The whole world is waiting for a vaccine, to combat the coronavirus pandemic. But this is not the first pandemic in the world. Recently, the Bubonic Plague made a comeback in one of China’s cities and this gives rise to a question that how did we, Barodians, fight against the Bubonic Plague when it first broke out.
When Baroda was affected by the plague, to fight against the situation, Maharaja Sayajirao III invited the famous Russian bacteriologist, Dr Waldemar Haffkine in the year 1897. Waldemar was the first-ever microbiologist who developed and administered vaccines against Cholera and Bubonic plague, by first testing these vaccines on himself.
In this picture, Haffkine can be seen carrying out inoculations in Baroda. Abbas Tyabji was an eminent freedom fighter, the Chief Justice of Baroda State and was a close friend of the Maharaja, and can be seen on the extreme right of the picture. He was present to inspire the local community to get vaccinated. He also took his daughter Sharifa (seen with Haffkine’s arm around her shoulder) and little cousin Hatim (extreme right) to receive the inoculation.
An interesting fact to note is that Abbas Tyabji is the maternal grandfather of Padma Bhushan India historian Irfan Habib, who also happens to be born in Baroda!
It was in the year 1899 when Dr Haffkine set up the Haffkine Institute for Training Research and Testing as a plague research laboratory. It is one of the earliest institutes of it’s kind.
(Shared by Maharani Radhika Raje
