Rethinking Cholera in Jagannath Puri in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

This article examines the social history of cholera in Jagannath Puri throughout the nineteenth century, focusing on the various factors that affected the colonial health and sanitary interventions in the region. It rethinks Puri’s ‘sacred’ space as a nexus of converging mobilities rather than a static centre, problematising the relationship between cholera and pilgrimage. It marks a departure from the dominant trend in historiography that stresses the significance of the Jagannath temple in complicating the processes of colonial cholera management in Puri, by focusing on the ‘external’ challenges and motivations that shaped the history of cholera in the region. The article argues that understanding Puri’s history requires de-centring the city as it was the linchpin of a dynamic circulatory regime that constituted not only pilgrims but also disease and ideas. It provides a backdrop for building on larger ideas that connect the ‘micro’ to the ‘macro’ narrative of cholera by recognising the region in terms of its ‘trans-local’ connections rather than local factors alone.