1903 plague in Kashmir bears similarities with Covid spread

>BOX: Outbreak was widespread

* Kashmir witnessed a severe and widespread outbreak of plague from November 19, 1903, to July 31, 1904

* The disease was imported from outside as three travellers — a Kashmiri-origin woman, Mrs Bailey, who had travelled from Rawalpindi with her two servants in a horse cart, had passed two screening points undetected on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road, then known as the Jhelum Valley cart road

* The travellers apart from hiding their travel history had not disclosed that one of the servants was unwell

Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, April 1

Kashmir, in its recorded history, witnessed its first outbreak of imported plague in 1903, which ironically bears similarities with the current spread of coronovirus in the region as far as its management by the authorities and the attitude of locals towards the diseases is concerned.

The Kashmir valley witnessed a severe and widespread outbreak of plague from November 19, 1903, to July 31, 1904.

The disease did not originate here but was imported from outside as three travellers — a Kashmiri-origin woman, Mrs Bailey, who had travelled from Rawalpindi with her two servants in a horse cart, had passed two screening points undetected on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road, then known as the Jhelum Valley cart road.

The travellers apart from hiding their travel history had not disclosed that one of the servants was unwell.

The same situation is being witnessed currently when coronavirus is threatening the existence of the Kashmiri society as travellers are hiding their travel history and the government having failed to quarantine all travellers to Kashmir.

As the plague had already hit Jammu, Poonch and Rawalpindi before it reached Kashmir, the Maharaja Amar Singh government, which then ruled the princely state of J&K, had made arrangements for the examination of the travellers to Kashmir at Ramban on the Srinagar-Jammu road and Kohala and Uri on the cart road in the undivided Kashmir, notes a report by A Mittal, then Chief Medical Officer of Kashmir, while tracing the origins and spread of the plague.

The report notes that one plague-hit person, coming from Rawalpindi, had died in Uri on October 8, 1903, and was cremated there.

It adds that elaborate arrangements about the decontamination of the area were made when on November 13, 1903, a veiled native Kashmiri woman in a horse cart and her two servants crossed the Uri examination point, where the temperature of each traveller coming to Kashmir was taken.

“In this case, the inspectors failed to detect the disease. Subsequent investigation revealed that they had taken the temperature of the tonga travellers but there temperature was normal at that time,” the report adds.

The woman along with her servants had reached Srinagar on November 13 evening and checked into a houseboat at Shiekhbagh near Lal Chowk. The report says they had left for Kralpora in Budgam on November 16, where they stayed at the house of Subhan Bhat, the woman’s relative.

However, one of the servants, Ghulam Mohammad, fell ill and was taken to State Hospital in Srinagar on November 18.

At the hospital, he was immediately isolated after diagnosis of plague symptoms by the doctors.

“The symptoms at once suggested (to doctors) plague and he was removed to an isolated tent away from city in an open place, where a policeman was kept for guard, 500 away,” says the report.

However, the servant died on November 19 night, becoming the first imported case of plague in the Kashmir valley, the report notes.

He was buried in a 10-foot-deep grave with 2-feet of carbonate of lime surrounding it to further prevent the spread of disease. “Only two persons helped in the burial,” the report says.

As a precautionary measure, the house of Subhan Bhat along with all its belongings was burnt down by the authorities and the deceased’s close contacts, including the woman and the second servant, the policeman who guarded his tent and a hospital attendant were isolated and quarantined, it says.

“However the woman, servants and other contacts at Subhan Bhat house did not develop plague symptoms.”

On the night of November 25,1903, the policeman who guarded the tent of the plague-hit servant also died. He was buried in a 10-feet grave in an open place.

Though there was no witness, the report says that the policeman and his brother, who was the hospital attendant, had come in close contact with the deceased servant while trying to steal his belongings from the tent after he passed away. The hospital attendant is said to have tried to remove a ring from the corpse with his teeth.

The hospital attendant, who was put in quarantine, went missing from the camp on November 28 ,1903, and was never found.

Soon after the policeman’s death, there was an outbreak of plague in Srinagar on December 11, 1903. Five sudden deaths were reported in two houses in the Karfali Mohallah and Kralgund locality of Srinagar, all relatives of the policeman and his absconding brother, as they had visited the deceased policeman during his illness.

Four days later, two cases were found at Khanyar and Fateh Kadal, and both were relatives of the sick policemen and had visited the other sick at Karfali Mohallah.

The disease soon spread to Guru village in Awantipora and Kripalpora in Pattan, north Kashmir, as both villages had been visited by the infected relatives of the dead policeman. The disease only stopped in July 1904 after over eight months. It devoured thousands of human lives across the length and breadth of Kashmir.