Vaccinating against Vasoori: Eradicating smallpox in the ‘model’ princely state of Travancore, 1804–1946

Abstract

The social and medical histories of vaccination are increasingly important in the twenty-first century, as anti-vaccination narratives threaten herd immunity across the world. Much of the historical scholarship on vaccination in India focusses on smallpox, largely in the context of the colonial or post-colonial state. This article explores the histories of this policy in the ‘model’ princely state of Travancore. The essay integrates medical and social history as it tracks the introduction and progress of vaccination into the princely state and examines the process as biomedical discourse about disease and public health, and as a set of corporeal practices. The article also examines the broader cultural meanings ascribed to biomedicine in this princely state and the efforts to construct a ‘modern’ corporeal consciousness through direct and indirect interventions. Finally, the article also engages with the question of what exactly the introduction of biomedicine entailed for the average resident of this region in terms of disease control and prevention.