Description:
This book analyses the diverse facets of the social history of health and medicine in colonial India. It incorporates a unique set of themes such as public health and medical institutions. Based on inter-disciplinary research, the book offers valuable contributions to topics that have recently received increased scholarly attention, including the use of opiates and the role of advertising in driving medical markets. Contributors are both established and emerging scholars in the field. The book thus will be of interest to scholars of history, especially the history of medicine and the history of colonialism/imperialism, sociology, cultural theory, and South Asian Studies.
Review Quotes:
"Mark Harrison's credentials as a historian of medicine in South Asia are beyond dispute. During the last two decades, he has published extensively on various aspects of disease, medicine, and science, with a particular focus on their intersections with British imperialism and war... This collection of essays is an invitation to discover the fascinating history of medicine in colonial South Asia, as well as a potential source of inspiration for both junior and senior scholars who wish to engage further with the subject. Written in a concise and accessible style, the book is likely to become standard reading not only for scholars of South Asia but also for those with an interest in the comparative history of medicine." - Amelia Bonea, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies; Journal of International and Global Studies Volume 4, Number 1, (November 2012).
"The book is a must for students of the history of South Asia, and not just its medical history, since it has a lot about colonial rule in practice." - Michael Mann, H-Soz-u-Kult (May, 2009)
"The social history of health and medicine in colonial India is an excellent and sophisticated edited volume which aims to develop some of the newest themes which have emerged in the medical historiography of colonial India in recent years... Its subject matter is diverse yet curiously coherent; its content is well-edited; and its impact is potentially important. It will prove useful to academics, students, social anthropologists and those with an interest in South Asian studies." - Ian Miller, University College Dublin, Ireland; Contemporary South Asia, Vol. 19, No. 2, June 2011