A Concise Historiography of Plague Epidemic in Colonial Bengal Since 1868 to 1947

Abstract: During the course of colonial rule – the disease plague considered to be a very harmful catastrophe for the native people of this country. Frequent outbreak of plague harassed the natives and the colonial government and it caused huge mortality whenever it rapidly spread. In most of the historical writings on plague marked their starting point of analysis from Bombay plague epidemic in September 1896 but before Bombay, different parts of Bengal Presidency had already faced the evil effect of plague. This paper attempts to analyse how the epidemic of plague appeared and spread in Bengal Presidency since 1868 to 1947 and also the role played by the colonial government to eradicate the disease. The current study also revealed the impact of plague epidemic on socio-religious life of the native people of Bengal.