ABOUT THE COURSE:This course seeks to examine the links between medicine and colonialism in the Indian context, roughly between the 18th and 20th centuries. It will focus particularly on the social and cultural dimensions of the encounter between western medicine and indigenous systems. The course will also discuss the institutionalization of public health in India and examine how the colonial encounter left lasting legacies.This course will enable the students to understand the growth of modern medical science and practices in colonial India; the social and cultural dimensions of the colonial public health and medical policies; and the nature of the encounter between diverse medical traditionsINTENDED AUDIENCE:1.Undergraduates and Graduates from Humanities and Social Science Departments2.Elective for Undergraduates and Graduates from BTech courses3.PhD students in History
Social History Of Medicine In Colonial India
Indian Institute of Technology Madras and NPTEL via Swayam
Overview
Syllabus
Week 1: Introduction: Significance of medicine in the colonial context - Colonial understandings of Indian landscape, diseases and causations - Initial attitudes towards indigenous systems – Concerns about survival and initial medical measuresWeek 2: The IMS (Indian Medical Service) - Medical Departments - Enclavism - Shifts in the discourses on race, climate and diseases - Hill stations and Sanatoria - Medical EducationWeek 3: From White personnel’s health to ‘Native’ and Public Health - Challenge of Epidemics (Smallpox, Malaria, Cholera, Plague), Sanitary Measures, Challenges of International Trade and PoliticsWeek 4: Local Response - Compliances and Resistances - Cultural challenges - Volunteer Associations – Role of media and local intelligentsiaWeek 5: Tropical Paradigm - Tropical Diseases and Tropical Medicine; Medical Research – Emergence of Bacteriological and other Research Institutions – Malarial and other field surveys/researches - Vaccine Research and ProductionWeek 6: Colonial Medicine and Women – Zenana Missions, Lock Hospitals, Scientific Midwifery, Nursing, Women’s Medical Institutions, Women’s Medical Service (WMS).Week 7: Non-State initiatives – Setting up of funds, dispensaries, hospitals and colleges through private philanthropy – Role of MissionariesWeek 8: Western versus Indigenous Systems – Revivalist movements - Professionalization of indigenous systems - Standardization of texts and drugs - Commercialization
Taught by
Prof. John Bosco Lourdusamy
