Chinmay Tumbe on India’s Age of Pandemics: Then and Now

Although this history has largely been forgotten today, India was the epicenter of three major pandemics throughout the 19th and early 20th century. 

 

A new book by the economist Chinmay Tumbe, The Age of Pandemics: 1817-1920—How They Shaped India and the World, takes readers on a tour of three previous pandemics—cholera, the plague, and influenza—that ravaged India and highlights what we might learn from this past trauma. 

 

This week on the show, Chinmay speaks with Milan about India’s “Age of Pandemics” and why this dark chapter in Indian history has been glossed over. Chinmay and Milan also discuss the parallels between pandemics past and present, how pandemics have shaped politics, and why the flight of internal migrants is one of the most stylized facts of pandemics in history.

 

Episode notes:

1. Chinmay Tumbe, India Moving: A History of Migration
2. Government of India, Economic Survey 2017-18, “India on the Move and Churning: New Evidence.” 
3. Chinmay Tumbe, “Excerpt: The Age of Pandemics”