BMC to open 1872-1911 records for research on Mumbai's 150-year-old cholera epidemic
A historian will study how the civic body handled cholera in the late 19th century, if the Standing Committee approves access to its archives with the fee waived.
A special historical study will examine what the then Mumbai municipal corporation did when cholera spread 150 years ago, and how public health and civic administration dealt with the crisis.
Independent historian Dr Vivek Neelkanthan, who holds a PhD in history from the University of Sydney in Australia, is writing a book on the history of cholera in Mumbai. For this research, the civic body has prepared a proposal to grant, with conditions, access to the historical records of the Standing Committee from 1872 to 1911, a period of about four decades.
Under Section 36(O) of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888, any person other than members of the corporation must pay a fixed fee to inspect such old documents. The administration, however, has recommended waiving the fee, considering this an important academic and historical project. Fees have been waived in this way earlier for academic work.
Dr Neelkanthan completed his postgraduate degree at the University of Mumbai in 2004. He is currently researching the health system and epidemics of colonial-era Mumbai. His aim is to understand how the civic body's efforts to contain cholera between 1872 and 1911, the sanitation rules framed and the development of basic civic amenities related to the administration of the time. His study has also been backed with a recommendation letter from Dr Lakshmi Salvi, head of the history department at the University of Mumbai.
Because the documents are very old and valuable, the civic body has imposed some strict conditions on the researcher. The original records must be examined only in the presence of civic staff. The researcher must also give an undertaking that these fragile documents will be handled with care.
The information in the records cannot be misused, and cannot be passed to anyone else without the civic body's prior permission. In addition, once the research is complete, one copy of the resulting book, or of the chapter concerning the civic body, must be deposited with the municipal secretary. The proposal has been placed before the corporation's Standing Committee for final approval.
