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| Walter Charles Rand ICSindagrave.com |
Walter Charles Rand (ICS) (12 May 1863 – 3 July 1897) served as the Chairman of the Special Plague Committee during the bubonic plague epidemic in Pune (then Poona) in 1896-1897 of the then Bombay Presidency. As an office of the British Raj, he willfully employed harsh and oppressive measures to control the plague, including forcefully entering homes, inspecting residents, removing idols of deities and prohibiting funerals. This caused widespread resentment and outrage among the local population. This brutal acts finally culminated in his assassination by the Chapekar brothers in June 1897. He died at the age of 34 on 3 July 1897 and was buried at Saint Sepulchre Cemetery, Pune, Pune District, Maharashtra, India
When the plague pandemic had begun to spread across the city of Poona, the under the Bombay Presidency, the British administration under the Crown did not want to take any chances so resorted to “compulsory methods” to isolated the the infected patients. The then Governor William Mansfield Sandhurs on 10 February 1897 appointed a 34 year officer Walter Charles Rand, ICS as an Assistant Collector and Chairman, Poona Plague Committee
During the first search operation the team found 338 plague cases and 64 corpses. Five hospitals were temporarily set up, one each for the Hindu, Muslim and Parsi communities to treat the patients. The wel plus a general hospital for all patients. The well-equipped .Sassoon Hospital was for the Europeans only. To be cautious, entry was blocked for the people from the infected areas in the city and likewise no plague suspects could flee the city with the dead bodies. All vantage points were heavily guarded by the police.
The in the course of continued search operations for infected person there were complaints that ‘all the females were compelled to come out of their houses and stand before the public gaze right on the street The disgusting thing was they subjected to inspection by male soldiers; the behavior of some of the soldiers was against the modesty of women, amounting to sexual harassment
Bal Gangadhar Tilak in Mahratta, his English newspaper was cortical of the behavior of the British soldiers toward the Indian women during the aggressive search operation . Further, on his visit to England to appear before Welby Commission he gave an interview to The Manchester Guardian (now The Guardian) on July 2, 1897 (published on July 3) in which he made serious accusations against the British soldiers. These “rumors” were the talk of the town in India but were raised outside the country with such prominence for the first time. Certainly sexual harassment did occur during physical examination, ‘the exploration of the native’s body’ in the street or at railway checkpoints. In the wake of it violence erupted in many parts of the presidency.
As sub collector Rand was ruthless to control the pelage, he was ultimately murdered by the freedom fighters Chiplonkar brothers because he insulted the modesty of native women in public places in the name of plague search operations.
https://amritmahotsav.nic.in/district-reopsitory-detail.htm?6821
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