How TB patients left to die by kin 100 years ago set up Himachal town

DHARAMPUR (KASAULI): Gurbachan Singh Sethi, 68, owns a hotel and homestay in Dharampur, a small town near Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh. He is a prominent citizen, well-known in these parts. But, what connects him with most of the local residents is also what makes the town remarkable: most of its people are descendants of patients who had come to the 107-year-old tuberculosis sanatorium generations ago.

After they were cured at the sanatorium, the British government gave patients parcels of land in the neighbourhood so that they could do fend for themselves. This was because families would often not take back those afflicted with the disease even after recovery was completed. Taboo around it in those days was severe. Over the decades, though, these patients prospered, forging a life at a time when the very mention of TB led to social ostracism.