Cambridge University Press Modern Asian Studies

Urban Development and Death: Bombay City, 1870-1914
Author(s): Ira Klein

Source: Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 20, No. 4 (1986), pp. 725-754
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/312631
Accessed: 19-04-2020 01:20 UTC
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms
Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Modern Asian Studies
This content downloaded from 52.172.200.163 on Sun, 19 Apr 2020 01:20:22 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Modern Asian Studies, 20, 4 (1986), pp. 725-754. Printed in Great Britain.
Urban
Urban Development
Developmentand
and
Death:
Death:
Bombay
Bombay City,
City,1870-19
1870-191414
IRA KLEIN
The American University, Washington, D.C.
I. Development, Class, and Death
HISTORIANS, statesmen, administrators, nationalists and others have

disagreed sharply about the impact of modernization in the era of
Western domination. Did Western rule provide the tools for Indian
progress but did economically medieval, 'other-worldly' Indians fail to
maximize the benefits of modernization and even thwart advances?'
Conversely, did Western imperialism systematically impoverish India
by making it a 'satellite,' freezing the subcontinent into a neo-feudal
social pattern while sucking up its wealth?2 Finally, is a 'new revisionist'
interpretation correct that India experienced real if undramatic
economic growth during the Western era and that notions of exploi-
tation or Indian suffering induced by development were myths?3
Interpretations expressing either the great success and benign innova-
tions of Western rule, or its exploitiveness both appear flawed, according
to Bombay's modernizing experience. Bombay underwent a great
expansion of wealth and became the source of India's new factory textile
The author appreciates fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities
and the Ford-Rockefeller Program on Population and Development Policy, which
facilitated work on this essay.
1 See, for example, L. C. A. Knowles, Economic Development of the British Overseas Empire
(3 vols, London, 1924-36), I, 351-2 and passim; Reginald Coupland, India: A Restatement
(London, I945), 52, 62 and passim.
2 For a synthesizing or 'world' view of the deleterious effects of 'development,' see
particularly Andre Gunder Frank, ' The Development of Underdevelopment,' Monthly
Review, XVIII, 4 (September 1966), 1 7-31; Thomas E. Weisskopf, 'Imperialism and the
Economic Development of The Third World,' The Capitalist System (Englewood Cliffs,
1978), 500-14. For a moderate, sophisticated version of the idea that Western
domination thwarted Indian development, see Bipin Chandra, 'Reinterpretation of
Nineteenth Century Indian Economic History,' Indian Economic and Social History Review,
V ( 968), 35-77.
3 See, for example, Michelle McAlpin, Subject to Famine (Princeton, 1983), 2 I -I 8 and
passim.
oo26-749X/86/o I 4-0309$05.oo 1986 Cambridge University Press.
725
726 IRA KLEIN
production,
production, the
the
hubhub
of aof
great
a great
network
network
of transport
of transport
and trade,
andandtrade,
the and the
cosmopolitan
cosmopolitan abode
abode
of wealthy
of wealthy
Indian
Indian
merchants,
merchants,
industrialists
industrialists
and and
professionals,
professionals, whose
whose
affluence,
affluence,
modernity,
modernity,
industrializing
industrializing
activities activities
and and
eventual
eventualnationalist
nationalist
orientation
orientation
distinguished
distinguished
them from
thema supine
from ora supine or
neo-feudal
neo-feudalcomprador
comprador class,
class,
cooperating
cooperating
with Western
with Western
masters inmasters in
exploiting
exploiting'natives'
'natives'
forfor
a myrmidon's
a myrmidon's
share of
share
the profits.
of the profits.
Alternatively,
Alternatively,
Bombay's
Bombay'sprosperity
prosperity did did
not not
flow flow
down down
to the to
masses;
the masses;
its modernization
its modernization
was
was complex,
complex, dynamically
dynamicallyhelping
helping
to produce
to produce
progressprogress
and wealth,
andbut
wealth, but
for
for some
somedecades
decadesimpoverishing
impoverishingand destroying
and destroying
many lives.
manyIn the
lives.
half-
In the half-
century
centuryofof rapid
rapid
development
developmentpreceding
preceding
the first
theworld
firstwar,
world
the war,
great the great
majority
majorityofof
Bombay's
Bombay's
populace,
populace,
its ordinary
its ordinary
working
working
classes, experi-
classes, experi-
enced
encedsignificant
significantdeclines
declines
in living
in living
standards,
standards,
worsening
worsening
environmental
environmental
conditions
conditionsand
andescalating
escalating
death-rates.
death-rates.
Diminished
Diminished
real income
realand
income and
increased
increasedmortality
mortality among
among
Bombay's
Bombay's
ordinary
ordinary
inhabitants
inhabitants
warn warn
against
againstextrapolating
extrapolatingfrom
from
rising
rising
indicesindices
of material
of material
production
production
an an
optimistic
optimisticconclusion
conclusion
about
about
the general
the general
humanhuman
condition
condition
in the city
in or
the city or
in British India.
Disease and mortality in late nineteenth-century Bombay help

establish a critical point in medical history, central to interpreting
imperialism and modernization. Rising and falling death-rates resulted
from identifiable variables; a purpose here has been to determine what
portion of Bombay's rising mortality was due to random 'acts of nature,'
such as lethal new strains of microbes, new socio-economic conditions,
especially the impact of modernization, or inextricable combinations of
natural and societal causes. Important variations in mortality were not
marks of an incomprehensible enigma, but historical research has done
little to provide systematically an explanation of mortality patterns. The
historical study of disease and society has been an underdeveloped field,
unlike the history of medicine. Among critical variables in death-rates
have been particularly virulent new microbes, suitable vectors, ecologi-
cal transformation, changes in human nutrition and living conditions,
health policies and hygiene, demography, and major social transitions,
such as the industrial revolution. There has been no quantitative
evaluation, however, of the comparative role of individual variables in
human mortality. Consequently, there has been no reliable message
from historians about the cost in human lives of imperialism and
development or, more broadly, about the effect of social decisions in
destroying or saving people.
Examination of Bombay's medical history shatters the illusion that
the city's death-rates reflected a random, enigmatic interaction between
unpredictable microbes, vectors and human disease-resistance. Impor-
URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND DEATH 727
tant
tant variations
variations
in death-rates
in death-rates
from I870 to the first
from world
I870
war were
to t
closely
closely related
related
to major to
changes
major
in material
changes
and environmental
in material
conditions,
conditions, althoughalthough
they were notthey
directly
were
proportional.
not directly
Certainly
'acts
'actsof nature'
of nature'
at times influenced
at times mortality
influenced
charts most
mortality
powerfully, c
notably
notablyduring
during
the famines
the of I877-78
famines and I896-I900
of I877-78
and the world
and I
influenza
influenzapandemic.
pandemic.
These were brief,
These unusual
wereoccurrences:
brief,India's
unus
worst
worstmodern
modern
famines and
famines
the most deady
and modern
the most epidemic.
deady
More
important,
important, variations
variations
between death-rates
between and living
death-rates
conditions illus-
and
trated
tratedthat that
major new
major
diseases
new
like plague
diseases
were synergistic
like plague
althoughwere
not
wholly
wholly independent
independent
variables; while
variables;
linked to social
whileconditions
linked
they t
multiplied
multiplied deaths deaths
disproportionately,
disproportionately,
devastating Bombay's inhabi-
devast
tants.
Modernization and development in late nineteenth-century Bomb

did not dispel major dangers to public health and, in fact, indu
culminating health ordeal which threatened the city's survival. We
development policies were anathematic to sound environmental
Since the Western rulers believed that laissez faire methods were most
efficient for development, they were not particularly concerned about

tremendous disparities in wealth, crowding or urban blight; in theory,
laissez faire development eventually would resolve economic problems
to the extent that resolution was possible. Bombay's leaders did not
conceive of the urban environment as a separate entity to be protected
for health, comfort or beauty; rather it was viewed as a resource for
development, disposable as a market commodity. Nor was it realize
that laissez faire economics and Indian culture combined to favor social
Darwinism and the emergence in modern urban India of sharp
economic divisions between new urban elites and impoverished hordes
of under-orders. Development, then, tended to perpetuate or extend
great inequalities of wealth, class and life-styles and to intensify blight
and crowding. The absence of urban planning promoted congestion and
environmental degeneration. Lack of good urban transport resulted in
immense overcrowding in the city's central wards. Equally deleterious,
misguided health policies sometimes furthered environmental ruin,
systematically expanding water supplies (in the mistaken belief that
most major diseases were water-borne) at the expense of eliminating
terrible slums or improving drainage. Bombay's commercial growth,
then, did not improve the quality of existence or material conditions of
the ordinary populace. Rather, it caused a great quantitative expansion
in the working class, incredible congestion and environmental contami-
nation. Diminished fatalities from cholera were outweighed by increases
in other maladies, such as malaria and tuberculosis, and by the
devastating advent of plague.
728 IRA KLEIN
Bombay's development and modernization included considerable

population growth, the emergence of 'two Bombays' of cosmopolitan
elites and congested masses, and an ecological transformation away
from a large but rustic mid-nineteenth-century town with thousands of
acres of paddy fields, coconut groves, civets, hyenas, tribes of wild
monkeys and jackals that bayed from Malabar Hill.4 Development was
stimulated by Bombay's position athwart main international and
Indian trade routes in an era of rapidly expanding world commerce, by
its possession of the only natural deep-water harbor on India's Arabian
Sea coast, and by the advent of railroads. The penetration of railways
beyond the Western ghats into the cotton rich Deccan in the I86os and
northwards to Gujarat's dairylands and entrepots multiplied commer-
cial exchange with Western India's hinterlands and helped triple the
city's international trade in a decade.5 Rapid economic growth was
accompanied by periodic orgies of entrepreneurial speculation and
overconfidence in capitalistic development, but it was associated also
with the emergence of the new metropolis. Amidst the cotton boom
stimulated by closure of Southern Confederate ports during the United
States Civil War, financial speculation founded scores of banks,
investment companies and shipping firms, many of which failed in a few
years. But the modern Indian textile industry took hold, and a modern
complex city of 'splendid buildings' and 'parks and palaces' began to
take shape. In an era of 'financial delirium' much wealth was used
creatively on urban improvements: the University library, the Victoria
and Albert Museum, schools of art, hospitals, the construction of great
avenues, sometimes out of once narrow roads, like the Esplanade,
Rampart Row, Hornby Road.6 Impressive reclamation works pushed
back the sea from Colaba to Malabar Hill, expanding the island's size
about twenty percent to 22 square miles, and land sales at the site of the
old fort walls (which were demolished) paid for adorning Bombay with a
new Secretariat, High Court, Post Office, Convocation Hall and other
'stately edifices of a great city.'7
Contrasting with the elegant metropolis, 'beautiful and rich,' was the
emergence of another, predominant Bombay, full of chawls, crowded,
insanitary, ill-ventilated slums, and filthy lanes, stables and godowns, a
city in which a vast proletariat was penned together and savaged by
4 S. M. Edwards, Gazetteer of Bombay City and Presidency (2 vols, Bombay, I909)

