Although the death toll of the 1918–19 Spanish flu in India was immense, it received little critical attention at the time by either the British authorities or Indian nationalists, or later by historians of Indian politics. Strangely, this was also the case with Mohandas Gandhi who had a penchant for making health-related statements and working as a carer of the sick. His reaction to the illness and death around him has been characterised as one of disinterest. His letters and utterances at this time give some clues as to why he may have been numb to what was transpiring around him.
