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Pandemics and Historical Mortality in India

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  • Tumbe, Chinmay

Abstract

This paper presents selected historical mortality statistics of India and analyses their characteristics and trends. Statistics are collated from a wide range of sources as time series at different regional scales, and particularly for the pandemics related with cholera, plague and influenza between 1817 and 1920. The paper analyses rare burial records in 19th century Calcutta, constructs the global distribution of deaths due to pandemic cholera in the 19th and early 20th century, and provides new mortality estimates of the 1918 influenza pandemic in India. The paper also presents a bibliography of over 250 studies on pandemics and historical mortality in India.

Suggested Citation

  • Tumbe, Chinmay, 2020. "Pandemics and Historical Mortality in India," IIMA Working Papers WP 2020-12-03, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    • Handle: RePEc:iim:iimawp:14644
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    File URL: https://www.iima.ac.in/sites/default/files/rnpfiles/17719931472020-12-03.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roy, Tirthankar, 2012. "Natural Disasters and Indian History: Oxford India Short Introductions," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198075370, Decembrie.
    2. Bharadwaj, Prashant & Khwaja, Asim Ijaz & Mian, Atif, 2008. "The Big March: Migratory Flows after the Partition of India," Working Paper Series rwp08-029, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    3. repec:aei:rpaper:1008560098 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Siddharth Chandra & Goran Kuljanin & Jennifer Wray, 2012. "Mortality From the Influenza Pandemic of 1918–1919: The Case of India," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(3), pages 857-865, August.
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    Cited by:

    1. Beyer, Robert C.M. & Jain, Tarun & Sinha, Sonalika, 2023. "Lights out? COVID-19 containment policies and economic activity," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    2. Sharmishtha Raghuvanshi & Supriya Sanjay Nikam & Manisha Karne & Satyanarayan Kishan Kothe, 2025. "Unmasking inequility: socio-economic determinants and gender disparities in Maharashtra and India's health outcomes -- Insights from NFHS-5," Papers 2506.08206, arXiv.org.

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