No other Indian province suffered as severely as Assam did from visceral leishmaniasis, often known as kala-azar. During the colonial era, it wreaked havoc in Assam, destroying nearly every aspect of society and leaving the victims in destitution of an unseen level. The colonial administration took action to control it as soon as it started spreading as an epidemic, and these controls persisted until the end of colonial authority. However, it was unable to provide the anticipated results, and the illness persisted, continuing to pose a major threat to the Assamese population. This chapter attempts to explain the causes, mechanisms, and outcomes of the disease's Brahmaputra-wide spread. The effectiveness of British medical policy and contemporary medicine in halting its advancement is examined in that setting. The chapter also examines how the populace viewed the illness and how they reacted to government anti-kala-azar initiatives. In this context, a short account of the condition of Assam's people and the health scenario of the province as a whole would help understand the context of the outbreak of kala-azar and its perilous effects.

A Brief History of Assam: The Condition of the People and the Outbreak of Disease

Situated on the northeastern part of the British Empire in India and bordering the powerful neighbouring states of China, Burma, and Bhutan, Assam was the most important British possession in this region. The extraordinary fertility of the region, with its vast lowlands and agricultural productivity, made it very attractive to its people and even outsiders. Before the Burmese occupation in the early nineteenth century, Assam was under the Ahom rule (1228–1818) and was, on the whole, prosperous.

The final chapter begins with consideration of the beginnings of source criticism of the first five books of the Bible and the discovery of The Epic of Gilgamesh that cast doubt, as a result, on the literal truth of the Genesis text. This chapter also takes up the development of ‘Creation Science’ as a means of shifting the debate on evolution versus the Bible to one of evolution versus ‘Creation Science’ and the role of Noah and the story of the flood in this transition. It also demonstrates how the belief in Biblical inerrancy leads to the modern conservative Christian quest to find the lost ark and, in the absence of that discovery, to recreate the ark this century in the US state of Kentucky. It shows how the ‘Ark Encounter’ in Kentucky creates a new legend of Noah that goes well beyond the Biblical story.

Appendix: Number of Kala-azar Patients Admitted for Treatment in Bengal

Apart from the scarcities and famines that afflicted its people, Bihar witnessed the repeated strikes of severe epidemics of cholera, smallpox, and fever during colonial rule. It also experienced a time of tribulation and affliction caused by kala-azar. Despite kala-azar being known as Dumdum fever, malarial cachexia, chronic malaria, catchetic fever, and so on, the people of Bihar called it kala-dukh (black sorrow), perhaps because of the severe sufferings it brought about, as the Garos called the disease kala-hazar and the Bengalis kala-jwar. The disease spread rapidly from the early twentieth century, which is said to have been facilitated by the continuous movement of people from Bihar to the plantation areas of Assam and Bengal. Bihar increasingly went on acquainting itself with medical intervention from the colonial health administration. Unfortunately, sources of the medical history of Bihar testify that kala-azar kept on attacking people till the end of colonial rule, and question is thus raised about the effectiveness of anti-kala-azar measures. This chapter is devoted to studying the occurrence of kala-azar in Bihar and the extent of its proliferation and containment. It aims to examine the causes of the occurrence of this disease combined with its perilous effects on people. I have tried to unearth, in the chapter, how and why kala-azar broke out there and caused ‘black sorrow’, the usefulness of anti-kala-azar measures, and the extent of the success of these measures in the containment of the disease.

Bengal was one of the most productive regions in the Ganges delta that came under British control in the eighteenth century. The British East India Company consolidated its hold on the region following the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and the Battle of Buxar in 1764 and, by 1793, took complete control of the region. Thus, colonial rule started its journey from Bengal (that is, Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa) in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, and its resources were exploited by the British to extend and consolidate their empire. Apart from colonial exploitative pressure, the region experienced several natural calamities, including the inroads of famines and epidemic diseases, that caused unprecedented ravages and torment for the people. This chapter aims to look into the epidemiology of kala-azar in Bengal, the colonial medical intervention to combat it, and the effectiveness of the methods implemented to contain the disease. It also brings into focus how the indigenous people, including medical professionals in particular, responded to the illness and the state's medical measures to manage it. It may not be out of place here to provide a brief note on the area, its people, and the disease environment to have a better understanding of the occurrence of black fever and its containment.

A Peep into the History of Bengal: People and Public Health

Bengal was one of the prosperous and healthiest regions in eastern India, and its prosperity, whether agricultural, commercial, or industrial, even in the early nineteenth century, was widely acclaimed. However, it lost its affluence because of colonial exploitation. The colonial rule brought about certain significant changes in Bengal's economy that severely affected agriculture and manufacturing works, leading to subordination and economic decline.

This chapter deals with the question of how the story of Noah begins to leave the world of history to enter the world of myth and legend. It begins with a discussion of Noah and his family within the developing field in the eighteenth century of comparative mythography. Particular attention is paid to the idea of Noah and his family as the origin of all religions in the works of Jacob Bryant. The chapter also continues the discussion started in Chapter 5 on the populating of the earth after the flood with an account of the role of Noah and his sons in the development of ‘race science’ in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This is followed by a discussion of ‘the curse of Ham’ and its connection to the slave trade.

