence. I endeavoured, as far as possible, to persuade those who were opposed
to inoculation of its benefits, and so enlist their influence with their co-religionists on
my side. Considerable time was taken up in personal visits to native gentlemen and
in holding meetings in various parts of the ward at all times of the day, and often
at night, when the advantages of inoculation were carefully explained, and the
concessions the Government was willing to confer on the inoculated clearly pointed
out. The work was often most discouraging. The apparent good results obtained
at some meeting might in a week or so be frustrated by an anti-inoculation article
in some vernacular paper, and the whole of the ground would have to be gone over
again. I cannot speak in too high terms of these native gentlemen who responded
so readily to my appeal for assistance. Some of them incurred the displeasure, as
well as the distrust, of their co-religionists, who, ignorant of the ingredients used in the
preparation of the serum, bitterly opposed inoculation on religious grounds. Not-
withstanding all the difficulties that beset the work, numerotis efforts were made
to popularize inoculation. Two of the greatest difficulties we had to face in
C. Ward were :—(i) the opposition from native practitioners, hakims and vaids, of
whom there are a very large number in C. Ward ; (ii) the unreasonable opposition
of the people themselves. The objections raised to inoculation on the ground of
religion were most difficult to overcome, and were brought forward largely by the
Jains, a very influential and orthodox community, the Bhattias, who are of much
the same standing, and wealthy Brahmins. It was almost impossible to make the
Jains believe that no animal-matter was used in the preparation of the serum. It was
clearly demonstrated to some of their leading men at the Government House
Laboratory, Parel, that the serum contained nothing forbidden by their religion.
But it was all of no avail as far as the Jains were concerned. Even after the Govern-
ment had sanctioned the preparation of a special serum made from flour for the
Jain caste, they would not avail themselves of inoculation. A few Jains· have
been inoculated. When I thought I had made some progress towards convincing
the leading men of the communities of the advantage of inoculation, I heard
privately that a .large and influential meeting, presided over by some of the most
orthodox and wealthy men, was to be held at Pydhonie, at which resolutions were to
be passed strongly condemning the measure. On this as on many other occasions,
Dr. Poput Parburam Vaid, Volunteer and Chairman of No. IV Committee,
Fanuswady, rendered myself, and the cause of inoculation generally, the most
valuable assistance. He at once informed me of the proposed meeting, and, with
my approval, took the organisers to the Parel Laboratory, where he
demonstrated to them the preparation of the serum, and allayed thoir fears, with
the result that a meeting which might have proved dangerous to the cause was never
held at all.
The vaids and hakims alluded to above are very numerous in C. Ward and!
some of them command a large practice. I thought it would be a wise step to
endeavour to get them on our side as much as possible, or at any rate to take a
neutral part. Many of them had strange ideas regarding inoculation, which if