The Social History of Health and Medicine in Colonial India [Hardcover]

This book analyzes the diverse facets of the social history of health and medicine in colonial India. It explores a unique set of themes that capture the diversities of India, such as public health, medical institutions, mental illness and the politics and economics of colonialism. Based on inter-disciplinary research, the contributions offer valuable insight into topics that have recently received increased scholarly attention, including the use of opiates and the role of advertising in driving medical markets. The contributors, both established and emerging scholars in the field, incorporate sources ranging from palm leaf manuscripts to archival materials.

This book will be of interest to scholars of history, especially the history of medicine and the history of colonialism and imperialism, sociology, social anthropology, cultural theory, and South Asian Studies, as well as to health workers and NGOs.

1. Ranald Martins Medical Topography [1837]: The Emergence of Public Health in Calcutta Partho Datta  2. The Haj Pilgrimage and Issues of Health Saurabh Mishra  3. Subordinate Negotiations: The Indigenous Staff, Colonial State and Public Health Amna Khalid  4. Plague, Quarantine and Empire: British-Indian Sanitary Strategies in Central Asia, 18971907 Sanchari Dutta  5. Medical Research and Control of Disease: Kala-azar in British India Achintya Kumar Dutta  6. The Leprosy Patient and Society: Colonial Orissa, 1870s1940s Chandi P. Nanda and Biswamoy Pati  7. Medical and Colonial Power: The Case of the Mentally Ill in Nineteenth Century Bengal Waltraud Ernst  8. Prejudices Clung to by the Natives: Ethnicity in the Indian Army and Hospitals for Sepoys, c.1870s90s Samiksha Sehrawat  9. Racial Pathologies: Morbid Anatomy in British India, 177l“&