lystn

A look at the handling of the plague crisis of 1896-97 clearly shows that the British had a poor understanding of Indian social customs and mind-set. It also reveals their complete lack of preparedness to tackle the epidemic, which resulted in the deaths of lakhs of people. They initially allowed the plague to spread just to keep global trade afloat and took brutal measures to crack down only after it had spiralled out of control. Besides, the hastily drafted Epidemic Disease Act of 1897, which gave absolute powers to the local authorities, turned out to be too draconian to bring about any actual relief to the affected. Now the same law has been resurrected and is being implemented, without any amendments to suit the modern scenario.