(hereafter Gazetteer), I, I20-I, I26-7.
5 Gazetteer, I, 514-20; II, Io-I , 161-2.
6 Census of India (hereafter CI), 1901, X, P 4, 135; Gazetteer, I, I26-7.
7 CI, X, P 4, I30, I35; Gazetteer, II, 173.
TABLE I
Population and Death-Rates in Bombay City
I Population II Death-Rates (per mille)
1872 644,405 I881-5 27.0

i88I 773,11 6 886-90 23.5
1891 821,764 1891-95 30.I
190I 776,006 1896-1900 65.4
19I 979,445 I901-05 64.1
1906-Io 40.9
Source: Bombay Municipal Reports (Bombay),

1872-191 I, passim.
disease. This Bombay, so dangerous to the heal

populace, resulted from the absence of urban plan
over decades of a huge, poor working-class popula
city's occupational opportunities. Bombay exer
magnetism on job-hungry migrants through th
despite its social drawbacks, intensified overcr
environmental decay, declining living standards an
The brief exception occurred when the onse
stimulated a great crisis of confidence and a mass
reduced Bombay's populace about fifteen perc
levels. As the plague conflagration spread (minim
for avoiding Bombay), and job opportunities rema
ily in the metropolis, migrants returned and
growth spurted upwards in the early twentieth ce
It was borne out statistically, then, that over the
growth in Bombay was not closely correlated with
mortality. Population expanded four times as rapid
of the twentieth century as in the relatively b
mortality-rates had soared by the I9oos to twice th
earlier.
Bombay's Victorian boom, which had produced new commerce and

industry, 'stately edifices and palaces,' avenues and parks, left much of
the city in environmental ruins. The population pressure induced by
job-seeking migrants crowding an unplanned city allowed huge profits
to be reaped in real estate and provided the stimulus for ravaging the
natural environment and transforming much of Bombay into a befouled
slum. Since there was no building code there was no real limit on how
IRA KLEIN
730
unsafe
unsafeandandinsanitary
insanitary
could
could
be a be
building
a building
or a quarter.
or a quarter.
By the late
By the late
nineteenth
nineteenthcentury,
century,
lower
lower
Colaba
Colaba
was 'thickly
was 'thickly
crowdedcrowded
and insani-
and insani-
tary.'8
tary.'8Market's
Market'shigh
high
death-rate
death-rate
was attributed
was attributed
to crowding
to crowding
and and
insanitation.
insanitation.InIn
Mandvi
Mandvi
buildings
buildings
werewere
piled piled
almostalmost
atop each
atop
other
each other
and
and streets
streetsbecame
became'narrow
'narrow
and and
overcrowded.'9
overcrowded.'9
Nowroji Nowroji
Hill wasHill was
'ruined
'ruinedbybyitsits
owner,'
owner,'whowho
jammed
jammed
together
together
buildings
buildings
withoutwithout
regard regard
for
for 'breadth
'breadthofof streets
streets
andand
ventilation.10
ventilation.10
Landlords
Landlords
tried totried
profittofrom
profit from
housing
housingshortages
shortages bybyadding
adding
stories
stories
to old,
toricketty
old, ricketty
buildings
buildings
'totally 'totally
unfit
unfitto
tobear
beartheir
their
weight.''l
weight.''l
Equally
Equally
dangerous,
dangerous,
'wretched
'wretched
rows of rows of
cadian
cadianhuts'
huts'were
wereconstructed
constructedonlyonly
a fewa inches
few inches
above the
above
'fetid
themud'
'fetid
of mud' of
the
the unhealthy
unhealthy flats,
flats,
once
once
a 'pestilential
a 'pestilential
swamp.'12
swamp.'12
CrowdingCrowding
and poorand poor
drainage
drainagepromoted
promoted insanitation
insanitation
through
through
the accumulation
the accumulation
of human of human
waste
wasteand
andanimal
animal
refuse
refuse
fromfrom
dairying,
dairying,
tanning
tanning
and other
andindustries
other industries
which
whichused
usedanimal
animal
products.
products.
Chakla
Chakla
was 'full
was of
'full
darkofand
dark
ill-ventilated
and ill-ventilated
milch-cattle
milch-cattlestables.13
stables.13
Bhuleswar
Bhuleswar
was the
was'indescribably
the 'indescribably
filthy quarter
filthy quarter
of
of the
themilk
milksellers.'14
sellers.'14
Chowpatty,
Chowpatty,
Girgaum
Girgaum
and other
and sections
other sections
were 'fullwere 'full
of
of cess
cesspools'
pools'oror
filthy
filthy
tanneries
tanneries
and 'horribly
and 'horribly
offensive'
offensive'
and 'unutterably
and 'unutterably
foul'
foul' charnal
charnalhouses.'5
houses.'5
Filth
Filth
accumulated
accumulated
'in heaps
'in ...
heaps
to a ...
height
to a of
height
2 of 2
feet,'
feet,'and
andexcrement
excrementlaylay
in the
in the
roadsroads
and soaked
and soaked
into the
into
ground.16
the ground.16
Spurring
Spurringenvironmental
environmentaldecay
decay
and disease,
and disease,
Bombay's
Bombay's
urbanization
urbanization
was
was badly
badlyimbalanced
imbalancedin wealth
in wealth
and numbers
and numbersbetween
between
the prosperous
the prosperous
and
and the
thepoor.
poor.
AA cosmopolitan,
cosmopolitan,varied
varied
but small
but small
band ofband
elitesofdominated
elites dominated
the
the city.
city.They
They used
used
Western
Western
ideas,ideas,
education,
education,
law or law
commerce
or commerce
as tools as tools
of
of advancement,
advancement, whether
whether
as Parsi
as Parsi
traders
traders
and industrialists,
and industrialists,
among theamong the
wealthiest
wealthiestinin
India,
India,
or or
Kshatriyas
Kshatriyas
or Bene
or Bene
Israelis,
Israelis,
advancing
advancing
from from
craftsmen
craftsmenand and
East
East
India
India
Company
Companyclerksclerks
to Western
to Western
doctors,doctors,
lawyers lawyers
or
or engineers,
engineers,oror
Brahman
Brahmanimmigrants,
immigrants,serving
serving
as police
as officers,
police officers,
lower lower
government
governmentofficials,
officials,
or professionals.17
or professionals.17
The Western-educated,
The Western-educated,
domi- domi-
nant
nant elites
eliteswere
werenumerically
numerically
minuscule,
minuscule,
however,
however,
providing
providing
a shadowya shadowy
suggestion
suggestiononly
only
of of
modern,
modern,middle
middle
class class
urbanization.
urbanization.
While nine-
While nine-
teenth-century
teenth-century urbanization
urbanization
in the
in West
the West
relatively
relatively
quicklyquickly
led to a led to a
major
majorexpansion
expansionin in
thethe
middle
middle
class,class,
or at or
least
at the
least
'respectable'
the 'respectable'
working working
class,
class,through
throughindustrialization,
industrialization,
the diffusion
the diffusion
of wealth
of wealth
and education,
and education,
and
and the
thegrowth
growthof of
technological,
technological,
service
service
and professional
and professional
specializations,
specializations,
Bombay's
Bombay'surbanization
urbanizationfeatured
featured
a greater
a greater
monopolization
monopolization
of wealth,
of wealth,
power
powerand
andeducation
education
by by
a few,
a few,
and the
andmultiplication
the multiplication
of lowlyofpaid,
lowly paid,
88 CI,
CI,I901,
I901,X,X,
P 4,
P 4,
135.
135.
9 Ibid.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
"l Ibid. 12 Ibid., 32, I34. 13 Ibid., I33.
14 Ibid., I33-5. 15 Ibid., I33. 16 Ibid.
17 Christine Dobbin, Urban Leadership and Western India (Oxford, 1972), 9-13, 44-7,
57-69, 98-I50; D. F. Karaka, History of the Parsees, 2 vols (London, I88I), 215-37,
passim; Gazetteer, I, 238; CI, I88I, VI, 40.
TABLE 2
Professions and Major Occupations in Bombay, i88i
I Western Professions II Major Occupations
Law
Barristers, Advocates 75 General laborers 73,498
Soliciters, Attorneys 72 Domestic servants 47,60
Pleaders 68 Spinners, Weavers 37,902
Medicine Seamen 19,260
Physicians, Surgeons 109 Clerks 8,221
Dentists 9 Carpenters,Joiners
Chemists, Druggists 327 and Sawyers 8,145
Tailors 7,245
Authors, Journalists, etc.
Editors, Authors 16
Reporters 3
Literary Administrators 3
Photographers 42
Teaching and Science
Professors and Teachers 488
Educational Administrators 47
Civil Engineers 84
Museum Administrators 8
Source: CI, I881, VI, I74-8.
unskilled and semi-skilled occupations. The laborin

