Abstract

The 1918 influenza pandemic was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history. It was popularly known as the “Spanish flu”. It was estimated that the pandemic of 1918-19 took 20-50 million human lives worldwide. On the contemporary, The First World War had also come to an end. The mental and physical atrocities got escalated along with the pandemic stress globally. India, which was in the hands of the British Raj (1858-1947) got badly affected. It had the highest mortality toll (10-20 million). For poor people who had limited access to good food, health and sanitation access, the influenza virus struck them really bad. After the deadly influenza attack, history has repeated itself. The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 has crippled the entire world. There is sociological, mental, economical and physical stress among all individuals and authorities. Thus, it becomes important for us to understand that what lessons we have learnt from the past pandemic. This study tries to examine the effect of the 1918 pandemic. The study aims to provide Indian measures (both governmental and non-governmental) in combating the disease from its unfolding in 1918 to its expiration in 1921. It can serve as a tool in understanding how the pandemic slowly decelerated.

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