The Forgotten Guardians: How Bengal’s Tikadars Were Erased from the History of Smallpox Vaccination

The Tikadars of Bengal were traditional practitioners who performed smallpox inoculation (known as variolation) centuries before the arrival of European vaccination methods. They used dried scabs from smallpox patients, which were prepared through religious and ritualistic practices, and manually introduced the virus into healthy individuals to induce a milder form of the disease and subsequent immunity.

John Zephaniah Holwell, a British official and Fellow of the Royal Society, documented this practice in 1767, acknowledging that smallpox inoculation was a well-established, systematic, and widespread tradition among Hindus in Bengal, passed down through generations.

 Holwell’s writings brought attention to the efficacy of the Indian method and its deep roots in local knowledge and culture.However, with the introduction of the British vaccination system in the early 19th century, the British colonial administration sought to replace traditional variolation with their own methods. Tikadars were marginalized, and their practices were actively suppressed. The British government offered pensions to Tikadars who agreed to relinquish their traditional practice, and variolation was eventually banned, equating it to outdated customs like sati and infanticide. 

The knowledge and expertise of the Tikadars were effectively stolen and repackaged as Western science, with the British claiming credit for the discovery and implementation of vaccination in India.

This colonial takeover not only destroyed the livelihoods of the Tikadars but also erased centuries of indigenous medical knowledge, replacing it with a system that prioritized European authority and control.