3.8 | The Third Plague Pandemic
The Third Plague Pandemic (1894–1901), compared to the Black Death, was a smaller outbreak of bubonic plague. It killed between 30 to 60 percent of infected and untreated people. Most often, only one bubo was discovered in the infected. The disease, which claimed 1 million lives in India (see Table 5), led to violence in 1896–1898. However, this was due to the oppressive and ineffective measures taken by the British colonial authority. Infected people were placed under strict quarantine restrictions, their homes and personal belongings were burnt, religious buildings and cemeteries were shut down, and male doctors forcefully checked women against the wishes of their communities. In the context of metropolitan areas, the policies also displayed a clear class bias. This was based on the idea that the urban poor carried viral transmission in cities rather than the ”respectable class.” The slum areas of Bombay saw the destruction of hundreds of huts.