Millennials and GenZ have come to perceive the Covid-19 pandemic as an unprecedented situation. Well, history has ‘news’ for us — pandemics have plagued the world since the 14th century and they hit the State of Hyderabad in the 20th century. We take a look at how the Nizam administration responded to a series of health emergencies as opposed to what governments today are doing
HYDERABAD: Seventeen-year old Meghamma in Mahbubnagar caught the flu that was spreading rapidly in the State. She fell unconscious and when she finally healed from it, she learnt that her husband Narsimha Reddy passed away from the same flu and that she was expecting a baby. Two generations later, Suguna Reddy, a resident of Hyderabad, remembers her grandmother’s story and says they are a big family now, thanks to the one woman who survived the influenza pandemic of 1918-1920.
Millennials and GenZ have come to perceive the Covid-19 pandemic as an unprecedented situation. History has ‘news’ for all of us — pandemics have plagued the world since the 14th century and they hit the State of Hyderabad in the 20th century. As Hyderabad was trying to recover from the devastating series of famines at the end of the 19th century, the Great Musi Flood hit the walled city, leaving behind a trail of death and destruction.
Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan roped in engineer Visvesvaraya, whose plans included the two dams in the city (over Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar) and the sewage system. Following this, in 1911, The City Improvement Board built a township with model houses that the public could either purchase or rent. As the Bubonic plague, cholera, malaria and the Spanish flu wreaked havoc on the city’s population, the Nizam administration identified the underlying causes — lack of hygiene and proper sanitation — and took measures to resolve these.
During the pandemic, isolation camps were set up in several places. The 1909 edition of The Imperial Gazetteer of India’s Provincial Series: Hyderabad State notes: “When plague invaded the State, the measures first adopted to stamp out the disease or arrest its progress consisted in evacuating infected houses and villages, and in disinfecting them. Camps were subsequently established at some frontier railway stations, where passengers were inspected and detained, and travellers from infected areas were kept under observation after leaving the camps.”
Anuradha Reddy, the convener of INTACH-Hyderabad, remembers her mother talking about moving from their residence in Bholakpur to a house in Begumpet during a health emergency. Healthy people were moved to isolation camps set up in Sitaphalmandi and Errum Manzil, among other areas. “Every year, before the monsoon began, officials from the municipal department would visit every house to check for water stagnation around the area and suggest if the houses needed any repairs. Small booklets were distributed to us and everyone was vaccinated regularly,” she says.
Sajjad Shahid, a historian, has another account of these quarantine facilities set up by the Nizam. His mother moved to an isolation camp in Errum Manzil during the pandemic. Shahid notes about an interesting phenomenon that took place in the city during this time: “A couple of graveyards in Hyderabad accommodated people from all religions and sects — Hindus, Muslims, Parsis and Christians were buried together to avoid too much movement in the city”.
Bhangya Bhukya, the author of Subjugated Nomads: The Lambadas Under the Rule of the Nizams, talks about how the people of Telangana referred to cholera as ‘Gattara’ and believed the cause to be the anger of the village goddess. They used to pray for the end of the diseases and sacrificed animals at the temple. “Many tribes showed resistance against modern medicine and vaccines. However, following the revolt by Komaram Bheem, the Nizam administration sent mobile health support systems during the jataras.”
A recent podcast, Beyond Charminar, hosted by popular oral historian Yunus Lasania, discussed how the Nizam administration rose to the occasion during natural disasters and a series of plagues and epidemics. The administration allocated funds to the health and development sector of the State. Along with Osmania Hospital, a Unani hospital was also set up to explore traditional Arabic medicine along with general medicine. They also noted that the first hospital built by Quli Qutub Shah, called Dar-ul-Shifa, had a medicinal garden where studies on var ious herbs were conducted.
BV Sharma, a medical anthropologist, compares the responses to the pandemics by the Nizam administration and the current government. “Back then, the measures were both patient- and community- centric. The current government shifts responsibility making people responsible for their health.”
WAY FORWARD
Temporary isolation camps need to be built across the city and villages to contain the disease effectively
Separate camps need to be set up to test and quarantine people who travel into the city
The administration needs to identify slums and build houses they could rent out at affordable prices, so that the spread of diseases can be minimised
In cases of hesitancy towards vaccination, like the Nizam administration, the governments should reach out to the community with a holistic approach. Repression by using force will only cause further damage
The government should improve the city’s infrastructure and come up with plans to deal with climate change to avoid another disastrous flood in Hyderabad like that of 2020
KEY DATES
187 2, 1877, 1899: A series of famines hits the Hyderabad State
1897: Sir Ronald Ross discovers that malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes
SEPTEMBER 28, 1908: The Great Musi Flood
1911: The Bubonic plague
1915: The epidemic of Cholera
1918 -1920: The Spanish Flu
1919: Osmania General Hospital