Socio-Economic Impacts of 1918-19 Influenza Epidemic in Punjab

The 1918-19 influenza epidemic arguably remains the worst natural disaster in the annals of colonial India. The scourge of the 1918-19 influenza in Punjab eclipsed the significant malaria epidemics of 1908 and the Bubonic plague catastrophe of the first decade of the 20th century. Over 800,000 people died from the outbreak between October and November 1918. This article examines the social and economic impacts of the 1918-19 influenza outbreak in Punjab. It argues that the scarcity of everyday food items as well as an escalation in the prices of staple foodstuffs were direct consequences of the epidemic. This study discovered that massive influenza mortalities triggered severe disruptions in the agricultural activities and public services in Punjab. Other studies had focused mainly on the spread and mortality of the epidemic in the public domains of colonial India. However, this study illuminates the socio-economic effects of an outbreak from a regional perspective. A focus on Punjab, the colonial capital of Northern India, affords us a rare privilege to gauge how epidemics influence the socio-economic spaces on a provincial basis.