Fallacy, sacrilege, betrayal and conspiracy: the cultural construction of opposition to immunisation in India

In January 1819 theMadras Courierpublished an interesting note by Calvi Virumbon, in which it was claimed that vaccination against smallpox was known in India before Jenner’s famous discovery in 1796. Virumbon wrote that he had discovered an ancient text in Sanskrit describing a way to avoid smallpox, which was indistinguishable from vaccination.¹ Together with other more or less convincing references to the existence of pre-Jennerian vaccination in India, Virumbon’s claim caused significant interest over the next century. Today, however, there seems to be agreement that the claim was a ‘pious fraud’ made by a British civil servant in