Onset of the first cholera pandemic

Background. Numerous epidemics prior to 1817 are suspected as being cholera, though cholera had spread across India many times previously. The first cholera pandemic is suspected to have begun in 1817 in the town of Jessore, and in that year cholera began spreading outside the Ganges Delta. Historian Christopher Hamlin noted that evidence for a Bengali origin of the pandemic was often based on 19th-century accounts steeped in biases against Hindu and Indian culture.

Spread. By September 1817, the disease reached Calcutta on the Bay of Bengal and quickly spread to the rest of the subcontinent. The pandemic affected almost every country in Asia, extending to China, Indonesia, and the Caspian Sea. It did not ravage Europe and the Americas until later epidemics, though it attracted European attention due to deaths among British troops.

Impact. Millions of people died as a result of this pandemic, including approximately 10,000 troops in British service. Over 100,000 people died on Java alone. The Indian origins of cholera and its global dissemination from Bengal made the disease a symbol for Western fears, influencing anti-Asian sentiment and perceptions of Indian society.