Saquib Salim

“A few days’ longer continuance of the (Cholera) Epidemick might, by entirely crippling this Division, have given a very different appearance to the face of affairs, and prolonged the struggle to an indefinite period.” This observation was made by the Governor General Marquess of Hastings in 1817 as he was reflecting upon his army’s win against the Pindaris with the help of Scindias of Gwalior.

A Slice of History

Often we talk about the Rajas and Nawabs who fought against the colonial army in India but we miss that their most deadly and consistent enemy was a ‘bacteria’. Cholera killed more British soldiers than any other single enemy of the empire in India. Interestingly, the disease selectively killed more Europeans than the Indians serving in the army.

The above-mentioned military campaign led by the Governor General himself is a case in point. Pindaris were creating trouble for the English East India Company by raiding their settlements. The year was 1817. Scindia, who was till then an ally of Pindaris, secretly signed a treaty with the British in helping against Pindaris. Hastings decided to punish the Pindaris and led an army to Bundelkhand.  Vibrio cholerae, a bacteria that causes Cholera, was waiting to attack this English force.

A report later compiled by the English East India Company noted that during the second week of November at the army camp of Hastings, “the disease put forth all its strength, and assumed its most deadly and appalling form.… in its wonted insidious manner, for several days among the lower classes of the Camp followers; it, as it were in an instant, gained fresh vigour and at once burst forth with irresistible violence in every direction… The whole camp then put on the appearance of a hospital.”

The report further noted, “There was neither time nor hands to carry off the bodies; which were then thrown into the neighbouring ravines, or hastily committed to the earth, on the spots in which they had expired, and even round the walls of the Officers’ tents.”

Within a week 764 fighting men and overall 10% of the army staff had died in the operation. English officials noted, “hundreds drop down during every subsequent day’s advance, and covered the roads with dead and dying; the ground of encampment, and line of march, presented the appearance of a field of battle, and of the track of an army retreating under every circumstance of discomfiture and distress.” 

On this occasion, Hastings could secure a victory because of Scindias otherwise he admitted that the struggle would have been much longer because of Cholera.

David Arnold, a renowned historian, writes, “Between 1818 and 1854 more than 8,500 British soldiers died of cholera, and between 1859 and 1867 a third of all deaths among British troops in India were due to the disease.” 

Between 1833 and 1853, a total of 3,365 European troops had died in the Bengal Presidency which was 6.3% of their strength, of which 16% died because of Cholera. In other words, 1% of the total European soldiers in the Bengal Presidency were killed by Cholera while during the same period, only 0.2% of the Indian sepoys in the English army perished to the disease.

The numbers for the Madras Presidency between 1821 and 1846 were also not much different. 2,494 European soldiers or 0.9% of the total strength were killed by the disease. Here again, the death rate among native Indian soldiers was much lower. The proportion of deaths due to the disease was almost similar in the Bombay Presidency as well.

A 1861 report on Cholera by the British noted, “Figures appear to show conclusively that the liability of the European Soldiers to the attack of Cholera has been far greater in India than that of the Native Troops.” 

The report noted that at Agra station in 1856 14.1% of the European Artillery and 8.9% of the European infantry perished to the Cholera. Between 1837 and 1861, the average deaths were 3.3% and 4.0% respectively. Over the same period, only 0.6% of Indian troops died because of the disease.

In 1861, Cholera killed 2.9% of the total European soldiers in North India while only 0.4% of the Indian sepoys lost their lives to the disease. In Delhi, more than 4% of the British soldiers died because of the disease that year.

Overall, in 1861, the Cholera killed 2.9% of all the European Officers of the army and 6.8% of all the non-commissioned European officers stationed. 6.1% of the Europeans, including women and children, living in different cantonments lost their lives to the disease. 

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Cholera was one of the biggest challenges for the British consolidation in India. Arnold points out, “In Bengal, cholera deaths declined from 9.24 per 1,000 British soldiers in 1860-9 to 2.49 in 1880-3. The defeat of cholera was a significant factor in the consolidation of British power in India.”