Mortality transition in India: an environmental explanation

Tirthankar Roy

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: The paper explains why death rates in India began falling in the early twentieth century. While many scholars link this decline to better nutrition and famine relief, or indirectly to food, the paper argues that these explanations are incomplete. Most deaths during famines were caused by diseases that spread from natural habitats to human hosts due to environmental disturbances triggered by hydrological droughts. The idea of ‘environmental reservoirs’, where microbes live before infecting humans, is relevant to understanding the impact of tropical climate on human lives. Mortality rates dropped as public health strategies began to reflect a unified understanding of disease patterns shaped by environmental factors.

Keywords: environmental reservoir; mortality transition; colonial India; cholera; plague; immunity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I18 N35 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2026-10-08
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Published in Continuity and Change, 8, October, 2026, 41(2), pp. 221 - 244. ISSN: 0268-4160

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