Full transcript
0:04[music]
0:09[music]
0:17Hello everyone. I welcome you once again
0:20to my NPTL course introduction to
0:22medical humanities. This is lecture 34.
0:25[snorts] In the last lecture we have
0:27dealt with the reflection of HIV uh AIDS
0:31uh through two films that we studied.
0:34Now in this lecture we are moving
0:37towards the pandemics.
0:41So everybody in this class has
0:43experienced covid-19 pandemic but the
0:46text that I choose today discuss the
0:50narratives of much before.
0:53Before I begin the lecture overview how
0:56literature helps us see epidemics.
1:00We are talking going to talk about
1:01kolera and plague. The first short story
1:04that I take up is Pakir moan sapati's
1:07Rabati. I discuss around Rabati follow
1:10it up with Rajender Singh Bedi's
1:12quarantine. I had also translated this
1:16short story Rajendra Singh Bedi short
1:18story quarantine for Sahit Academyy's
1:20Indian literature and you can find it on
1:22Jtore. I think during covid times when I
1:25was translating uh this short story
1:29along with uh professor omesh uh it gave
1:33me a feeling of how even earlier there
1:37were pandemics but there was no
1:40information there was no so much of
1:42support system that we had during covid
1:4519. We discuss around this and the
1:48violence of containment. How containment
1:52itself becomes a problematic space. I
1:56will discuss around that.
1:59So uh if you just quickly enter a word
2:05called pandemic literature on Google,
2:08you will at least find
2:121,200 to,300 pages talking about or
2:16discussing
2:18what pandemic literature is.
2:22clearly indicating that this is not a
2:26phenomena or which is now restricted
2:29just to covid 19.
2:32History is replete with examples where
2:36there have been epidemics throughout the
2:40world across geographies.
2:44What does literature do? Literature
2:46helps us document them and at any point
2:51of time
2:52those reflections make us go back to the
2:55time people suffered. Now we don't use
3:00masks any longer. But who can take away
3:04the experience of us wearing those masks
3:07during to covid-19 times? So literature
3:11helps us process fear, panic, isolation
3:16and uncertainty by turning chaotic
3:19events into narratives we can
3:21understand. So when the experience turn
3:24into words
3:27and make you relive or
3:32structure the experience what happens in
3:35that there is also a resolution that is
3:39happening. So that narration is also
3:42having a pathizing effect. That is what
3:45literature does.
3:48In case it's not your own narrative but
3:52if you have experienced something
3:54similar either or you simulate you
3:58imagine through the words of the writer
4:00even then this happens and that is what
4:03literature talks about
4:07because it is written from someone's
4:09perspective it takes up emotional social
4:13and cultural dimension of pandemic. It
4:16is not just talking about what was the
4:19feature, what was how many affected all
4:22those things. No, it talks about what it
4:25did to people like COVID 19. I mean, if
4:30I just look at the death rates,
4:35statistical data, maybe there is some
4:37kind of homogenization that's possible.
4:40But how we have lived through that
4:42covid-19 pandemic depends on a lot of
4:45things.
4:47So like I lived in IIT Patna campus. So
4:50it was a huge campus. We could go for a
4:54walk. There were u lot of security
4:56safety measures taken place. Uh uh you
4:59know we had good support system. So I
5:01cannot help but count on the privilege
5:03that I was in. So when you look at even
5:07just if we take up the coid9 pandemic
5:09story of all of us not story but reality
5:14we will have different versions of that
5:16narrative epidemic narratives expose
5:19power structures inequality stigma
5:22exclusion and the breakdown of community
5:25bonds I'm talking about my privilege
5:27somebody was more privileged than me
5:29somebody was less privileged than me
5:31somebody did not have any privilege and
5:34All these intersections are important
5:37and when you take up epidemic narratives
5:39they highlight these intersections all
5:43the more. Paul trickler argues epidemics
5:47are shaped by language, culture and
5:49ideology. Literature critically examines
5:52these narratives. Literature just
5:54examines. But epidemics definitely have
5:58uh more to what meets the eye like they
6:02say. So literature around pandemic and
6:04epidemic help societies rethink ideas of
6:07health, vulnerability, borders,
6:10community and resilience enabling social
6:13and ethical reimagination.