expanded hugely without any qualitative upgrading throu
world war. Despite the notion of vakil-raj, the law profes
India's premier legal cities was tiny. Barristers, advocates
attorneys numbered only about I50. There were only
pleaders and vakils (see Table 2). Similarly, only one hund
oriented physicians and surgeons ministered to Bomb
comparison to four hundred vaids, hakims and other
practitioners. There were, by way of exotic contrast, ove
charmers but only nine dentists. Bombay had 'stately
palaces' but only nine architects. Socially, most inhabi
plain status: about half were ordinary Hindus; about tw
were Muslims, including many Muslim poor, about six
low-caste Hindus, while only six percent were Parsis,
community, six percent were Brahmans (many of whom
cants), and there were smaller communities of Native Ch
Lingaets, Black Africans, Buddhists, Jews, Eurasians and
18 CI, i88i, VI, 40.
IRA KLEIN
732
Demographically,
Demographically, then,
then,
Bombay
Bombay
overwhelmingly
overwhelmingly
was a city crowded
was a city crowd
by
by common,
common, ordinary
ordinary
people,
people,
and amidst
and the
amidst
city'sthe
extraordinary
city's extraordinar
housing
housing costs,
costs,
they
they
couldcould
only afford
only afford
a slum existence
a slum inexistence
teeming, in
brutal
teeming, bru
chawls.
Elites and masses alike mainly were immigrants, over seventy percent
of them; Bombay's urbanization particularly attracted a high propor-
tion of able-bodied males from Ratnagiri, Surat and Poona, but also
from Cutch and Kathiawar and as far away as Sind and Bengal. Since
Bombay workers were the highest paid in India, but the city was very
expensive, a standard strategy was to leave parents, young children and
even wives at home, and for the male worker to enter the labor market
with the hope of sending remittances to his family. Consequently, over
sixty percent of Bombay's inhabitants were males, and three-quarters
were between nine and fifty years old. The most ignorant, unskilled male
might catch on at the bottom levels of Bombay's economic life and earn
good wages by village standards as porter, messenger, digger or load
carrier. But the mecca of the new materialism often was cruel to the
physically inept or weak, who frequently lived a 'hand to mouth
existence,' and a day's wages, however menial, often was fought for wit
dog-like ferocity as docks, railway stations and godowns became harsh
economic battlegrounds for the poor.19
Commercial expansion, the tide of immigrant job-seekers, limite
space and poor transport made Bombay the most densely populated cit
in the world, where terrible crowding was a normal feature of ordinar
inhabitants' lives. Although Bombay was quite small it still h
abundant open space; but lack of public or cheap private transport or
projects for inexpensive suburban housing closed all the outer regions t
the masses, who were crammed together in Bombay's central ward
The geographic diffusion of population lagged far behind its numeric
increase. Some 37% of Bombay's people lived in less than four percent
the island's 22 square miles, and half the island-some of it st
'unreclaimed rice swamp'-had a density of less than eight per acre
Consequently, Bombay presented an unhealthy contrast, a green, lush
beautiful tropical park in some of its outer regions, while hundreds o
thousands were jammed into foul, airless slums in central city mazes,
which were 'crammed with men, women and children, for whom ther
was not sufficient . . accommodation.'20 Coolies and other lower strat
workers found 'the greatest difficulty in housing themselves,' often livi
in 'the most miserable and unwholesome lodgings.' The 'respectabl
19 Gazetteer, I, 2I3-20I CI,

4. I901, X, P 4, 134-
working
working class,class,
such as such
mill hands,
as mill
lived packed
hands,in chawls,
lived usually
packedwit
several
several families,
families,
or ten toor
fifteen
tenpeople,
to fifteen
domiciled people,
in one room,
domthe
possessions
possessions a few a
deal
fewboxes,
deal
blankets,
boxes,mats,blankets,
brass or earthmats
pots,
lamps,
lamps,a stool
a stool
and a trunk
and for
a trunk
clothing. for
In comparison
clothing.
with 'crowded
In com
Calcutta or London, crowding in Bombay was 'fearfully more
intense.'21 The greatest population per acre in any Calcutta ward was
208, and in more highly-built London it was 222. In Bombay population
per acre reached the extraordinary maximum of 759. A dozen sections of
Bombay were more densely populated than London's most packed
borough.
Overcrowding, environmental decay and poverty were underlying
causes of high death-rates among the ordinary population; but exposure
and vulnerability to disease were entirely different among Bombay's
elites and its masses. Death was class-oriented and struck very much in
proportion to status and earning power. The prosperous living on
Malabar Hill or in other elite residential areas experienced entirely
more favorable environmental conditions than did the denizens of
Bombay's chawls. They were less exposed to contagion, contamina
food and water, and to the befouled conditions that bred insect vectors
disease. Their 'pucca' houses resisted the incursions of rodents and ot
animal transmitters of infection. Amply fed, their bodies develo
major defenses against disease microbes, limiting susceptibilities
infection or enhancing chances of recovery if illness occurred.
contrast, malnutrition and environmental contamination took a majo
toll of the ordinary working classes and struck even more heavily at t
lowest orders. The pilgrimage of many hopeful migrants to the city of
ended fatally. Foul living conditions, poverty, absence of family life,
recourse to Bombay's numerous prostitutes all were conducive t
disease. The 'filthy dens' in which ordinary working people lived wer
according to census officials, among 'the chief causes of the very hig
death-rate.'22 They believed that Bombay's despoiled environment an
impacted water flows explained why 'two out of every three coolies' w
'carried off by disease.' Perhaps most important, Bombay's comm
people lived in 'poverty ... and ... misery' and on 'a starvation die
according to its health officers. Public health policy could not succee
fully without significant 'improvement in the material conditions of
people.' Otherwise the 'great number of poor people,' with their 'pun
constitutions,' would fall prey 'every three, four or five years' to 'so
disease' which would 'sweep off' the most vulnerable amongst them.2
21 Bombay Municipal Reports (Bombay) (hereafter BMR), 1885, 245.
22 CI, I90I, X. P 4, I34. 23 BMR, I875, I48-9.
IRA KLEIN
734
The differing impact of modernization was symptomized by extreme

variations in survival rates by socio-economic class. Mortality among
the prosperous European and Parsi elites, who maintained a high
quality of existence, often was less than half that of ordinary Hindus and
Muslims, while low-caste Hindus and black Africans, for example,
suffered death-rates that were multiples of those of elite communities.
Sometimes mortality was affected by cultural patterns. The prosperous
Jains had a high vulnerability to disease, for example, because religious
beliefs forbade them from taking measures against animal vectors and
because business commitments frequently led them to reside in the most
crowded, contaminated commercial parts of town. More usually,
differentials in death-rates could be traced directly to the effect of
material and environmental factors by class. A great and disproportio-
nate increase of mortality among the lower classes occurred particularly
during periods of distress. During the Western Indian famine of 1877
Bombay's recorded death-rate moved upward to about 40 per mille but
mortality among the poorer classes surpassed 94 per mille. Differentials
in mortality were noteworthy between the relatively 'normal' decade,
1886-95 and the crisis-ridden half-dozen years of plague and Western
Indian famine, 1896-1901. Sharp distinctions occurred in both the rate
at which the prosperous and poor perished and in the degree to which a
disease crisis ravaged primarily the lower orders, whose death-rates
already were much greater than those of elites but which were elevated
in troubled times by much higher ratios. While European mortality was
constant in 1896-1901 in relation to the more benign period 1886-95,
and while Parsi death-rates increased about fifty percent in the crisis era,
fatality-rates among ordinary and low-caste Hindus almost tripled-
from a much higher base. Even more telling was mortality by class in
1900, the city's deadliest year recorded to that time; class distinctions in
death showed how heavily the burden of distress was borne by the
ordinary working-class poor. European death-rates rose by forty
percent, ordinary Hindu mortality-rates more than tripled and low-
caste Hindus perished five times more numerously than in the more
benign era. Comparing directly fatalities among the elites and the poor,
more than one in five lowly Hindus died, a rate over 200 per mille, and
their death-rates were eight times those of Europeans. Mortality-rates
among low-caste Hindus in I900 were multiples of ten or more those in
the European community for most key diseases (see Table 3).
Perhaps most striking was that the lethal new killer, plague, did not
destroy its victims indiscriminately because of its virulent, unfamiliar
microbe against which few Bombay residents had acquired immunities.
TABLE 3
I Death-Rates by Class or Community (per mille)
1877 I886-95 I896-I90I I9oo

Europeans 30.5 19.5 19 27
Parsis 23 22.5 33.5 38
Brahmans - 23.5 46 51
Ordinary Hindus 56 27 70 97
Low-caste Hindus 94 4I 118.5 215
II Main Causes of Death, Igoo (per mille)
Plague 16.2
Respiratory Diseases 15.2
Tuberculosis o
Fevers (including malaria) 9.6
Diarrhoea 7.1
Cholera 5.2
Small-Pox 3.7
Dysentery 3.5
III Death-Rates by Class or Community from Selec
Tuberculosis Fevers Cholera Small-Pox Plague

Europeans 0.7 i.8 1.4 1.4 i.o
Parsis 2.4 3.3 1.3 o.8 3.9
Brahmans 7.0 6.1 1.8 i.6 13.0
Ordinary Hindus 8.4 Io.I 6.5 4.1 20.0
Low-caste Hindus I2.3 22.2 14.0 9.6 22.2
Source: BMR, 1877, I886-I90o, passim.
Rather, the bubonic scourge was as responsive to

environmental conditions as older diseases like m
and as such inveterate visitations upon overcrowded
people as tuberculosis.
II. 'Water, Water Everywhere': The Inadequacy of Health

Policies
High mortality also resulted from incomplete, unwise pub

policies, in which city solons ignored the importunings
authorities for better housing, nutrition, sanitation and drain
concentrated on a few elements only of good health measures,
particularly the water supply. Into the i86os Bombay's water was
736 IRA KLEIN
contaminated, dangerous and often inadequate. After a light monsoon,

