The Power of Rumours
The power of rumours to influence society is immense. One of the most powerful rumours in recent times was the one about Lord Ganesha “drinking “ milk that swept all over India in September 1995. The whole of India was agog with rumours of this supernatural event and it all died down after about three days. Some rumours can exhibit some really fantastic feats of imagination on the part of their creators. And as someone once pointed out, there is a sucker born every minute in order to believe it. The times when rumours have a field day are during times of civic stress, like wars, riots and the like. At that time grown and normally sensible can easily swallow seven impossible things before breakfast without even turning a hair. One such group of rumours have been documented during a plague epidemic in Calcutta in 1898. Plague was a terror in those days and still is. Many will remember the panic that was set off by the Surat plague scare in 1994. People fled in panic from the city red...