Contesting Colonial Authority

Medicine and Indigenous Responses in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century India

Contributions by Poonam Bala, Madhulika Banerjee, Cristiana Bastos, Shrimoy Roy Chaudhary, Shamshad Khan, Sean Lang, Atsuko Naono, Neshat Quaiser, Arabinda Samanta Edited by Poonam Bala

Publication date:

12 April 2012

Length of book:

186 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739170236

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 revisit and frame a new social character of Indian Medicine. Viewed in the light of the cultural, nationalistic, social, literary and scientific essentials, Contesting Colonial Authority highlights various indigenous interpretations and mechanisms through which Indian sciences and medicine were projected against the cultural background of a rich medical tradition.

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. ‘Nationalizing’ Medicine by Poonam Bala
2. Teaching European Medicine in Colonial Goa by Cristiana Bastos
3. Ayurvedic Pharmaceuticals by Madhulika Banerjee
4. Corporal Contestations by Shrimoy Roy Chaudhary
5. Colonial Medicine and Elite Nationalist Responses in India by Shamshad Khan
6. Colonial Compassion and Political Calculation by Sean Lang
7. Educating Lady Doctors in Colonial Burma by Atsuko Naono
8. Unani Medical Culture by Neshat Quaiser
9. Malarial Fever in Nineteenth-Century Bengal by Arabinda Samanta
Index
About the Contributors

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.