water shortages forced thirsty inhabitants to 'descend into the tanks and
the Fort Ditch to scoop up a semi-liquid mud, which was transferred into
a pitcher after being passed through a dirty cloth.'24 Thus 'thousands of
people were ... forced to drink a liquid which could only be regarded as
sewage.' When the supply was more plentiful it was almost as vile, and
also was characterized as 'liquid sewage' and 'abominably impure.'25
The supply was obtained from wells, averaging a depth of about thirty feet; also
from large tanks, in which men and animals bathed, and clothes were washed..
. . No system of conservancy prevailed, and night soil was infrequently and
irregularly removed. There was no proper drainage. An immense population
was closely huddled together .... Hills half enclosed the city and turned the
natural drainage towards the houses. The conditions of an impure water supply
were ... abundantly fulfilled by the insanitary surroundings.... Liquid sewage
formed no insignificant constituent of much of the drinking water.26
In short, amidst poor drainage the liquid and other waste of the
world's most densely populated urban locale seeped into the soil and
contaminated water sources. Impure water, soil pollution and poverty
lay behind the destruction of lives by cholera and other water-borne
diseases. Cholera was one of Bombay's major killers through the mid-
i86os, sweeping away over fifteen thousand lives in I860-65.
The expansion and improvement of Bombay's water supply was one
of the municipality's great accomplishments. It was fulfilled only over
decades and in several stages. Reservoirs, pumping stations, public taps
and storage tanks were built, but the supply often proved inadequate or
impure and new systems were created. Although public health officers
wanted a broader based campaign to contain disease and for 'improving
the material condition of the people,' the Corporation concentrated on
expanding the water supply as a necessity for increasing Bombay's
commercial activities and population and because the improvement did
not require social change, as would have income redistribution, slum
clearance or improving the nutrition of the poor. It was conceived
optimistically that an improved water supply would contain many
diseases, later found not to be water borne. Before the twentieth century
Bombay had a 'magnificent' water supply which, unfortunately,
endangered health due to water-logging.
Modernization of the water supply began with the creation of the
Vehar system. Full supply of Vehar water in the mid-i86os was
accompanied by a dramatic drop in cholera mortality, which was partly
24 CI, I90I, X. P 4, I33. 25 BMR, I874, I20; CI, I90I, X, P 4, I33.
26 BMR, 1874, 60, I21.
URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND DEATH
737
fortuitous
fortuitousas Indian Medical
as Indian
Service authorities
Medical recognized.
Service
The fall authorit
from
fromalmostalmost
five thousandfive
cholera deaths
thousand
in I864 to only
cholera
about threedeaths in I8
hundred
hundredtwo yearstwo
later, and
years
the general
later,
decline of
and
cholerathe
deathsgeneral
from decline
the
themid-i86os
mid-i86os
were helped bywere
a better water
helped system,by
but Vehar
a better
water water sy
was
wasnot anot
complete
a panacea.
completeUnlike Calcutta's
panacea.modern supply,
Unlike it was Calcutta's
unfiltered
unfilteredand 'so loaded
andwith 'so
vegetable
loaded
debris and with
. . . albuminoid
vegetable deb
ammonia
ammonia that it could
thatscarcely
itbecould
regarded asscarcely
... fit to be supplied
be toregarded a
any
anylargelarge
city'.27 Impurities
city'.27 were 'yearly
Impurities
replenished bywere
fresh debris
'yearly reple
washed
washeddown from
down the hills.'
fromThe city'sthe
health hills.'
officer, T. The
S. Weir, city's hea
deemed
deemedfiltration
filtration
essential to preventessential
disease, but theto
Corporation
prevent disea
delayed
delayed action because
action of expense.
because
More serious
ofdefilement
expense. occurredMore
at serious
the
the otherother
end of theendsystem,of the public
thetaps system,
or 'wells,' where
the userspublic
so taps or
contaminated
contaminated the supply that theoftensupply
it became 'absolutely
that poisonous.'28
often it became '
Since
Since relatively
relatively
safe water was supposed
safe to water
contain three
was grains
supposed
or less to con
per
per gallongallon
of solids, 0.7
of or less
solids,
of chlorine
0.7
gas, or
and no
less
more than
of o.chlorine
I5 gas,
parts
parts per million
perofmillion
ammonia, water-checks
of ammonia,
showed that most water-checks
Bombay sh
water in the late I87os and early I88os was contaminated and
dangerous (see Table 4). The partial exception was Vehar water from
pipes and taps, which usually was close to safety standards. This water
was the rarest in Bombay. More commonly, Vehar water was available
through dipping wells, into which streamed waste water and 'sewage'
through pavement and 'choked and broken' drains. Overuse made
pollution virtually inevitable. The Railway Station well was clocked as
having 2,665 persons dipping vessels into it in twelve hours on aJanuary
day in I877. Ordinary, too, was the situation at the Pydhonee well:
Great numbers drew water from this well ... and an immense number of dirty
pots and buckets are dipped into the water; and as the well is open at the top,
and as there are people constantly bathing and washing clothes at its edge, the
water must soon become very foul. And looking at the open condition of the
well, and to the system of drawing water, little else can be expected.29
The well tested as having 'a most dangerous water, totally unfit for
human consumption.'
Urban development, industrial, commercial and population growth
escalated the demand for water. Vehar never provided as much as had
been hoped. The Bombay Corporation made further plans and in the
I87os into the hills of death advanced engineers, masons and coolies, to
Tulsi, an excellent catchment area with a bad reputation for 'fever and
death.'30 Contractors had 'the greatest difficulty in keeping together the
27 BMR, I875, I43. 28 Ibid., I45. 29 Ibid.
30 India Office Library and Records, 'The Water Supply of Bombay,' I9; BMR
1879, 255.
738 IRA KLEIN
TABLE
TABLE4 4
Comparative
ComparativeWater PollutionWater
(Jan.-Sept. I877)
Po
Grains
Grainsper Gallon
per
Parts per
G
Solids Chlorine Free Albuminoid

Source Ammonia Ammonia
Kuccha
Kuccha
well, Chinch Bunder well, Chinch 0.90 Bunde
0.70
Vehar
Vehar
water, Port Trust Pipe,
water,
Carnac Bunder Port0.005Trust
0.14 Pi
Vehar
Vehar
water, native craft water,
supply pipe native
trace craft s
Vehar
Vehar
water, office pipe water, office trace pipe
0. II
Vehar
Vehar
water, dipping well,water,
Musjid dipping well,
Bunder
Bunder
Railway Station 6.3 1.2
Railway Station
o.I9
0.19
0.19 II 0.32
Vehar
Veharwater, office pipe water, office o.8 o.I6
pipe
Vehar
Veharwater, dipping well,water,
Lohar chawl 6.o dipping
0.7 0.05 0.25 well,
Vehar
Cavel St. 6.5 dipping
0.9 0.25 well,
Vehar
Chinchpooghly dipping well,
Hill o.8 0.01 0.46
Well, Municipal Workshops 43.4 6.o 0.21 0.35
Well, Narayen Wassoodeo's Wadi 84.0 I0.2 0.09 o.og
0.09
Well, KessowjeeJadowjee's Oart 6i.6 13.5 0.05 0.12
Well, Girgaum Back Road I4.2 0.17 0.13
Well, Colbhat Lane 58.8 io.2 0.35 0.20
Well, Antoba Gosavie's Oart 44.8 5.5 0.10 0.20
Jail well I3.3 i.6 o.o8 o. 17

Well, Anundrao Basker's Oart II7.6 21.I 0.07 0.12
Well, Churney Wadi Lane 0.50 0.22
Well, Malabar Hill 30.8 6.5 o.o8

0.08 0.22
Vehar water, office pipe 7.8 0.9 0.i6

Vehar cistern, Pydhonee 9.0 o.8 0.03 0.21
Vehar dipping well, Narel Wady 6.3 1.0 0.03 0.29

Well, Chewulwady 58.1 9.7 0.03 0.09
Well, Eduljee Nusserwanjee's Oart 88.2 i6.o 0.09
Vehar water, Laboratory tap 0.9 o.oi
0.08
trace O.15
0.11
trace 0.10
Well, 3rd Marine Lane 0.I4 0.15
Source: BMR, 1877, i87-90.
smallest staff' and 'workmen frequently decamped,' except in th

least malarial few months.31 Nonetheless, dams, weir, outlet to
pipes were completed by 1879, and Tulsi water began to be pum
Bombay. When it first arrived, city residents found it 'absolutel
and was 'dirty green . . . loaded with vegetable matter, in
masses in suspension . . . emitting a sickening . . . odour.' Its
pollution' reached the 'enormous' level of o.75 parts per million
31 BMR, 1879, 256.
albuminoid
albuminoid ammonia,ammonia,
and 'many would
and not 'many
drink it.' Filtering
wouldbeds not dr
were
werebuiltbuilt
at the new
at Malabar
the newHills reservoir,
Malabar and Hills
partial filtration
reservoir,
reduced
reduced contamination
contamination
to a 'dangerously
tohigh'
a 'dangerously
level, a third of what
high'
it lev
had
had been.
been.
Pollution
Pollution
occurred periodically
occurred from 'exhaustion
periodically
of the from
supply
supply in the
inlake.'32
the lake.'32
Water
Water shortages
shortages
and, subsidiarily,
and, higher
subsidiarily,
fatalities from higher
water-bornefatalit
diseases
diseases amongamong
Vehar or Tulsi
Veharwater or
usersTulsi
than those
waterwho drank
users
'dilute
than th
sewage'
sewage' from from
wells and wells
tanks, led
and
to plans
tanks,
for an immense
led towater
plansworksfor
at an i
Tansa,
Tansa, to more
to than
more double
than
Bombay's
double
supply of
Bombay's
fifteen million
supply
gallons of f
per
perdayday
and provide
and 'inexhaustible'
provide 'inexhaustible'
water resources. A tribute
water
to theresou
effectiveness
effectivenessof Bombay's
of water
Bombay's
system waswater
the limited
system
number ofwas t
cholera
cholerafatalities
fatalities
in the late nineteenth
in the lateand early
nineteenth
twentieth centuries.
and early
The
The disease
disease
was relatively
was unimportant,
relatively causing
unimportant,
less than one percent
causing
of l
Bombay
Bombay mortality,
mortality,
except when except
drought induced
when famine,
drought
increasinginduc
susceptibilities
susceptibilitiesto cholera,to
while
cholera,
lowering the
while
quality lowering
and quantity ofthe q
water
watersupplies
supplies
(see Table (see
5). Table 5).
The
The Tansa
Tansa
project project
was the capstone
wasoftheBombay's
capstone
modern water
of Bomb
system
systemand health
and improvement
health improvement
plans. Sir William Hunter,
plans.
a contem-
Sir William
porary
poraryauthority,
authority,
called the Tansa
called
worksthethe 'most
Tansa
important
works undertak-
the 'mos
ing
ingof the
of period,'
the period,'
a 'magnificent
a project.'33
'magnificent
The Viceroy,
project.'3
Lord
Lansdowne,
Lansdowne,proclaimed
proclaimed
the 'magnitude the
of the'magnitude
achievement' in the
of the
opening
opening ceremony
ceremony
in 1892, but in
Tansa
1892,
came tobut
be viewed
Tansa
by leading
came to
health
health officials
officials
as a monument
as aofmonument
doom. Through the
of success
doom. of theThrough
huge
Tansa
Tansa works
works
'Bombay 'Bombay
was flooded bywasan enormous
flooded increase
byofanthe enor
water-supply'.34
water-supply'.34 Horrified atHorrified
the impact of Tansa
at the
water,impact
the chief of T
health
health officer,
officer,
Weir, noted
Weir,
that there
noted
was an that
'enormous
there
quantity
was
of an
water-some
water-some five or six
fivemillion
orgallons
six million
of water daily'
gallons
which city
of wat
drainage
drainage was 'unable
wasto'unable
remove.' Bombay
to remove.'
was steeped in
Bombay
water because
was stee
'more
'morethanthan
half thehalf
island' the
had noisland'
drains. Measures
had were
no drains.
urgently Me
needed
needed to preserve
to preserve
'the life of a'the
healthy
life
population.'
of a healthy populati
There
There are districts
are districts
which have no
which
drains onhave
which 60
no gallons
drainsof water
ontowhich
each 60
inhabitant
inhabitantare poured
are daily.
poured
The result
daily.
is pollution
The andresult
unwholesomeness.
is pollution
Districts
Districtssuch assuch
Malabaras
HillMalabar
and Worli, which
Hill have
and natural
Worli,
drainage,
which
may be have n
saved
savedfor some
for time;
somebut there
time; will but
surelythere
come a time
will
when
surely
the population
come of a tim
each
eachdistrict
district
will not be
will
able not
to live be
in health.
ableThetopopulation
live inin health.
the new The
undrained
undrained districts
districts
may be said to
maybe living
be insaid
pools to
of sewage.35
be living in pools o
Weir
Weir warned
warned
that unless
that
drainsunless
were 'constructed
drains ... were
rapidly' then
'constructed
'few
of
of thethe
present
present
generation'generation'
would live to see the
would
systemlive
completed.
to see the s
Bombay's
Bombay's crisis in
crisis
water and
inwaste
waterremoval
andcompounded
waste the
remov
32
32 Ibid.,
Ibid.,
276. 33276.
Gazetteer,
33 Gazetteer,
II, 183. II, 183.
34 Ibid. 35 BMR, I892, 383.
740 IRA KLEIN
I'ABLE 5
Bombay City Cholera Mortality, I8gI-igio
rear No. of Fatalities Decennial Avg. Deathsper Mille Decennial Avg.
1891 I64 0.20

