ABSTRACT
Plague ravaged India for two decades and sporadically thereafter, from its first appearance in Bombay city in August 1896, leading to the death of at least 12 million people. In Mysore Province, with a population of 4,943,604 as per the Census of 1891, the plague first appeared in Bangalore on 12 August 1898. During the earlier years of the epidemic, the preventive measures were mostly aimed at the destruction of the pathogenic-microorganisms, the plague bacillus, which was supposed to be the independent causative agent in the transmission of the disease. The administration took strong initiatives for prompt evacuation, encouraged exterminating rodents, published methods of proper sanitation and ventilation, and even assigned cash rewards for taking such measures. The administration had to resort to use of force to control hostile crowds. One such incident near Srirangapatam, in November 1898, became known as the 'Ganjam Riots', a historic event in the people's agitations against anti-plague measure of the Mysore Durbar.
