Division of Health and Humanities

                                                          

 

                          

Welcome to the Virtual Exhibition of Bangalore's Socio-Cultural History of Typhoid Fever. This work is the outcome of a two-and-a-half-year research project titled "Typhoid Fever and Bangalore: Social, Cultural and Public Health narratives –Lessons from the past to understand the present" [IEC 187/2020] done in collaboration with the University of Oxford. (https://www.hsm.ox.ac.uk/alice-typhoidland-past-and-present-typhoid) which unfolds with local concepts of fever, the bacterial understanding of typhoid in colonial times, sanitation and hygiene concerns, and finally concludes with stories of sanitation workers.

The space is designed to represent an environment in Gather.Town, a social networking site, and feels and looks like some of the prominent sites in Bangalore that are essential to Typhoid History's narrative so that visitors may get a sense of the tale from cultural, medical, and sanitary perspectives. An immersive digital exhibition on Google Arts and Culture focussing on 3 galleries provides a rich source of information on cultural understanding of fever, the role played by the town planners, doctors in controlling the spread of typhoid during colonial times concluding with the story of Safai Karmacharis- the backbone of the Indian Sanitation system.

There are broadly three spaces and time phases covered -

1 - A “fever temple” in contemporary Bengaluru with links to past and present cultural and social beliefs.

2 - Colonial Bangalore with its Pete area (established by Kempegowda I) and the Cantonment area with its military base and hospital. Urban planning and water supply are the focal points here.

3 - Sanitation in a city and the role played by sanitation workers, their stories, their lives, and the laws impacting them, is the highlight of the next space and is back to contemporary Bangalore.

You exit the tour at St John’s Medical College, in fact at the History of Medicine museum (provide a pic) where we hope we will see you in person soon!

The experience is similar to a 2D video game. Immerse yourself in it, do complete the tour and send us your feedback. Further developments and improvements are possible.

 

(CLICKABLE LINKS)

Instructions for Gather.Town:

Gather.Town link: https://tinyurl.com/36bzmyjc

Google Arts & Culture Link:

 

Link for offboarding from Gather

(CLICKABLE LINKS)

1. Feedback Form
2. Quiz
3. Toolkit

 

Credit List for Galleries

 

The exhibition was organized in collaboration with the University of Oxford, UK.

Script and Curation: Dr Manjulika Vaz, Radhika Hegde, Dr Vagishwari, Sakshi Saldhana, Claas Kirchhelle, Samantha Vanderslott, Ruchira Verma

Exhibition Compilation: Radhika Hegde, Sakshi Saldhana

Photography and Photo Editing: Kushal PK

Artwork: Saachi Narayan, Vijay Joshi

Vocal Artist: Sanskrithi Kesiraju

Researchers: Anisha Ananthpukar, Archana Rangaswamaiah, Dr. Satyanath, Anuroop Tantry.