6:16So if you just talk to 10 people around
6:19their COVID experience, I'm sure at
6:22least five of them will tell you that
6:25postcoid there was something in them
6:27that changed
6:29and it has nothing to do with just the
6:32clinical aspect of it. Whether you
6:34tested COVID positive, you didn't test
6:36COVID positive, but with the narratives
6:40around you or with your own experience,
6:43you respond to the COVID 19 imagination
6:46in a different way.
6:49The first short story here we take is
6:51Rabati. It is
6:54a a beautiful story very poant
6:58in an age where we talk about Betty Bhau
7:00beti bacha
7:04those were different times fakir moan
7:06sapati targets it's the story of a young
7:10girl whose desire for education is
7:13abruptly cut short by a colera pandemic
7:17so she decides to go she wants to study
7:22And the setting that is shown is
7:25agrarian
7:27modest yet quite comfortable. And the
7:31father says yes she can study.
7:34Fine
7:36because
7:37it is okay. She will read uh religious
7:41textbook and she will follow the
7:43tradition that has been decided. But one
7:47day when the cholera happens, one fine
7:50fogund day like a bolt out of the blue
7:54struck the epidemic of cholera.
7:59So her education got disrupted.
8:03She couldn't go to school and one by one
8:06she just loses everyone in the family
8:10including the young man she wanted to
8:12marry and ultimately claims her own
8:15life. Now the narrative gets interesting
8:19in the response of [snorts] her family
8:24and others. So usually when we talk
8:28about these pandemics
8:31there is a narrative that something must
8:35have happened something bad some moral
8:38failing some hubris
8:41something that had caused the tragedy
8:43but in Fakir moan sapati's raati we
8:46don't find that so what do we find the
8:50grandmother
8:52being very angry on ribbati because she
8:55says As this girl went to study, it's
8:59because of her education that gods are
9:02angry and now this has resulted into a
9:05cholera.
9:07So education is interpreted as defiance
9:10of tradition.
9:12So the father permitted the daughter. I
9:15use the word permit. Those were
9:17different times we are talking about.
9:20Now if I say permit I will I'm sure I
9:23will be questioned that I am not
9:25realizing the agency of a girl but those
9:29were the times when there has to be a
9:32patriarchal sanctioning of even the
9:35girl's education. The father had
9:38sanctioned her to study because he
9:41thought she would follow tradition and
9:43read the religious texts. But the
9:45grandmother thought it was an act of
9:47defiance which has led to an epidemic
9:50like cholera. However,
9:54kolera strikes four years after her
9:56schooling begins. There is no rational.
9:59There is no logic but perception.
10:02Education was approved by male authority
10:04figures and it was only meant to enable
10:08reading religious texts and not being a
10:10rebellion. Therefore the epidemic is not
10:14framed as divine punishment except for
10:17that part where grandmother is thinking
10:21like this and it's all articulated there
10:25is no rational. So the epidemic
10:27representation in uh Fakir moan sapati's
10:31ribbati also has that angle in which the
10:36epidemic the coming of an epidemic or
10:39the onset of epidemic is because there
10:43is this girl who defied the norms of
10:45being at home and not being uh you know
10:48uneducated.
10:51The there is always a fear around
10:53epidemic and when grandmother cries it
10:56echoes that narrative. Raati rai you
11:00fire you ashes.
11:03She's very angry on ribati and you find
11:08multiple registers.
11:10How? Fear of divine retribution.