This chapter begins with an account of the flood story in Hellenistic Judaism with particular attention to Josephus and Philo. It continues with a discussion of the account of Noah within the group of interpreters in the second to fourth centuries CE, whom we generally gather under the broad title of ‘Gnostics’. Like the Gnostics, the early Christian interpreters gave the story of Noah a radically new meaning as they sought the ‘spiritual’ meaning of the Noah story behind the literal or historical meaning. This section of the chapter explores the many allegorical and prototypical readings that dominated Christian readings during the first millennium. The chapter ends with a discussion of Hugh of St. Victor’s (1096–1141) De Arca Noe Morali – an early sign of the increasing emphasis for the next five hundred years within the Christian tradition on the literal and historical meaning of the story of Noah.

8.1 Introduction

As we have discussed in the previous chapters, banks as financial intermediaries mobilise deposits from savers and lend out the funds generated to borrowers. The interest income earned on loans and investments over interest cost on deposits is the main source of a bank's profits. We also discussed how the banking business entails a variety of risks. The central aspect of the banking business is maximising risk-adjusted profits. In Chapter 7, we discussed how the policy authorities regulate banking activities to contain risks within reasonable limits and ensure that banks take necessary precautions to mitigate risks.

In this perspective, banks undertake risk management as part of their regular banking operations. Risk management practices adopted by banks serve mainly two purposes. First, they ensure a bank's compliance with regulatory prescriptions in letter and spirit. Second, in the interest of sustaining the banking business and maximising risk-adjusted returns in the long run, the bank undertakes related banking operations to maintain safety and soundness. Risk management within banks is not just a matter of obligation to comply with regulatory requirements, but it is also a necessity for their very survival and sustenance.

As part of the banking sector reforms commenced in India since the early 1990s, the banking regulatory apparatus witnessed a radical transformation. Implementation of international best practices related to capital adequacy norms, asset classification, provisioning and income recognition were the key components of such regulatory reforms. A related reform was the adoption of a risk management system for identifying, measuring and mitigating different types of banking risks. Details of these aspects are provided in Chapters 6 and 7 of this book.

It is pertinent to note that the risk management criteria or parameters within a bank cannot be below the standards prescribed by the RBI. Nevertheless, there are subtle differences as regards the regulatory prescriptions on a particular aspect vis-à-vis internal risk management practices across banks on several counts.

7.1 Introduction

In Chapter 6, we identified various types of risks involved in the banking business and their underlying causes. Based on this we underscored the rationale for banking regulation and supervision to contain banking risks. Healthy and vibrant banks facilitate economic progress as explained in the previous chapters. Insolvency of banks and liquidity problems, on the other hand, can severely disrupt real economic activities. Guided by these reasons, banking regulation and supervision are widely treated as the central pillars of public policy across countries towards promoting the safety and soundness of banks. Banking regulations fundamentally strive to follow the twin objectives of (a) maintaining the stability of the banking system and (b) protecting the interest of bank depositors and borrowers.

The emergence of different kinds of banking risks historically and measures to address them have an analogy with human ailments causing fever and their treatment in medical science. When people suffered from low-grade fever caused by the common flu or cold, paracetamol was invented to treat the same. Subsequently, a new variety of fever known as malaria caused by mosquito bites became a major health concern. Medical research invented chloroquine to treat malaria. Typhoid, traced to infection that spreads through contaminated water and food, emerged as the next form of fever, and fluoroquinolones were developed to treat it. Covid-19 is the newest variant of deadly fever which caused a severe pandemic in 2020. The medical fraternity subsequently devised the required vaccine and treatment for Covid-19 too. Similarly, regulators and analysts try to identify the dimensions and root causes of different types of banking risks. Accordingly, they come up with appropriate regulatory policies to mitigate recurrence of banking crises.

5.1 Introduction

India adopted comprehensive economic reforms from the early 1990s in response to the BOP crisis of 1991. The reform initiatives included measures such as liberalisation of industrial policies removing entry barriers and government control on industrial expansion, outward orientation policies promoting foreign trade and investment, overall macroeconomic stabilisation including fiscal reforms and policy initiatives towards developing a broad-based financial sector. As a consequence of these initiatives, India witnessed significant improvements in overall macroeconomic performance during the post-reform period.

For nearly three decades after the introduction of the reforms, the average economic growth was close to 6.5 per cent. This is nearly double the average growth of around 3.5 per cent experienced during the first three decades following India's independence in 1947. Despite an economic slowdown in 2008–09 as a fallout of the GFC, the average growth during 2003–11 was estimated to be 7.4 per cent. This extended period of high and stable economic growth was unprecedented. The percentage of people living below the poverty line gradually declined from 35.97 per cent in 1993–94 to 29.80 per cent during 1999–2000 and further to 21.92 per cent in 2011–12 (as per various issues of the Economic Survey published by the Government of India). Notwithstanding debates on figures relating to the number of the poor, various official committees and working groups—such as the Alagh Committee (1979), the Lakdawala Committee (1993), the Tendulkar Committee (2009) and the Rangarajan Committee (2014), among others—have broadly confirmed the declining trend of the poverty ratio (Planning Commission, 2009, 2014).

The exports-to-GDP ratio substantially improved from less than 6 per cent in the pre-reform period to around 11–17 per cent in the late 2010s and early 2020s. The ratio of current account deficit to GDP has largely been contained within the range of 1–2 per cent during the post-reform period.