Description: Poonam Bala's Contesting Colonial Authority explores the interplay of conformity and defiance amongst the plural medical tradition in colonial India. The contributors reveal how Indian elites, nationalists, and the rest of the Indian population participated in the move to revi...
Review Quotes:
"The dynamics of the alternative medical models issuing from the complex colonial encounters are more clearly perceived through case studies as diverse as the ones included in this volume, which comprehends lesser-known colonial contexts. . . .Furthermore, it summarizes discussions developed by its contributors in other works, showing in a clear and interesting way the dynamics of the authoritative models in the making but also the permanent challenges they faced." --Isis
"This edited collection. . . .will appeal to students and researchers seeking to explore the various contours of the history of colonial medical contestations." --Bulletin of the History of Medicine "This book is a welcome addition to the ongoing debate around colonial authority and contesting its mechanisms of power." --Traditional South Asian Medicine "A masterly set of international essays that richly explore, at different sub-continental colonial sites, the neglected paradigm of medicine to exemplify the nature of knowledge transfer, with all of its filigreed cultural and socio-political implications. A must read for those interested in reconfiguring assessments of the colonial relationship." --Tim Allender, University of Sydney "This edited collection represents scholastically rich contextual history of the encounters between civilizations and their artifacts such as medical systems." --K. R. Nayar, Jawaharlal Nehru University