The flu devastates India

1918 · Event

Carried inland from Bombay's docks along the railways, the autumn wave kills somewhere between 12 and 18 million people in India — the worst national toll on earth, amplified by famine, monsoon failure and a colonial state that largely left relief to volunteers. A young Gandhi, himself bedridden with it, watches the Raj's indifference radicalise a generation.

On these timelines: The Spanish Flu, Pandemics & Plagues, India, Medicine through Time, Master

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