102 years old Bombay Fever pandemic

When India has lost its first patient to the novel coronavirus. It is time to remember another violent pandemic that ravaged the subcontinent around World War I. The Spanish influenza that killed 50-100 mln people worldwide. In India, this flu was called the Bombay Fever as it reached via ships that sailed into the city in 2 waves: First in May 1918 and again in 1919. In those 2 years, India lost 5-10 mln people — about 5% of its population. India accounted for nearly 20% of the death count worldwide. This was about a year after Mahatma Gandhi set up his Sabarmati Ashram. He called the disease God’s punishment of Western civilization for its colonialism. But India registered the highest death count worldwide.