1892 169 0.2I
1893 I47 o.i8
I894 426 0.52
1895 90 723 o. I 0.89
1896 490 0.69
1897 1,265 1.54
1898 104 0.I2
1899 III 0.I3
1900 4,273 5.19
1901 198 0.25
1902 79 0.09
1903 17 0.02
I904 219 0.28
I905 26 314 0.03 0.35
1906 1,241 1.26
I907 439 0.44
1908 95 0.09
I909 727 0.74
1910 107 O. IO
Source: BMR, I891-1910,
degenerative impact
Modernizing policies
and typhoid, but comm
life-support system. B
and there still were sw
inches of rain a year
rampant, imbalanced
Bombay sloped mainly
water had escaped th
problems, h but during
as Byculla. When the g
flooding, an attempt w
Worli sluices, but these
hill gap as 'pinholes
Bombay, the swampy
and irregularly' unle
drains, only about on
condition. They were '
to
tokeep
keep
. . . clean.'36
. . .Most
clean.'36
drains were Most
so broken drains
and decayed were
they so bro
merely
merely carried carried
waste for short
waste
distancesfor
and spewed
shortit outdistances
again. When and spew
paste
pasteand mud
and weremud
scraped were
away theyscraped
were revealedaway
in their 'fearful
they were reve
condition'
condition'and 'rottenness'
and as 'rottenness'
'mere trenches, water-courses
as 'mere or sinks.'37
trenches, wat
The
Thecity's
city's
sewers, moreover,
sewers, were moreover,
'faulty and antiquated.'
were Bad drainage
'faulty and ant
threatened
threatened health partly
health
because itpartly
encouraged because
permeation ofit disease
encouraged
microbes into the soil and contamination of water sources, but also
because the water-logged flats had 'most of the conditions ... believed to
favour... malaria,' as did the suburban wetlands, where irrigated crops
were cultivated. A massive population, packed into the central city,
then, was flooded by water and almost ringed by terrain highly
favorable for producing malaria.
Bombay's population growth and expansion into the swampiest, most
dangerous, undrained parts of the island, inumerable new buildings for
which the city 'failed to construct ... main lines of drainage,' and the
collapse of old drainage channels all promoted diseases and, eventually,
sanitary reform.38 A score of plans by engineers and others gradually
pinpointed some main requirements: to abandon the main depot for
human excrement at Cinch Bunder and to create another system; to
construct effective sewers and drains; to stop polluting Bombay's
magnificent harbor; to puddle Hornby Vellade. Rival models for reform
generated almost as much intellectual conflict as did major questions of
empire or war. Bombay's crowding, poor multitudes, bad housing and
tropical environment made complex such questions as sanitation and
drainage. The issue seems extraordinarily dry of how large should be
new sewers, but it aroused the passions of engineers and hydraulic
experts. Sewers built to handle monsoon inundations needed to be forty
times larger than simple waste-water sewers, but during the dry months
sewage pouring into these gargantuan pipes would 'scarcely flow.'39 It
seemed convenient and advantageous for soil fertility to pump waste to
outlying sewage farms, except that water-logging was feared that might
cloud the city with malarial poisons from new marshes. Modernization
implied introducing toilets and water flushing to remove human waste,
but cautious realists thought the method too technologically innovative,
expensive and dangerous for Bombay's vast number of ricketty slum
houses.40
36BMR, 1874, 126.
37 BMR, I877, 175; BMR, I879, 278.
38 BMR, 1877, 176; India Office Library and Records, 'Report on the Drainage and
Sewerage of Bombay,' 2-I6 and passim.
39 BMR, I874, 129.
40 Report of the Special Committee on The Drainage of Bombay (Bombay, I878), 8.
742 IRA KLEIN
Modernizing
Modernizingplans
plansadopted
adoptedbyby
the
the
Corporation
Corporation
by by
thethe
latelate
I87os
I87os
for for
removing
removing waste
wasteand
andexcess
excesswater
waterwere
weretootoo
limited
limited
andand
too too
muchmuch
hampered
hampered by
byBombay's
Bombay'secology
ecology
and
and
terrible
terrible
human
human
living
living
conditions
conditions
to to
halt
halt environmental
environmentalpollution
pollutionand
and
decay.
decay.
Crammed,
Crammed,
jammed,
jammed,
crum-
crum-
bling
bling houses,
houses,long
longfilthy
filthyalleys
alleys
and
and
streets
streets
sometimes
sometimes
too too
narrow
narrow
for for
animals
animals or
or machinery
machinerymade
madeconstruction
constructionor or
improvement
improvement
a loathsome
a loathsome
nightmare,
nightmare,too
toofoul
fouleven
evenfor
forhardened
hardened
laborers,
laborers,
or technologically
or technologically
impossible.
impossible. According
AccordingtotoWeir:
Weir:
The
The work
work was
wasfoul
foultotothe
thelast
last
degree,
degree, thethewalls
walls
of the
of the houses
houses
on either
on either
side side
beingbeing
besmirched
besmirchedwithwithnight-soil
night-soiland andfilth
filth
... ...
thethenight-soil
night-soil baskets
baskets
exuding
exuding
filthfilth
and and
liquid
liquid foeces
foeceswhich
whichtrickled
trickleddowndown the
thewalls,
walls,
on onthethe paving,
paving,
dirty
dirty
and and
greasygreasy
water
water coursing
coursingdown
downthe thewalls
walls
from
from holes
holes
communicating
communicating withwith
nahanis
nahanis
and and
cook-rooms,
cook-rooms,and andthe
thesoil
soilsaturated
saturated with
with sewage
sewage ... So
... disgusting
So disgusting
was was
the work..
the work..
. that
that Contractors
Contractorsfound
foundthe the
greatest
greatest difficulty
difficulty in obtaining
in obtainingworkmen
workmen... Some
... Some
men
men onon first
firstcommencing
commencingcould could notnot
onon account
account of the
of the
stench
stench
and and
sickening
sickening
sights
sights remain
remainin
inthe
thepassages
passagesfor
for
more
more
than
than
short
short
periods..
periods..
The The
difficulties
difficulties
were
were increased
increasedbybythe
theresidents'
residents'
habit
habit
of of
casting
casting
dirty
dirty
water
water
out out
of windows
of windows
... ...
and
and their
their still
stillmore
morefilthy
filthypractice
practice
of of
throwing
throwingintointo
the the
passages
passages
night-soil
night-soil
imperfectly
imperfectlywrapped
wrappedininleaves
leaves
oror
paper.41
paper.41
Narrow
Narrow passageways
passagewaysa acouple
coupleofoffeet
feetwide
wide
butbut
sometimes
sometimesfivefive
hundred
hundred
feet
feet long
long often
oftenwere
werethe
theonly
only
access
accessto to
houses,
houses,
which
whichobtained
obtained
ventilation
ventilation
'solely
'solely from
fromthese
theseloathsome
loathsome alleys.'
alleys.'Buildings
Buildings
were
were
constructed
constructed
on 'the
on 'the
slightest
slightest foundation'
foundation'oror'without
'without foundation'
foundation' so that
so that
pavement
pavement
excava-
excava-
tions
tions for
for drains
drainscaused
causedthem
them totocrumble.
crumble. Typically,
Typically,
thethe
Nagpada
Nagpada
draindrain
could
could not
not be
becleaned
cleanedororfixed
fixed
where
where houses
housesexisted;
existed;
'fearing
'fearing
to injure
to injure
their
their walls,'
walls,'the
theworkmen
workmenhad had'to'to
cease.'42
cease.'42
Bombay
Bombay uselessly
uselessly
obtained
obtained
drains
drains glowingly
glowinglyclean
cleanand
andwater-tight
water-tight in in
some
some
sections,
sections,
but but
clogged
clogged
or or
broken
broken elsewhere,
elsewhere,dribbling
dribblingtheir
their
contents
contents
onto
onto
thethe
ground
ground
and and
into into
the the
sub-soil.
Bombay remained a city of cesspools, eighteen hundred of them

