| Subject: | History \ Environmental Studies |
| Title: | Plague, Surveillance and Colonial Public Health in Malabar: The Tellicherry Outbreak of 1906–1907 |
| Author(s): | Chandni C V |
| Published on: | 30th October 2026 |
| Published by: | Lyceum India |
| Name of the Journal: | Lyceum India Journal of Social Sciences |
| ISSN/e-ISSN: | 3048-6513 |
| Volume & Issue: | Volume: 3, Issue: 12 |
| Pages: | 68-79 |
| Original DOI (if any): | 10.5281/zenodo.23758444 |
| Repository DOI: | |
| Abstract: | Epidemic disease became an important site of colonial intervention in India. The outbreak of bubonic plague marked a critical turning point in the history of colonial public health regulation. The emergence of plague in Tellicherry, an important coastal port and commercial centre posed a significant challenge to the existing system of epidemic regulation. The article argues that the outbreak brought the existing colonial regulatory framework into more intensive local operation.It also exposes the uneven administrative capacity of the colonial state. The implementation of epidemic measures depended on personnel, financial resources, administrative knowledge and public cooperation. Tellicherry’s commercial networks and patterns of mobility further complicated attempts to regulate the movement of people and goods.The article mainly focus on government reports, plague regulations, sanitary records and the Malabar District Gazetteer as primary evidences. The article understands colonial epidemic governance as an uneven process in which regulatory authority was continually shaped by local administrative capacity, commercial mobility and social realities. |
| Keywords: | Bubonic Plague, Tellicherry, Colonial Public Health, Epidemic Governance, Surveillance, Administrative Capacity |
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