Articles by Mohan Rao

Muslims were sore with him ever since his failure to prevent the BJP from riding back to power. They were doubly ruffled when he decided to join hands with the Congress in response to the BSP-BJP tie-up. Previously in the 'AJGAR' combination, the Muslims completed the equation by adding the necessary ,M' factor. But now Mulayam Singh sits uncomfortably with a political equation that originated against the Congress with the backing of the same party and the not so enthusiastic support of the Muslims.

Plague: The Fourth Horseman Mohan Rao The plague of 1896 which besieged parts of India was the third great plague pandemic in history. While it devastated many regions of the country, when it was introduced in the west caused few deaths, mainly because Europe had by then been transformed by the sanitary and health revolutions.

Miasmas and Disease: Public Health and the Environment in the Pre- Industrial Age by Carlo M Cipolla, translated by Elizabeth Potter; Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1992; pp 101, price unstated.

The Stygean Dip History of Cleanliness in France Mohan Rao Concepts of Cleanliness: Changing Attitudes in France Since the Middle Ages by George Vigarello; Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1990; pp 240, price unstated.