Smallpox Vaccination in Early Colonial India

Abstract

Using reports about local resistance of the smallpox vaccination between 1800 and 1805 in colonial India, this brief article analyses how the diversity in both the level and type of resistance, depicted in earlier primary sources, has been distorted by later accounts into a single category of ‘South Asian smallpox vaccination resistance’. Careful analysis of the historical primary documents demonstrates, however, that such resistance stemmed from a variety of reasons, including sanitary concerns, political discontent and practical difficulties in arriving at vaccination centres. The article therefore suggests the need for more careful handling of earlier primary sources in order to not lose evidence of early diversities in reactions to colonial interventions.