Uncertain Advances

Abstract

In this article, I describe the complex nature of the final phases of the Indian smallpox eradication program. I examine the unfolding of policies at different levels of administration and the roles played by a wide range of national and international actors. A careful examination of unpublished official correspondence, on which this article is largely based, shows that the program's managers were divided and that this division determined the timing of the achievement of eradication. This material also reveals that Indian health workers and bureaucrats were far more capable of reshaping policies in specific localities, often in response to local infrastructural and political concerns, than has been acknowledged in the historiography.