Author: Deepak Kumar
Publisher: Tulika
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 307
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8185229538
Description
The essays comprising this volume, in presenting the history of disease and medicine in ancient, medieval and colonial India, seek to achieve a balance between social constructivism and historical relativism.
The history of science, technology and medicine has always occupied a special place in Indian history through the ages. Its significance, especially from a sociocultural perspective, cannot be ignored. In recognition of the importance of this subject, the 61st session of the Indian History Congress, held in Kolkata in January 2001, organized a special panel on the history of health conditions and the progress of medicine in India.
The present volume, edited and introduced by Deepak Kumar, brings together the papers presented at this pane, along with some fresh contributions. The essays comprising this volume, in presenting the history of disease and medicine in ancient, medieval and colonial India, seek to achieve a balance between social constructivism and historical relativism.
Contents
Preface
Social History of Medicine: Some Issues and Concerns
PRE-MODERN INDIA
Disease, Surgery and Health in the Harappan Civilization
Surgery in Early India: A Note on the Development of Medical Science
Medieval Theories of Vision and the Introduction of Spectacles in India, c. 1200-1750
Physicians as Professionals in Medieval India
A Sixteenth-Century Code for Physicians
Inside and Outside the Systems: Change and Innovation in Medical and Surgical Practice in Mughal India
Smallpox and its Treatment in Pre-Modern India
Of Therapeutics and Prophylactics: The exegesis of an Eighteenth-Century Tract of Smallpox
MODERN INDIA
Environmental Factors Contributing to Malaria in Colonial Bengal
Malaria in Nineteenth-Century Bombay
‘Clouds of Cholera’ and Clouds around Cholera’ 1817-70
An Empire ‘De-Masculinized’!: The British colonial State and the Problem of Syphilis in Nineteenth Century India
Medical Missionaries at Work: The Canadian Baptist Missionaries in the Telugu Country, 1870-1952
Disciplining the Body? Health Care for Women and Children in Early Twentieth-Century Bengal
Social History of Western Medical Practice in Travancore: An Inquiry into the Administrative Process
Gauging Indian Responses to Western Medicine: Hospitals and Dispensaries, Bombay Presidency, 1900-20
Public Health Issues and the Freedom Movement: Gandhi on Nutrition, Sanitation, Infectious Diseases and Health Care
Eliding History: The World Bank’s Health Policies
Bibliography
Contributors
Index