polluting the sub-soil, and the population which spread thickly across
the island in the I88os lived increasingly in its own sewage. There was
'sewage trickling over and oozing from shallow trenches and ... sewage.
.. overflowing during rain from cesspools, polluting ... floors and soil.'43
In places were hollows 'the size of the Corporation Hall,' that were
'covered with fluid filth.' There were through much of the city 'great
sewage pools oozing . .. eastwards.'44 Population in Parel, Sewri and
other newly inhabited northern wards grew beyond the capacity of
'small cesspools' to service, and they regularly overflowed, leaving
'surface collections of sewage polluting the atmosphere.'45 In the
41 BMR, I882, 275. 42 BMR, I892, 383. 43 BMR, 1888, 340-I.
44 BMR, I888, 340 45 Ibid., 355.
century's
century'slast decade
last a growing
decade sewer
a growing
network in central
sewer Bombay
network
had in
little
littleutility.
utility.
There wasThere
a 'want ofwas
houseaconnections
'want of to conduct
house theconne
sewage
sewage into the
into
pipes,'
the and pipes,'
many new and
homes many
and 'manynewprivies'homes
were an
constructed
constructed 'unconnected
'unconnected
with the sewer pipes.'
with Frugal
the policies
sewer whichpipes.
delayed
delayed building
building
better branchbetter
sewers made
branch
the newsewers
mains partlymade t
useless.
useless. The new
Themains
new weremains
designed to
were
carry sewage
designed
only, thetooldcarry
branches
branchesto carrytostorm
carrywater.storm
During the
water.
rains, theDuring
new mains had
the to rains,
be
bedisconnected
disconnected
from the old
from
branches,
the immobilizing
old branches,
most of the immobilizi
system
and
andcausing
causing
the flatsthe
to be flats
inundated
towith
besewage.
inundated with sewage
Human
Human 'improvements'
'improvements'
to allow urban expansion
to allow resulted
urbanin serious
expansion
environmental
environmental disruptions,
disruptions,
with major diseasewith
implications.
majorSoon disease
after im
the
theintroduction
introductionof Tansa water,
of giving
Tansa Bombay
water,
'inexhaustible'
giving Bom
supplies,
supplies,strange,
strange,
disquieting changes
disquieting
were notedchanges
in the natural
were
environment.
environment. The city'sThe
botanycity's
seemed undergoing
botanya seemed
transformation.
undergoin
'In
'InParel,'
Parel,'
it was observed,
it was 'low-lying
observed, grounds,
'low-lying
which were formerly
grounds,
... wh
dry'
dry' werewere
'covered'covered
with grass.'46with
Near the
grass.'46
chawls, thereNear
was ground
the'aschawls
wet
wet as rice
as fields
riceinfields
the monsoon-ground
in the monsoon-ground
in which water lies all day, in wh
and
and on which
on whichvegetablesvegetables
are grown.' Closeare
observation
grown.'of underground
Close observa
water
water flowsflows
providedprovided
the reason, 'the
the
saturation
reason,
of the 'the
subsoil.'47
saturatio
In
many
many tankstanks
as soon as as
subsoil
soon water
as was
subsoil
pumped out,
water
fresh water
was could
pumped
be
beseen
seen
'welling
'welling
up.' In someup.'placesIn
as at
some
the Khandia
places
Streetas
tank,
at 'the
the Khan
subsoil
subsoilwaterwater
... at high...
. . .at
tide'
high
rose 'through
. . . tide'
the metal
rose
of the
'through
street.' th
The
Theheavy
heavy
monsoon monsoon
rains of 1896 rains
brought the
of water-logging
1896 brought problem to
the wat
general
generalattention.
attention.
The Times ofThe India Times
gave a 'sombre
of picture
Indiaofgavethe floods
a 'somb
around
around the island.'
the The island.'
newspaper Thecommented
newspaper
also on thecommented
'vast mass of also
mud
mudthatthat
lay putrifying
lay putrifying
as the water subsided.'48
as the There
water
was public
subsided
comment
comment also about
alsohowabout
'all the ...how
vacant 'all
land north
the ofByculla
... vacant
... lan
looked
looked... like
...pools
likeof water.'
pools Theof
city's
water.'
sub-soil was
The'so saturated
city's with
sub-soil w
water
water fromfrom
an overabundant
an overabundant
. . . water-supply' that
. . 'downward
. water-sup
percolation was . . . hindered,' and the combination of sub-soil
saturation, bad drainage and heavy monsoon had caused the inunda-
tion of the surface ground. Bombay had been built largely on swamp
land and inundation from its 'inexhaustible' modern water supplies
threatened to revive swamp conditions.
III. The Health Crisis, Ecology and Economics
Near the end of the nineteenth century, in the same year that the Times
of India gave a 'sombre picture' of Bombay's flooding and saturated sub-
46 BMR, 1894, 525 47 BMR, i895, 579-80. 48 BMR, 1896, 629.
744 IRA KLEIN
TABLE 6
Bombay Plague Mortality i896-igo1
Year Deaths Rate per Mille Year Deaths Rate per Mille
1896 1,936 2.6 1904 13,388 17.4

1897 I I,003 13.4 I905 I 4,198 I8.3
1898 18,185 22.I I906 10,823 I I.I
I899 15,796 19.2 1907 6,389 6.5
1900 13,285 I6.2 I908 5,361 5.5
I9OI 18,736 24.I 1909 5,197 5.3
I902 13,820 I7.8 191O 3,656 3.7
I903 20,788 26.8
Total Deaths: 172,511

Average Plague Death-Rate: I4.7 per mille
Source: BMR, 1896-19 o, passim.
soil, the metropolis was stricken by the advent of a great

epidemic, which became its leading cause of death for two d
Although not the only cause of Bombay's increased death-rates f
late I89os to the first world war, plague contributed significantl
health crisis (see Table 6).
Stimulating panic and flight, which denuded the city of
portion of its population in the late I89os and threatened i
complete collapse, plague seemed a grim fulfilment of health of
jeremiads that without improved sanitation and drainage 'fe
present generation would survive.' The epidemic seemed to veri
that Bombay's ordinary populace 'living in poverty and want,' a
'starvation diet,' would 'fall prey every few years' to some great
Plague's devastation of Bombay had three possible underlyin
environmental, relating to insanitation, water-logging and othe
poiling of the island's natural habitat; economic, linked direc
low living standards and malnutrition; and medical-epidemi
including the microbe's lethality, the suitability of vectors, and
susceptibilities and immunities.
The modern plague pandemic exacted almost all of its fatalitie
India: ninety-five percent of them.49 The advanced West hardly
an evanescent touch of the bubonic scourge, and even 'har
countries, like China, Australia and Indonesia, were afflict
lightly in relation to India, or in comparison to earlier plague pa
or major epidemics of other diseases. Plague flourished in B
49 L. F. Hirst, The Conquest of Plague (London, I953), 300.
India and elsewhere, certainly, only under favo

tions. Plague epidemics could not be sustained
transmission; they required suitably susceptible
flea vectors and endemic sylvan plague locales
smouldered and epidemics were regenerated
favorable plague ecology, particularly in its horde
black rats and their dangerous companions, Xenop
deadly species of rat fleas for plague transmi
Bombay, which favored heavy concentrations
account for the much greater plague toll the
presidency metropoli, Calcutta and Matras: Ca
plague by 19IO, a third as many as Bombay, a
death-rate was comparably lower, 5.2 per mill
were negligible.50 But the ecology of Bombay
haunts was no more favorable to bubonic depreda
of many world locales almost untouched by th
plague bacilli were imported from Hong Kong or
in summer I896, the circulation of plague bacil
globe didn't explain the unusual severity of B
Indigenous conditions explained plague's greater
than in any non-Indian urban locale.
Environmental decay encouraged the dissemi
tion of plague in Bombay; and it hardly was coin
ravages occurred when environmental degeneratio
Black rats, the city's main rodent victims, for ex
more disease-prone in dank, moist condition
susceptible to infection, and grain and other of t
moulder in wet environs. Bombay's water-logging,
of water and sewage, its heavy monsoon rains, its
systems, implacably pumping in fluid that inunda
stores mouldering in wet godowns or in open pla
mud and filth made Bombay's rodent denizens m
and intensified if they did not initiate plague epi
More broadly, Bombay city and the Indian su
larly were susceptible to plague because Weste
failed to increase modern protections again
depriving city and country of some traditional
dissemination. Unlike the West, India's moderniza
better housing, nutrition, or other environment
would have separated rodents and fleas from h
50 Ibid., 352; Calcutta Municipal Reports, 1896-I 91 ,
746 IRA KLEIN
plague transmission. The exception was India's elites, who were afflicted
almost as lightly as inhabitants of the West. Alternately, modern
transport and communication ended the isolation of villages, towns and
regions and, also, the low mobility and limited commerce that hindered
the spread of plague bacilli in unmodernized societies. Plague followed
main lines of transport, for good reason. India's modern transport
network rivalled the largest in the West; its railway system ranked third
in mileage. It had one of the biggest internal grain trades in the world,
and grain was the staple for rodents as well as humans, and the nesting
ground for rodent fleas like X. Cheopis. Modern transport disseminated
plague bacilli and vectors through Indian villages and towns as through
no other non-Western country, and primitive housing and sanitation
and the close proximity of rodents, fleas and people in Indian abodes
invited plague to become rife. The well developed commerce between
city and countryside also helped perpetuate epizootics and epidemics by
guiding the scourge to sylvan locales, where plague festered among
highly resistant wild rodents and re-emerged later in more susceptible
village and urban rat colonies and human populations.51 Only the rise
in Bombay and elsewhere in India, after a decade, of rodent and human
immunities began to restrict plague's ravages.
Plague's severity in Bombay city was related equally to material
deprivation, widespread malnutrition, congestion and other economic
invitations to disease. Declines in purchasing power among the city's
workers were crucial to survival because even in 'palmier' days the
masses had lived close to the margin of subsistence. There were great
differences, however, in remuneration and living standards within the
working class (see Table 7). A small minority, the most skilled workers
(machinists, engine drivers, crane operators, pattern makers) were
earning at least 35 rupees a month by the I9oos, but the most numerous,
unskilled laborers earned only about one-third as much.52 A life-and-
death issue for the I9oos, then, was what living standards could be
afforded by the majority of workers, those in the worst paying but most
common occupations?
The plight of the ordinary worker was indicated starkly in figures for
earnings and basic expenses. They show that many coolies and mill
hands, among the city's most numerous employees, could not afford a
single room, except in the suburban wards, and a quart of milk (or a
pound of meat) a day as their entire budgetary outlay.
51 M. Balthazard and M. Bahmanyar, 'Recherches Sur La Peste en Inde,' Bulletin of
the World Health Organization, XXIII (I960), 214 and passim.
52 Gazetteer, I, 323; Prices and Wages in India, (Calcutta), I901, 277, 279, 28I.
TABLE 7
Bombay City's Unskilled Wages, Rents, and Food Costs, 19o8
II Type
Type ofof
Employment
Employment Earnings
Earnings per Month
per(rupees)
Month (rupees)
Smith's coolies 12
12
Yard coolie 12
Moulder's helper I
Female coolie 8
Horse tender IO
Mill reeler 8.5
Mill winder 8.5
Mill fly carrier 8.5
Mill card tender 7.5
Sweeper 7.5
II Chawl Location Rent per Room per Month (rupees)

Ward A (Colaba, Fort, Esplanade) 5.6
Ward B (Mandvi, Chakla, Umarkhadi, Dongri) 6.5
Ward C (Market, Bhuleswar, etc.) 6.5
Ward D (Girgaum, Walkeswar, Mahalaksmi) 6
Ward E (Mazagaon, Byculla, Kamathipura, Nagpada) 4
Ward F (Suburbs: Parel, Sewri, Sion) 3.3
Ward G (Suburbs: Mahim, Worli) 3
III Type of Property Rent per Month (rupees)

Two storey house I46
Bungalow I'3
IV Type of Food Costper3o Lbs. per Month (rupees)

