Pandemic, lockdown, masks, vaccine, state failure, state overreach: India's been here before, and it's been worse. Chinmay Tumbe joins Amit Varma in episode 205 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss how 40 million lives were lost in the subcontinent between 1817 and 1920 in the cholera, plague and influenza pandemics -- and the lessons we need to learn from them. Also check out: 1. Age of Pandemics -- Chinmay Tumbe. 2. India Moving -- Chinmay Tumbe. 3. India = Migration -- Episode 128 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chinmay Tumbe). 4. Everyday Technology: Machines and the Making of India's Modernity -- David Arnold. 5. Cholera and Colonialism in British India -- David Arnold. 6. Smritichitre: The Memoirs of a Spirited Wife -- Lakshmibai Tilak (translated by Shanta Gokhale). 7. The British in India: A Social History of the Raj -- David Gilmour. 8. The Great Escape -- Angus Deaton. 9. The Birth of the Modern World -- CA Bayly. 10. Eric Hobsbawm's books on Amazon. 11. Harsh Mander’s Near-Death Covid Experience In Delhi’s Hospitals -- Natasha Badhwar. 12. Fighting Fake News -- Episode 133 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pratik Sinha). 13. Plague Ports -- Myron Echenberg. 14. A Life Misspent -- Suryakant Tripathi aka Nirala. This episode is sponsored by The Great Courses Plus. Check out their course, An Introduction to Infectious Diseases. For free unlimited access for a month, click here. You can now buy Seen/Unseen swag. And do check out Amit’s online courses, The Art of Clear Writing and The Art of Podcasting.

Release date

Audiobook: 27 December 2020