23
Owing to conditions which will be presently referred to, it is not possible to give a
table showing the weekly progress of the epidemic in the Ambala District. The
monthly progress of the disease will be found in Statement No. 2, Appendix A.
It will be seen that the epidemic reached its highest point during March, when 13,027
cases of plague and 10,011 deaths occurred. These figures are largely in excess of those of
any other month, and nearly half the mortality of the epidemic occurred during this month.
There was a very rapid decline in the number of plague cases in May, and, though
the district was never quite free from the disease, the cases and deaths in July and August
were very few. In September, however, a considerable rise occurred.
(a) Of the course of the epidemic in different parts of the district, Mr. Maynard
writes :-
" In the Kharar and Rpar Tahsls the disease spread like a flood in February and
reached its height in March, and the mortality dropped by 57 per cent in April In Ambala
the spread did not begin till March, and the figures for April nearlv doubled those of the
former month ; and in May they were more than double those of the Kharar and Rpar
Tahsls combined Yet the Ambala Cantonment became infected only about a week later
than the first village in Kharar."
The outbreaks of plague in some towns and villages were very severe. At Basin,
a village of 263 inhabitants, 74 persons were attacked with plague and 64 died-nearly a
quarter of the population being carried off. The village of Chni Kaln lost 22 per cent, of
its population of about 1,700 in 21/2 months, and the destruction of one-fifth or one-sixth of
the population of villages was not uncommon.
The towns of Rpar, Kharar and Bibil lost about 9 per cent, of their population
from plague, and Karauli, a small town with a population of 3775, lost 700 of its inhabitants.
In the town of Klka, however, although the outbreak commenced in February and
did not cease until June, only 73 cases of plague occurred.
Bearing and attitude of the people.
(b) Of the bearing of the people in the pre-
sence of the epidemic Mr. Maynard writes : -
" When an outbreak is apprehended there are signs of religious revival. A
Granthi is installed under a canopy or in the
Bearing in the presence of the epidemic. village rest-house to recite the Scriptures :
" Havan " is freely practised ; public prayers are offered in the village mosque ; hard work
is done on the excavation of the tank ; the poor of the neighbourhood are collected and fed.
The lower deities or demons are also not forgotten ; fakirs are summoned and highly fed
for the performance of charms ; the village site is surrounded with a circle of stakes, with
demons' heads roughly carved on top to serve as supernatural guardians.
" Panic appeared in some places, but the only wholesale exodus took place from
the Ambala Cantonment. The Sadr Bazr being closed and trade temporarily at a stand-
still, the cantonment natives (most of whom have their permanent homes elsewhere) went
away to await better times. One or two prominent individuals elsewhere disgraced themselves
by flight, and there was a general tendency for those who had relatives in uninfected
places, and no special business to detain them to seek refuge elsewhere.
" Muhammadans rarely, if ever, neglected their sick or feared to perform the
funeral rites of the dead. The same uniform courage was not shown by Hinds. The sick
were sometimes deserted. The Sirhind Canal was the last rest of many of the dead ; and it
was not uncommon for the plague officers to come across corpses as they, rode from one
centre of sickness to another.
" Amid this terror and forgetfulness of natural ties, a noble piety was shown by
certain Hindu volunteers who took it upon themselves to burn or bury the neglected dead.
One of these men said to me : ' My brethren may cut me off from huqqa and water, I
shall not be cut off from God.' A prominent Hindu pleader at Ambala broke his arm when
helping to carry the body of an unknown woman to the burning ght. In some places
however it was necessary to pay high wages (in one instance as much as seven rupees to
four men) to those who removed the dead."
Attitude towards plague measures.
The attitude of the people towards plague measures was at first chiefly one of
suspicion, though this diminished with the
spread of the disease. The attitude of differ-
ent classes, however, varied. Of the Sikhs, Mr. Maynard writes :-" They seem to have had
an instinctive appreciation of the good intentions of Government which other people lacked ";
while of other classes he says :" Rajpts devoted to purdah continued unyielding for the
most part. Brahmans were generally hopeless, having (as a Jt explained) a special kind of
jealous pride which forbids their taking advice, and nearly half of the Brahman community