11:14Something
11:16godly has happened. Fear of modernity
11:19and change
11:21that probably everybody is getting
11:23modern urbanization cutting of trees
11:26maybe that is the thing and fear of
11:28losing control over destiny that you
11:31just don't know what will happen so if
11:33you remember your covid time that is the
11:35closest pandemic we have seen and that's
11:37why probably I go back to covid-19 uh
11:40reference point again and again I also I
11:43think discussed when I was discussing
11:46the history of healthcare in India. I
11:49think postcoid was the fourth phase I
11:52had mentioned and uh off and on when I
11:55teach medical humanities to the classes
11:57I often make that point of covid-19
12:00because there are so many narratives uh
12:03which are extremely important rather
12:07seminal in changing the way we saw or
12:11read a particular disease pre- pandemic
12:13and post pandemic. So unlike urban
12:16epidemic narratives uh something like
12:18Jon Snow tracing kolera in London you
12:21find that raati is set in a rural
12:25background and there is hardly any
12:27scientific mapping and therefore reality
12:31is multi-layered. One of the things they
12:33say is rain gods must be pacified. You
12:36know a totally non-scientific approach
12:39is there for the epidemic. It's also a
12:42collapse of human agency. Why? Because
12:44Kolera kills Rabati's loved ones as well
12:47one after the other. Father, mother,
12:50grandmother, fiance before hitting her,
12:54claiming her life and there is no uh
12:57moral safeguard. All of them have been
12:59good people like Sham Bandhu is honest
13:01and compassionate. Basuv is gentle and
13:04progressive. Ribati is also obedient and
13:06devout. So epidemic doesn't spare
13:10anybody. Kulra comes to all and
13:12therefore you come to the fact that
13:15epidemic disregards character faith and
13:18social standing [snorts] and despite the
13:21privileged positions that we were in do
13:24you think there was no scare there was
13:26no death no it's not like that because
13:29epidemic or pandemic doesn't see what is
13:32your class what is your cast what is
13:35your gender what is your position are
13:37you urban are you local are you uh you
13:41know uh educated are you informed
13:44pandemic doesn't see that therefore it
13:47disregards any kind of character faith
13:50or social standing is a point that you
13:53feel where there is no human agency left
13:56because the pandemic is so big the
13:58epidemic is so big unlike uh classical
14:01tragedies there is no fatal decision
14:03that is triggering the catastrophe and u
14:06the final point in this you can make is
14:09that events follow time not dramatic
14:12tension reinforcing inevitability rather
14:15than moral justice. So it's not a point
14:17that somebody did wrong and they have to
14:20be punished. It's just about the
14:22timeline. The second short story that I
14:24take up is quarantine. It's a story by
14:27Rajender Singh Bi and was published in
14:301939. So clearly the colonial period we
14:33are talking about but set during the
14:36devastating epidemics that happened
14:38between 9 1896 to 1921.
14:43And in this epidemic over 30 million
14:47deaths occurred in the subcontinent from
14:50plague, cholera, influenza and smallpox.
14:54All these four I use an extract to
14:56explain like a thick fog on your screen
14:59everybody that crawls over and blurs
15:03everything the terror of plague had
15:06spread all over.
15:08So you find that the choice of the word
15:13bi
15:15it's not the plague it's the terror of
15:17the plague. What does he say? He says
15:21that it was like a thick fog that crawls
15:25and blurs over. What happens when you go
15:28into dense fog? You barely can see the
15:30next person standing in front of you. So
15:35bi writes plague was right here but we
15:37couldn't see
15:39who is going to be the victim of that
15:43epidemic. The story does not name a
15:46year. It's anonymous story. doesn't say
15:48where it is but talks about the epidemic
15:52terror which was widespread and
15:54self-evident. Now this has to be looked
15:57into
16:00the way epidemics disease act perceived.
16:05The epidemic disease act was implemented
16:09which was primarily to restrict movement
16:12and incarcerate violations. So the act
16:16was used to
16:19contain people like be inside,
16:23put out a surveillance. So there was
16:25fear structured both in government and
16:29everyday life. How does fear work then
16:33in the case of quarantine that Rajendra
16:37Singhi wrote? It is disease versus
16:40quarantine. Quarantine is containment.
16:42Okay. and he put the puts out that title
16:45as quarantine. So there were many
16:47families that were getting affected.
16:49Colonial authorities were using spies to
16:52report households suspected of
16:54concealment.
16:56But the Epidemics Disease Act empowered
16:59intrusive inspections and confinement
17:02and public posters amplified panic. And
17:05what did they say? No rats, no plague,
17:09no quarantine. So there has to be
17:12nothing. And this what did it do?
17:15Quarantine disrupted domestic privacy
17:18especially the protection of women and
17:21cast purity because anybody could enter
17:23your house
17:25and
17:27people who had economic power the policy
17:30was around them. So economic interests
17:34shaped policy. A total shutdown was
17:37avoided to prevent labor. But in this
17:40there was fear of contamination, fear of
17:43colonial incarceration, fear of public
17:46shame and fear of death without ritual
17:49dignity because they were just kind of
17:50throwing and burning. But the story is
17:53about William Bhagu. Now William Bhagu
17:56is primarily a Dalith sanitation worker
17:58who has recently converted to
18:00Christianity. For him plague has not has
18:03not done much. Why? because he was
18:05already living in a very marginalized
18:08state. So he is one of the few in the
18:10town that the doctor observes as hardly
18:14afraid of the plague. Instead, he
18:17believed that if death is around, you
18:19cannot escape it wherever you may go.
18:22The inevitability of death is central.