Rice 2.3
Jowar '.5
Bajri I.5
Mutton 5
Milk (per 30 quarts) 5
Source: Gazetteer, I, 323, 339; Prices and Wages, I908, I6; Prices and Wages, 9 I, I89, 223.
The high cost of food and shelter in relation to income forced ordinary
laborers to adopt economic strategies that ultimately proved inimical to
health, including sharing intensely overcrowded, insanitary living
accommodations and scrimping on diets, which often provided suffi-
cient calories but inadequate nutrition. Unlike Westerners' eating
habits, maximizing calories per unit price was the key to dietary
strategy, and the most nutritious foods, like milk, often were too
expensive per calorie. A balanced diet (which cost about three rupees
per month for an adult male) frequently was too high priced. Bombay's
occupational attraction, moreover, was that its wages were high in
748 IRA KLEIN
relation
relationto
tovillage
villageearnings
earnings
(although
(although
low low
in proportion
in proportion
to city
toprices);
city prices);
many
many immigrants
immigrants struggled
struggled
to save
to save
a portion
a portion
of meagre
of meagre
earnings
earnings
to to
remit
remit to
totheir
theirrural
ruralfamilies,
families,
further
further
lowering
lowering
livingliving
standards
standards
and and
promoting
promotingvulnerability
vulnerabilityto to
infection.
infection.
Malnutrition
Malnutritioninfrequently
infrequentlycaused
caused
absolute
absolute
starvation,
starvation,
but itbut
limited
it limited
human
humanabilities
abilitiestoto
produce
produce
antibodies,
antibodies,
the the
mostmost
critical
critical
weapon
weapon
in the in the
immune
immunesystem's
system'scombat
combat
of of
disease
disease
microbes.
microbes.
A crucial
A crucial
nutrition
nutrition
question
questionwas
washow
howfar
fardiddid
a laborer's
a laborer's
income
income
needneed
to beto
spread
be spread
and how
and how
many
many incomes
incomeswere
werethere
there
in in
a typical
a typical
family?
family?
The Bombay
The Bombay
labor force
labor force
was
was three-quarters
three-quartersadult
adultmale,
male,
andand
onlyonly
about
about
one in
one
three
in three
families
families
had had
incomes
incomessupplemented
supplemented bybywomen
women or child
or child
laborers
laborers
employed
employed
in thein the
city.53
city.53The
TheBombay
Bombay 'family'
'family'
in reality
in reality
was was
a nucleus
a nucleus
averaging
averaging
under under
2.5
2.5 people,
people,and
andmost
most ofofBombay's
Bombay's workers
workershad some
had some
family family
membersmembers
living
living outside
outsidethe
thecity.
city.
Most
Mostlaborers
laborers
supported
supported
at least
at least
one urban
one urban
dependant
dependant(usually
(usually
a husband
a husband supporting
supporting a wife)
a wife)
apartapart
from from
supple-supple-
ments
ments totofamily
familyoutside
outside thethe
metropolis.
metropolis.The The
laboring
laboring
elite easily
elite easily
met met
minimal
minimalfamily
familysubsistence
subsistence andand
earned
earned
a considerable
a considerable
surplus;
surplus;
'ordi- 'ordi-
nary'
nary' workers
workers(spinners,
(spinners, weavers,
weavers,clerks,
clerks,
postmen)
postmen)
just managed;
just managed;
but but
the
the very
verynumerous
numerouscoolies,
coolies,
sweepers,
sweepers,
porters
porters
and other
and other
unskilled
unskilled
workers
workers
with
with dependants
dependantsexperienced
experienced
a clear
a clear
shortfall
shortfall
belowbelow
minimal
minimal
decentdecent
subsistence
subsistenceand
andunderwent
underwentterrible
terrible
crowding,
crowding,
malnutrition
malnutrition
and other
and other
facets
facets of
ofdeprivation,
deprivation,promoting
promoting
disease
disease
fatalities
fatalities
particularly
particularly
as living
as living
conditions worsened.54
To what extent did Bombay's rising death-rates reflect human
decision making? An evaluation of societal, ecological and other factors
in Bombay's mortality is best done through a systematic comparison of
trends in wages, prices, death-rates, and diseases, as in tables 8 and 9.
The ratio of unskilled wages to costs especially was significant for
mortality because unskilled laborers were most numerous and closest to
the margin of subsistence. By the late I89os in real values the wage index
had dropped far below living costs and death-rates underwent a
horrible, spectacular rise. Broadly, the reasons for high mortality seem
graphically clear: the wages of unskilled laborers increased only five
percent in 35 years while grain costs rose 50% and land values (and
rents) tripled. Evaluation of the extraordinary, disproportionate blos-
soming of death near the turn of the century, and material, random or
other factors in Bombay's mortality requires consideration of fatalities
from major diseases (see Table 9).
In comparing Bombay's mortality rates for major diseases and the
53 CI, I91 I, VIII, I2.
54 Prices and Wages, I922, 7, 2 I I and passim.
TABLE 8
Index of Wages, Prices and Death-Rates, i871-igIo
1871 I87I-75 1876-80 1881-85 1886-90 I89I-95 I896-1900 190
I Wages
Skilled* 100 99 IOI IOI 98 o00
Ordinary** ioo IOi 98 99 99 99 1
Unskilled*** Ioo ioI Iio 104 103 103
II Grain ioo 130 97 109 117 142
III Land ioo 33
IV Death-
Rates ioo IOI 87 I13 245 23
* 30 rupees or more per month.

** 15-29 rupees per month.
*** under 15 rupees per month.
BMR, I87I-I91o, passim; Gazettee
265-320 and passim; Prices and W
IRA KLEIN
750
TABLE
TABLE 99
Bombay
Bombay Death-Rates,
Death-Rates,I89I-I90o
I89I-I90o
(per
(per
mille);
mille);
General,
General,
Leading
Leading
Causes
Causes
and and
Increase
Increase
Due Due
to Plague:
Increase Over
General Tuber- Respi- i89g-95 Due to
Year Death-Rate culosis Fever ratory Unknown Plague Plague
I891-95 30. I 4.2 8. I 5-7 5.8 o.o

I896-I900 65.4 7-9 9.1 9-4 I .7 I4.7 42%
1901-05 64. I 4-9 5.2 Io.6 14.4 22.9 67%
I906-Io 40.9 2.4 3.7 5.2 10.7 6.4 59%
Source: BMR, 189 I-I9I0, passim.
index of wages, prices and death, an ove

plague as a dominant cause of increased mor
As a main trend, the general death-rate
I8gos, ascending to much greater heights, fo
increase in grain costs. Death-rates remaine
end of the series in I910, although by th
directly proportional to food costs. The pla
important to shifts in the general death-
officially for about half of increased morta
but almost certainly accounted for a gre
deaths listed as 'unknown,' or attributed to
disease were caused by the bubonic illne
increased deaths I896-I900 and 70% in th
to plague. Severe famine prevailed in Weste
I896-I900, causing grain prices to rise in
inducing migration from stricken tracts.
Bombay city in 1896-I900, however, than
that followed; so the impact of high food c
(in contrast to migrants from famine local
trend. Although the famines ended in 19
death-rates at a terrible pinnacle in the next
plague's decline was responsible primari
Bombay's death-rate 1906-10. Other disease
ciently I891-1910 to dominate the genera
plague mortality bulged during the years o
(partly because a portion was due real
thereafter.
Plague waxed and waned seemingly because of ecological and other
factors
factors unrelated
unrelated
to societal agency:
to societal
the prevalence,
agency:
for example,
theof pre
highly
highly susceptible
susceptible
rodents and homophiliac
rodents rat and
fleas, and
homophiliac
human
immunological
immunological responses. In
responses.
general, death-rates
In responded
general, synergisti-
death-rate
cally
callyand mortality
and mortality
ascended beyondascended
any proportional
beyond
correlation
any
with propo
material
materialconditions
conditions
when a society when
was stricken
a society
with a potent
was
new killer
stricken
like
likeplague,
plague,
as occurred
asinoccurred
Bombay city, I896-I905.
in Bombay Mortality city,
waned I89
disproportionately
disproportionately late in prolonged
late
epidemics
in prolonged
because the develop-
epidem
ment
ment of human
of human
immunities quelled
immunities
disease partlyquelled
independentdisease
of
economic
economicconditions,
conditions,
exemplified by the
exemplified
downturn of plague
by in the
Bombay
downt
I906-Io.
I906-Io.(Comparably,
(Comparably,
mortality rates dropped
mortality
precipitately
rates
in rela-
dropp
tion
tionto living
to living
costs whencosts
effectivewhen
health policies
effective
limited a key
health
disease, aspolicie
improved
improvedwater supplies
water restrained
supplies
cholera).restrained
Nonetheless, epidemi-
cholera
ological
ologicalor immunological
or immunological
considerations or health
considerations
policies were not theor hea
main
main determinants
determinants
of Bombay's death-rates.
of Bombay'sEven if plague
death-rates.
was treated Ev
incorrectly
incorrectly as 'happenstance,'
as 'happenstance,'
devastating Bombay because
devastating
nature had Bom
produced
produced a new, immensely
a new, lethalimmensely
strain of Yersinia
lethal
Pestis, astrain
distinct of Y
correlation
correlation existed between
existedlivingbetween
standards and living
mortality. standards
Discounting an
the
theeffects
effects
of plagueof
and the
plague
famines and
of I896-I900,
the death-rates
famines were
of I89
more
more than than
25% higher
25%I9I-10o
higher
than in I891-95
I9I-10o
in response
than to ain
decline
I891-95 i
in
inearning
earning
power bypower
about 20%,byand mortality
about for 20%,19 I-Iand
o was elevated
mortality
by
by about
about
50% over
50%
I881-90
over
in response
I881-90
to earnings
in declines
response of almostto ear
one-third.
Bombay's increased death-rate in the early twentieth century, from
plague as well as other diseases, primarily was the result of societal
agency, however, not nature's caprice. Bombay's plague mortality-rates
were twenty times or more higher than in non-Indian locales with
similar plague ecologies, because of the impact of development in
increasing environmental risk, abetted by material deprivation among
Bombay's ordinary populace. When Bombay's plague epidemic des-
troyed twenty ordinary Indians for every European loss, killed ordinary
Hindus five times as frequently as the prosperous Parsis, and swept away
low caste Hindus twice as numerously as the Brahman elite, it led
directly to one conclusion: the plague bacillus which fuelled the modern
pandemic was highly lethal only where environmental degeneration
multiplied exposure and where poverty lowered resistance. Bombay's
population should have been more than ordinarily resistant to new
epidemics or high death-rates, moreover, from its age composition; the
city's inhabitants overwhelmingly were grouped between ages nine and
50, and had disproportionately small numbers of infants and elderly, so
that most of the populace had fully developed immune systems and little
liability to old-age mortality. Since plague mortality in the modern
IRA KLEIN
752
pandemic for non-Indian ecologies comparable to Bombay's was only

