Hunger and Epidemic Malaria in Punjab, 1868-1940


Sheila Zurbrigg There has been a resurgence of interest in the epidemic history of colonial India, but such research has tended to reinforce the interpretation of epidemic crises as exceptional events, depending primarily on factors external to the human host, such as climatic and local ecological changes or introduction of specific disease agents. Hunger, when addressed, is seen as simply one additional exacerbating factor in the sub-continent's epidemic history. Little, attempt has been made to assess the relative contribution of the parasitic versus 'nutritional' sides of the epidemic equation. In part, this reflects the technical difficulties involved in such a task. But it is also the result of an as yet inadequate conceptual approach to the subject of hunger in history more generally.