Savitribai and Her Son role in Crisis of the Plague

In late nineteenth century, the bubonic plague originated in in Yunnan province in China and spread to many countries through the sea route which killed more than 10 million people in India.That pandemic reached India through the ports at Calcutta and Bombay. Later on, it spread to Pune and other towns and villages. One guess is that more deaths occurred in towns than in spread-out villages, where natural social isolation is already a factor. Several herding communities left urban and populated towns and established settlements in the forest and plain lands. Medical facilities at the time were almost absent in India and hardly any trained doctors in modern medicine.

Mahatma Jyotirao Phule and Savitribai Phule’s adopted son Dr. Yashwantrao opened a clinic to treat those affected by the worldwide Third Pandemic of the bubonic plague when it appeared in the area around Nalasopara in 1897. The clinic was established at stern outskirts of Pune, in an area free of infection. Savitribai died a heroic death trying to save the son of Pandurang Babaji Gaekwad. Upon learning that Gaekwad’s son had contracted the Plague in the Mahar settlement outside of Mundhwa, Savitribai Phule rushed to his side and carried him on her back to the hospital. In the process, Savitribai Phule caught the Plague and died at 9:00pm on the 10th of March, 1897.

The doctor died alongside his adopted mother Savitribai while serving plague patients in a special clinic that they opened in 1896-97. According to historical texts, Dr. Yashwant Rao served patients of all castes and communities as a part of his father and mother’s social reform movement. In those days, Brahmins were avoiding becoming doctors as the British had made it mandatory that medical partitioners treat patients of all castes, and many Brahmins were unwilling to touch Dalits and Shudras.

After his death, Savitribai and her son continued to undertake social and medical services. One biographer of Savitribai writes: “Her (Savitribai) adopted son Yashwantrao served the people of his area as a doctor. When the worldwide Third Pandemic of the bubonic plague badly affected the area around Nallaspora, Maharastra in 1897, the courageous Savitribai and Yashwantrao opened a clinic at outskirts of Pune to treat the patients infected by the disease. She brought the patients to the clinic where her son treated them while she took care of them. In course of time, she contracted the disease while serving the patients and succumbed to it on March 10, 1897.”

The tragedy did not end there. Dr. Yashwantrao died as well after contracting the disease. This episode of the bubonic plague ultimately led to more than 12 million deaths in India and China, with about 10 million killed in India alone. India has evolved a lot since the days of Dr. Yashwantrao and Savitribai Phule’s sacrifice. We now have doctors of all castes and communities.

It was on January 10, 1897, that Aldemar Haffkine, a bacteriologist who trained with Louis Pasteur at his institute in Paris, and who was based in Bombay, tested the vaccine on himself and created a vaccine in record time to combat the bubonic plague epidemic in Bombay and Poona regions. That vaccine saved millions in over subsequent years – even though at that time, India superstition and illiteracy coupled with ignorance resulted in restricted use.

Today, coronavirus seems to pose a much bigger threat in a globalised world. Well-equipped hospitals and well-trained doctors and nurses with the courage to make sacrifices like Dr. Yashwantrao and Savitribai Phule alone can save the world and India. So while there is misinformation about how cow urine and dung work like a vaccination for coronavirus, people must depend only on tested science, medicines, laboratories, doctors and nurses. India still has a long road ahead when it comes to social reform and this crisis is suited to push such reform.