The Epidemic Diseases Act (1897): A study of international and domestic pressures on British epidemic policy formation in India

Abstract

The Epidemic Diseases Act (EDA) was enacted in February 1897 by the Government of India to prevent and control the spread of the plague. Since then, the Act has become a key legal tool for the control of epidemics/pandemics in India. We attempted to understand the international and domestic pressures that led to the adoption of the EDA in three ways. First, we analyse the legislative structure (Bombay Municipal Act of 1888, Indian Railways Act of 1890, and Act I of 1870) that dealt with infectious or contagious diseases in colonial India before the EDA came into force. Second, we focus on the linkages between international and domestic pressures that necessitated the adoption of the EDA. Third, we analyse the discussions of the Council of the Governor General of India on the bill titled ‘A Bill to Provide for the better prevention of the spread of Dangerous Epidemic Diseases’, which later became the Epidemic Diseases Act No. III of 1897. We situate the EDA in an international context of International Sanitary Conferences, quarantine, trade concerns, and pilgrimage to Mecca in order to understand the pressures that impacted British epidemic policy formation in colonial India.