Prevention of (spread of) epidemics and communicable diseases were built into the social life in India . Communities are prone to certain diseases due to their customs and manners. eg food-habits. 'Knowledgeable Indians' in the upper echelons, allowed other castes and communities to pursue their own lives without restraint, but conforming to the general and accepted social customs. They had devised a brilliant template, in which all types of communities could be accommodated. They did not butcher/exterminate those who did not conform to their own highly REFINED lifestyles.This is quite unlike the happenings in N.America, where White Colonists, assuming themselves to be superior, exterminated the native Red-Indians there. Contrasted to this, in India, it was a policy of live and let live. Despite such humanistic attitude, members of the so called 'upper-castes' are subjected to negative portrayal in the name of CASTE & UNTOUCHABILITY.
Untouchability was essential in 'those' times to preserve self, family and community. Refer http://msradha.blogspot.in/2014/05/untouchability-fully-justified-was.html Or imagine a situation where the men wielding knowledge and power forcing the various 'non-refined' (non-Sanskritised) castes into 'REFORMATION' camps, and teaching them habits of cleanliness and hygiene by the use of FORCE. Since they were 'knowledgeable' and imbibed with wisdom, they did did not resort to such inhuman tactics.Further fully realizing the impracticability of VIOLENT methods, some made their own enclaves to live their refined lives unhindered and at times zealously guarding such spaces. (eg. Agrahara).
Ultimately,
we have to take charge of our own lives.That is what the pandemic EBOLA reminds
us. Neither the State nor SCIENCE can guarantee protection against such
DEADLY micro-organisms, the knowledge of which is NOT fully grasped by
modern science. In the Atharva-Veda, there is awareness of disease causing
organisms, seen & unseen (Drishtam & Adirshtam). That may
be one reason why the learned-men were careful & selective in
their social intercourse.
N.B- Those who are freely willing, without any second thoughts to share their tooth-brush , with kith & kin may condemn this post.
Ebola: the return of cordon sanitaire
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-international/ebola-the-return-of-cordon-sanitaire/article6314845.ece
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is so out of control
that governments there have revived a disease-fighting tactic not used
in nearly a century: the “
cordon sanitaire
,” in which a line is drawn around the infected area, and no one is allowed out.
Cordons,
common in the medieval era of the Black Death, have not been seen since
the border between Poland and the Soviet Union was closed in 1918 to
stop typhus from spreading west. They have the potential to become
brutal and inhumane. Centuries ago, in their most extreme form, everyone
within the boundaries was left to die or survive, until the outbreak
ended.
Plans for the new cordon were announced August
1 at an emergency meeting in Conakry, Guinea, of the Mano River Union, a
regional association of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the three
countries hardest hit by Ebola, according to Agence France-Presse. The
plan was to isolate a triangular area where the three countries meet,
separated only by porous borders, and where 70 per cent of the cases
known at that time had been found.
Officials
at the World Health Organisation and the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, which have experts advising the countries, say the
tactic could help contain the outbreak but want to see it used humanely.
Experts said that any cordon must let food, water and medical care
reach those inside, and that the trust of inhabitants must be won
through communication with their leaders.
The phrase
cordon sanitaire
, or sanitary barrier, appears to date from 1821, when France sent
30,000 troops into the Pyrenees to stop a lethal fever raging in Spain
from crossing the border.
In Sierra Leone, large
sections of the Kailahun and Kenema districts, an area the size of
Jamaica, have been cut off by military roadblocks.
Inside
the cordoned area of Sierra Leone and Liberia, alarmed residents have
told reporters that they fear starving because food prices are rising.
It is not clear whether plans to deliver food, water and care are under
way.
— New York Times News Service
Cordons, common in the medieval era of the Black Death, have not been seen since 1918
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