The outbreak of a deadly infectious disease (widely believed to be the pneumonic plague) that gripped Surat, IndiaÆs 12th largest city, in 1994, created widespread panic not just in the country but throughout the world. Though the disease was controlled within a week, it has raised many fundamental and still unresolved issues concerning the state of the public health system and the path of urban development in India. Public Health and Urban Development treats the Surat episode as a symptom of a sociopolitical disease related to the value system of the populace, the lop-sided nature of development, the crisis in governance, and a fragile and fragmented civil society. Ghanshyam Shah outlines the pattern of SuratÆs growth, the city governmentÆs resources, and the state of its municipal services. Against this background, he charts the outbreak and spread of the disease, perceptions of and response to the crisis of different strata of society, outlines the way local communities responded to the situation based on primordial loyalties such as kinship and caste, and describes the mechanisms that were evolved to cope with the crisis. He draws lessons from the Surat experience to suggest suitable policies for minimizing the recurrence of such deadly diseases. Though focused on the 1994 Surat epidemic, the book covers a much wider canvas. It delves deep into issues such as the collapse of the political system in India, the legitimacy of the state in managing society, and the lack of social consciousness and social action.

The author attributes the increasing incidence of infectious diseases in the country to the degradation of the environment compounded by inadequate sewage systems, poverty, and ignorance. Shah maintains that while urbanization has increased at a rapid pace in India, the country has still not evolved a clear-cut urban policy and relies on laws that are regulatory but not developmental and that, in any case, are observed more in the breach.Perhaps the first political-anthropological study of an epidemic in contemporary India. Public Health and Urban Development is based on first-hand accounts, and will attract a wide readership. It will be of considerable interest to urban planners, public health professionals, and students and scholars of social and preventative medicine, community health, sociology, anthropology, development, and public administration.