Memsahibs by Ipshita Nath

Author:Ipshita Nath
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hurst Publishers
Published: 2022-05-30T00:00:00+00:00

6

“WOE IS ME THAT I SOJOURN IN THIS LAND

OF PESTILENCE”

DIRT, DISEASE, AND DOCTORLY MEMSAHIBS

My poor ayah was taken ill with fever four days ago and died last night… It is the first fatal case among our servants… Her husband would not hear of her going to the hospital, but carried her off in a litter to his own home, where he sent for a ‘magic doctor’ to exorcise the devil with which the natives say she was possessed. Possibly the devil in going out of her killed her… The Commissioner has just returned from inspecting the Alighur district. He says that no death returns, frightful as they are, give any idea of the extent of the late mortality from fever. The village chowkidars, whose duty it is to report deaths, either died themselves or were too ill to know what went on, and in one village alone, where twenty-one deaths were reported, it was found from personal inquiry that in reality more than 200 persons had died… It is most appalling, and utterly mocks all efforts to save life; for even were it possible that quinine could be brought to the very door of each family, it would be useless without also sufficient warm clothing, nourishing food, and proper and continued medical treatment.

– E. Augusta King, 1884

In the documentary “The Lost World of the Raj”, India-born Nancy Vernede recalled that one of the first things that happened to her when she came home as a bride after she got married to a young recruit of the Indian Civil Service in Lucknow was a severe episode of malaria after being bitten by mosquitoes on her honeymoon (Ep. 1, 6.40–7.10).

The British lived in perennial dread of various tropical diseases and infections in the Indian subcontinent. The spectre of death loomed above their sola topee-covered heads at all times, and memsahibs were morbidly aware of the likelihood of catching fatal illnesses even when they were in the prime of their health. Virulent fevers struck people around them with regularity, and they often heard of so-and-so’s friend or acquaintance passing away.

Women, especially, were concerned about their susceptibility to illness as they were believed to be more prone to the harmful effects of the tropical space. Their writings reveal that they had a wide knowledge of the maladies caused by the insalubrious climate and confined mofussils. Since Western medical facilities were mostly scarce, they had to rely on their own faculties. Most were wary of the ‘native’ cures and remedies as they believed that it was likely that they would die of them rather than the disease or infection itself. Moreover, in India, superstition, religion, and science were inextricably entwined. Memsahibs noted that the ‘natives’ believed that unless the gods were placated with sufficient sacrifices and offerings, they could unleash famines and epidemics on them. Constance F. G. Cumming observed the curious custom of sheep and goats being circled around an ailing patient and then having their heads cut as a form of sacrifice to drive away the demons who were causing disease.

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