Empire, epidemic, and the agrarian world
Kala-azar ( Visceral leishmaniasis ) in Assam, 1883–1930
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8961581 |
|---|---|
| Authors | N S Abhilasha (Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 62 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 101-129 |
| Publication date | 2025-02-07 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Indian Economic & Social History Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0019-4646 • E-ISSN: 0973-0893 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00194646241310024 |
| OpenAlex | W4407255027 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 20 |
In the late nineteenth century, kala-azar, an unfamiliar epidemic, hit Assam, a province in the northeast of British India. Its devastations persisted till the 1930s. It killed an estimated 0.2 million people during 1880–1930 and was partly responsible for stagnating Assam’s population during 1891–1901. Its symptoms misled medical practitioners into faulty diagnoses and cures until the 1910s. Deaths and prolonged illness reduced peasants’ capacity to cultivate and pay land revenue. In areas affected by the disease, fields lay uncultivated and the villagers abandoned their homes. The lingering impact threatened efforts to rebuild families for multiple generations. Works on agrarian history view kala-azar’s effect as episodic and not long-term. Historiography of the disease does not analyse how its discordant relation with medical science impacted Assam’s agriculture. This article argues that besides death and despair, kala-azar had lasting impacts on Assam’s agriculture as it increased tenancy, disrupted village boundaries and peasants’ ties with the land, and exacerbated social divisions. These outcomes undercut the British colonial endeavours to create a settled and tax-paying peasantry, well-mapped property relationship, and a flourishing land market. By exploring the impact of kala-azar in Assam, this article demonstrates how epidemics are critical to understanding agrarian changes
Agrarian society · Agriculture · Ancient history · Archaeology · Biology · Empire · Geography · Leishmaniasis · Old World · Visceral leishmaniasis · Zoology · African cultural and philosophical studies · History · Immunology · Medicine · Social and Economic Development in India · Virology · World Systems and Global Transformations
The Unquiet River
The Social History of Health and Medicine in Colonial India
Agricultural Trends in India, 1891-1947
Empire’s Garden
Malarial Subjects
Public health in British India
Malaria and Mortality in Bengal, 1840-1921
Nutrition, Sanitation, Hygiene, and the Likelihood of Death
Population and Agriculture in Northern India, 1872-1921
Agrarian Conditions in Northern India
| Highly cited | No |
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