about 5% as high, even in poor locales, and since Bombay's population
by age composition should have been relatively plague resistant, more
than 90% of plague mortality in Bombay must be ascribed to conditions
generated by human agency. No other 'random' impact of nature on
disease microbes or vectors influenced Bombay's mortality in this era, as
was attested by the absence of any other new illness and the short-term,
widely diffused increases in endemic maladies. The Indian Medical
Service, moreover, chronicled transitions in lethality, not by laboratory
analysis of strains of microbes, but through observation of increased
'malignancy,' as with the mid-nineteenth century rise in Bengal of what
they termed 'Burdwan fever'-the diffusion of the deadly Plasmodium
Falciparum type of malaria. Similarly, they tracked through various
Indian locales obscure, murderous epidemics, like those of'blackwater
fever' and kala azar. No comparable new 'malignancy' occurred in
Bombay city. Increased death tolls in early twentieth-century Bombay
from old, indigenous diseases must be attributed to degenerating
material and environmental conditions, not to deadly new microbes or
human biological deficiencies. Bombay's heightened mortality in the
decade 19 I-0o, from plague and all other diseases was at least 9go the
result of human agency, not nature's caprice.
In the famine-ridden half-decade I896-I900, Bombay's mortality
patterns were complicated by the influx of starving migrants from as far
as Central India, who increased unemployment rates among chawl
dwellers to 25%, who were not provided significant relief, and who
perished numerously, expanding Bombay's mortality rates.55 Probably
half of increased mortality for I896-I900 was famine-induced, and
famine's influence certainly prevailed in the terrible year I900, when
recorded death-rates were 96.6 per mille. Famine deaths should not be
given primary attention in Bombay's long-term mortality, however,
especially because prolonged, severe famines in Western India which
dominated death rolls were infrequent, and because many of the
extraordinary fatalities in the city occurred among displaced, starving
agrarian migrants, not Bombay's ordinary populace. In general,
extreme caution is required in using famine mortality as an indicator of
the long-term impact of Western economic policies and of Indian well-
being. Famines induced crisis-intervention, which temporarily changed
the relationship between state and survival as famine relief rescued
millions who would have died; and famine tolls diverged markedly from
the general death-rate. Famine mortality declined notably in the early
55 BMR, I897, 65I-2; BMR, I899, 407.
twentieth
twentieth century,
century,
for example,
for and
example,
between 1900
andandbetween
the second1900
worldan
war
war there
there
werewere
no great
nofamine
great holocausts
famine comparable
holocausts
to those
comparab
of the
nineteenth
nineteenth century,
century,
yet thereyet
was from
there thewas
I89osfrom
until after
thethe
I89os
first u
world
world warwar
a grim
a grim
ascent of
ascent
India's general
of India's
death-rate.
general
Long-term
death-rat
shifts
in
inmortality
mortalityreflected
reflected
better than
better
faminesthan
any integral
faminesrelationship
any in
between
between development,
development,
environment,
environment,
ecology and mortality.
ecology In Bombay
and mo
city,
city, certainly,
certainly,
for thefor
indigenous
the indigenous
population, societally-induced
population, mater-
societ
ial
ialand
andenvironmental
environmental
changes, not
changes,
random acts
notofrandom
nature such
acts
as
famine,
famine, comprised
comprised
the majorthe
underlying
major cause
underlying
of increasedcause
mortality
of in
in
the
thepre-first
pre-first
world world
war era. war era.
Bombay
Bombay city's
city's
late nineteenth
late nineteenth
and early twentieth-century
and early twentieth-c
odyssey of
development
development and death
anddisproved
death disproved
the 'new revisionist'
the 'newview ofrevis
a
relatively
relatively benign
benign
WesternWestern
impact in which
impactmodernization
in which promoted
moder
rising
rising living
living
standards.
standards.
Bombay's dynamic
Bombay's commercial
dynamic expansion
commeand
increases
increases in gross
in gross
urban product
urbanwereproduct
accompanied
were by accompanie
a significant
decline
decline in popular
in popular
living standards
living and
standards
quality of and
life and
quality
by sharply
of
heightened
heightened mortality.
mortality.
There wasThere
an absolute
was quantitative
an absoluteexpansion
quantit
in
Bombay's
Bombay's economic
economic
activity activity
and comparable
andgrowth
comparable
in total employ-
growt
ment
ment andand
grossgross
wage outlays.
wage Butoutlays.
the majority
But of
the
Bombay's
majority
inhabitants'
of B
incomes
incomes fell fell
in real
interms,
real environmental
terms, environmental
and ecological conditions
and ec
worsened
worsened for human
for human
habitation,
habitation,
crowding was crowding
horrendous and wasan h
ordeal
ordealof death
of death
taintedtainted
the development
the development
process. At least process
some of
Bombay
Bombay city's
city's
experience
experience
was paralleled
was elsewhere
paralleled
in the elsewhere
country. The in
distinction
distinction between
between
economiceconomic
developmentdevelopment
and, alternately, living
and,
standards
standardswas explored
was explored
inadequately
inadequately
by the 'new revisionism,'
by the 'newwhich r
ignored
ignored also also
the effects
the effects
of environmental
of environmental
decay on mortality,
decay
majoro
flaws
flaws in in
thatthat
interpretation
interpretation
of the impactofofthe
modernizing
impactactivity.
of moder
In
Ingrim
grim reality
reality
there was
there
a direct
was link
a between
direct rising
link gross
between
urban (or
risi
national)
national) product
product
and plunging
and plunging
popular living
popular
standards,living
environmen-
standa
tal
taldecay
decayand and
elevated
elevated
mortality.
mortality.
Bombay's economic
Bombay's
development
econo
attracted numbers of unskilled and semi-skilled laborers who didn't
share in expanding profits, whose numbers caused overcrowding and
environmental degeneration, who were not effectively served by public
health measures, and who were highly exposed and vulnerable to
disease. Neo-Marxist interpretations explained this causal relationship
between development and distress simply as the travail of imperialist
exploitation: directly from imperialist material profiteering stemmed
colonial 'satellization' and pauperization. These views were too simple
to explain Bombay's experience. Dynamic, industrializing Bombay was
the diametric opposite of an indigenous society frozen into a backward,
neo-feudal model, as pictured by 'satellization' theories. Bombay's
754 IRA KLEIN
masses
massesexperienced
experienceda great
a great
deal of
deal
distress
of distress
and mortality
and mortality
primarily primarily
because
becausethe
thecity's
city's
rampant,
rampant,
vigorous
vigorous
uncontrolled
uncontrolled
development
development
encour- encour-
aged
agedsocial
socialDarwinism
Darwinism
and and
extreme
extreme
divergencies
divergencies
of income
ofand
income
the and the
quality
qualityofof
life.
life.
TheThe
successful
successful
prospered,
prospered,
lived well
lived
generally,
well generally,
monopo- monopo-
lized
lizedwealth
wealthand
and
flourished,
flourished,
whilewhile
the larger
the number
larger number
of ordinary
of ordinary
inhabitants
inhabitants suffered
suffered
and and
perished
perished
inordinately.
inordinately.
New, indigenous
New, indigenous
elites, elites,
the
the leaders
leadersofof
industry,
industry,
commerce
commerce
and the
and
professions
the professions
had a highhad
quality
a high quality
of life and their death-rates were almost as low as those of Westerners.
They illustrated that economic development helped the rise of many
successful Indians, who hardly were a 'comprador class,' since often they
were leaders of India's growing nationalism. In contrast, modernizing
activity sucked into its vortex a helpless mass of ordinary Indians who
increasingly were victimized and died because there were no Western
economic or environmental policies or dominant Indian social practices
or philosophies to protect them from foreign and indigenous social
Darwinism. The general pattern of Bombay's death-rates reflected the
liability of its inhabitants to government and societal condonement of
degraded living standards and environmental conditions. The ascen-
dancy of death from the late 18os through the first world war illustrated
not a simple instance of imperial exploitation but the flawed, disruptive
qualities of modernization and development.

Cambridge University Press Modern Asian Studies

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Cambridge University Press Modern Asian Studies

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Urban Development and Death: Bombay City, 1870-1914

Author(s): Ira Klein

The American University, Washington, D.C.

I. Development, Class, and Death

HISTORIANS, statesmen, administrators, nationalists and others have

oo26-749X/86/o I 4-0309$05.oo 1986 Cambridge University Press.

Disease and mortality in late nineteenth-century Bombay help

Modernization and development in late nineteenth-century Bomb

efficient for development, they were not particularly concerned about

Bombay's development and modernization included considerable

4 S. M. Edwards, Gazetteer of Bombay City and Presidency (2 vols, Bombay, I909)

I Population II Death-Rates (per mille)

1872 644,405 I881-5 27.0

Source: Bombay Municipal Reports (Bombay),

disease. This Bombay, so dangerous to the heal

Bombay's Victorian boom, which had produced new commerce and

I Western Professions II Major Occupations

Source: CI, I881, VI, I74-8.

unskilled and semi-skilled occupations. The laborin

18 CI, i88i, VI, 40.

19 Gazetteer, I, 2I3-20I CI,

The differing impact of modernization was symptomized by extreme

I Death-Rates by Class or Community (per mille)

1877 I886-95 I896-I90I I9oo

II Main Causes of Death, Igoo (per mille)

III Death-Rates by Class or Community from Selec

Tuberculosis Fevers Cholera Small-Pox Plague

Source: BMR, 1877, I886-I90o, passim.

Rather, the bubonic scourge was as responsive to

II. 'Water, Water Everywhere': The Inadequacy of Health

High mortality also resulted from incomplete, unwise pub

contaminated, dangerous and often inadequate. After a light monsoon,

Solids Chlorine Free Albuminoid

Well, Girgaum Back Road I4.2 0.17 0.13

Well, Colbhat Lane 58.8 io.2 0.35 0.20

Well, Antoba Gosavie's Oart 44.8 5.5 0.10 0.20

Jail well I3.3 i.6 o.o8 o. 17

Well, Churney Wadi Lane 0.50 0.22

Well, Malabar Hill 30.8 6.5 o.o8

Vehar water, office pipe 7.8 0.9 0.i6

Vehar dipping well, Narel Wady 6.3 1.0 0.03 0.29

Well, 3rd Marine Lane 0.I4 0.15

Source: BMR, 1877, i87-90.

smallest staff' and 'workmen frequently decamped,' except in th

rear No. of Fatalities Decennial Avg. Deathsper Mille Decennial Avg.

1891 I64 0.20

Source: BMR, I891-1910,

Bombay remained a city of cesspools, eighteen hundred of them

III. The Health Crisis, Ecology and Economics

1896 1,936 2.6 1904 13,388 17.4

Total Deaths: 172,511

Source: BMR, 1896-19 o, passim.

soil, the metropolis was stricken by the advent of a great

India and elsewhere, certainly, only under favo

II Chawl Location Rent per Room per Month (rupees)

III Type of Property Rent per Month (rupees)

IV Type of Food Costper3o Lbs. per Month (rupees)

1871 I87I-75 1876-80 1881-85 1886-90 I89I-95 I896-1900 190

Rates ioo IOI 87 I13 245 23

* 30 rupees or more per month.

I891-95 30. I 4.2 8. I 5-7 5.8 o.o

Source: BMR, 189 I-I9I0, passim.