18:26But what is also central in the
18:27narrative is the fearlessness of Bhagu.
18:31And you find bhagu
18:34lack of care for self-preservation when
18:36the doctor asks bhagu aren't you afraid
18:39of plague and here he says that no he's
18:43not because as a sanitation worker or or
18:47a lowercast person he was subject to
18:50dealing with unwanted
18:52aspects of urbanity even when the plague
18:55was not around. So he was doing the same
18:57thing even before. So now with the
19:01plague around nothing was very new for
19:03him. He was already exposed to uh uh the
19:07whole you know dangers for Bhagu
19:10vulnerability is not exceptional. It is
19:13everyday life but fear is a privilege
19:17and that is a very important line
19:19because if you are so exposed
19:23Bhagu was so exposed that there was no
19:27fear of he being contained inside and
19:30saving himself from the plague. For
19:33those already living on the margin
19:35mortality is not new. You know that when
19:39death comes you can't escape and you are
19:41pretty much living with uh the fear of
19:44death every day and therefore Bhagu
19:46could cover his face with his turban
19:48cloth and serve people with great
19:51devotion because every day cleanliness
19:53had to take place the roads are to be
19:55cleared. Uh so he was doing his job he
19:58became the unseen savior but doesn't
20:00find any recognition in the story. So
20:04Bhagu is doing his job every day and his
20:07actions are oriented towards others
20:10never towards his own safety or desire.
20:12And one day one doctor who is you know
20:15felicitated later on in this epidemic
20:19for doing his job he says oh it's you
20:23bhaguh bhai the world may not know you
20:26bhagu but don't worry I know you your
20:30Jesus knows you despite receiving so
20:33much honor I suddenly feel worthless
20:37so when the doctor being the frontline
20:41worker that he is gets the award after
20:44the quarantine uh is over. He feels that
20:48he's very small in front of Bhagu
20:50because the actual risking the life was
20:54done by him and that is where he makes
20:59the sentence that I mean maybe the world
21:02doesn't recognize your efforts
21:05in the way it should be but to me to God
21:09you'll be the hero and his contribution
21:11is acknowledged therefore only in
21:14private reflection never in public
21:17ceremony or a public memory because what
21:20appears heroic or exceptional is simply
21:22Bhagu's normal condition.
21:26The
21:28one thing I had mentioned about the
21:29violence of containment. Yeah. Like you
21:32know when when we were living there were
21:33there are many people who will tell you
21:35that during the coid9 pandemic perhaps
21:39the pandemic was big. It was very grave
21:43but also the idea of staying
21:47into your small home. Sometimes one BHK
21:52sometimes even not. Not not even one
21:54BHK. One room. one room with 10 people
21:57would have been catastrophic.
21:59So that containment is also violent and
22:04that is reflected through the line here
22:06where you find that the experiences
22:10that one has as
22:13living in a particular state
22:16without much mobility
22:19is also a violence that may not be
22:23bracketed into certain category but
22:26still it does affect your mind.
22:31So I take up this line and quickly kind
22:35of go towards conclusion which says the
22:38terror of quarantine is containment was
22:40understandable. As a doctor I'm positive
22:43about this and I speak with certainty
22:47that more people died in the city from
22:49quarantining than from the plague. So
22:53there were more people who were dying in
22:56the city because they were contained and
22:58less from the plague. I saw many
23:01patients lose hope because their
23:03families were not around. Some died many
23:06times over before actually dying as they
23:09watched other patients around them
23:12breathe their last. It happened at times
23:15that the patients of a routine ailment
23:17became victims after contracting the
23:20bacteria in the poisoned air of the
23:22quarantine. And because of a steady
23:26stream of deaths, the last rides
23:28followed a method unique to quarantine.
23:31Hundreds of human cops were dragged like
23:34a dog carcasses piled in a heap and set
23:37on fire after pouring petrol without any
23:41religious ceremony. So in just one
23:44paragraph
23:46there are so many images that are
23:49I mean dark
23:52and when you imagine this when you
23:56simulate this uh in your uh imagination
24:01you find that it was very violent and
24:05therefore Bhagu's experience confirm
24:07what the doctor can only narrate the
24:10plague was deadly but the quarantine was
24:13even deadlier.
24:16And here is where I will end. Uh in the
24:19next lecture, I will take up comics,
24:23four comics and how COVID 19 gets
24:27reflected in those four uh comic
24:30narratives. Thank you so much.