What history tells us India will do next about COVID-19

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Editor's note: There are as many plagues as wars in history; yet plagues and wars take people equally by surprise,” Albert Camus wrote in The Plague, a 1947 existential novel about the disease sweeping the French Algerian city of Oran. Yet there are no surprises in the fallout of plague and war alike—both unfailingly leave a trail of destruction, both human and economic. That said, it is the response to the situation, often by the state, that ultimately casts a long shadow, ever to be etched in public memory.  India's response to the novel coronavirus contagion has so far been a mixed bag. Though the government didn’t do much in the early days after the first local case was detected on 30 January, when it started taking action, it came down decisively. With barely hours of notice to citizens, the government on 24 March announced a complete shutdown of the country for 21 days. All modes of public transport were halted, and every office and school ordered to shut, save essential industries; citizens were told to confine themselves to their homes and …