'What is ‘Colonial’ about Colonial Medical Care?: Gender, society and the political economy of health care in India, c. 1840-1920' a talk by Dr. Samiksha Sehrawat at Seminar Room, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 4th April 2014
Time : 3:00 pm
Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)
Place : Seminar Room, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi - 110011
Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Race Course(Yellow Line)'
Event Description : The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library cordially invites you to a Seminar on ‘What is ‘Colonial’ about Colonial Medical Care?: Gender, society and the political economy of health care in India, c. 1840-1920’ by Dr. Samiksha Sehrawat Newcastle University,UK.
Abstract : The history of medicine in India has focused on diseases and preventive medicine on the one hand and on challenges to biomedicine posed by medical pluralism on the other. Earlier studies have argued that what made colonial medicine ‘colonial’ was the use of infrastructure of disease prevention to control the indigenous population and the marginalization of indigenous medicine. This paper will shift the focus to examine the colonial roots of contemporary debates about the relationship between the state and medical care. This paper will argue that what made colonial medical care ‘colonial’ was the underinvestment in health care for the Indian population. Colonial governmentality sought to refashion indigenous elites through medical philanthropy into self-governing subjects, but did not concern itself with improving the health and productivity of the population. Its impact was felt across medical care facilities in north India, from ‘public’ dispensaries for the poor and ‘zenana’ medical care to military hospitals for Indian soldiers. Thus, indigenous patients were essentialized as slavishly bound to tradition in discourses manufactured by the Dufferin Fund and by army authorities deeply invested in the martial race hypothesis. The political economy of health care came under contestation by both nationalist politicians and medical professionals during the twentieth century. Nationalist politicians argued for the expansion of medical care facilities for the rural population in debates over ideas of development that emerged after the First World War. Doctors, with their transnational professional associations, became important interlocutors in these debates, acting as experts both for the colonial state and its nationalist critics. The different emphases placed on the role of the public, private and voluntary sectors in providing medical care had important implications for the medical infrastructure bequeathed to post-colonial India and for contemporary debates about the liberalization of medical care.
Speaker : Dr. Samiksha Sehrawat is Lecturer in the History of Medicine and South Asia at Newcastle University. She was educated at the University of Delhi and the University of Oxford. Her publications include Colonial Medical Care in North India: Gender, State and Society, c. 1840-1920, 2013. This book addresses many neglected themes—the political economy of health, imperial history, and the importance of gender and ethnicity in shaping access to medical care in colonial India. Dr. Sehrawat’s research interests include the social history of medicine, the history of peasant societies, the transnational links created during the age of empires, and Indians in the First World War. She has published articles on gender history, urban history, and the history of princely states. She is currently working on a monograph on the social history of hospitals in Punjab in the Studies in Imperialism series of Manchester University Press.
Related Events : Talks | History | Health
Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)
Place : Seminar Room, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi - 110011
Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Race Course(Yellow Line)'
Event Description : The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library cordially invites you to a Seminar on ‘What is ‘Colonial’ about Colonial Medical Care?: Gender, society and the political economy of health care in India, c. 1840-1920’ by Dr. Samiksha Sehrawat Newcastle University,UK.
Abstract : The history of medicine in India has focused on diseases and preventive medicine on the one hand and on challenges to biomedicine posed by medical pluralism on the other. Earlier studies have argued that what made colonial medicine ‘colonial’ was the use of infrastructure of disease prevention to control the indigenous population and the marginalization of indigenous medicine. This paper will shift the focus to examine the colonial roots of contemporary debates about the relationship between the state and medical care. This paper will argue that what made colonial medical care ‘colonial’ was the underinvestment in health care for the Indian population. Colonial governmentality sought to refashion indigenous elites through medical philanthropy into self-governing subjects, but did not concern itself with improving the health and productivity of the population. Its impact was felt across medical care facilities in north India, from ‘public’ dispensaries for the poor and ‘zenana’ medical care to military hospitals for Indian soldiers. Thus, indigenous patients were essentialized as slavishly bound to tradition in discourses manufactured by the Dufferin Fund and by army authorities deeply invested in the martial race hypothesis. The political economy of health care came under contestation by both nationalist politicians and medical professionals during the twentieth century. Nationalist politicians argued for the expansion of medical care facilities for the rural population in debates over ideas of development that emerged after the First World War. Doctors, with their transnational professional associations, became important interlocutors in these debates, acting as experts both for the colonial state and its nationalist critics. The different emphases placed on the role of the public, private and voluntary sectors in providing medical care had important implications for the medical infrastructure bequeathed to post-colonial India and for contemporary debates about the liberalization of medical care.
Speaker : Dr. Samiksha Sehrawat is Lecturer in the History of Medicine and South Asia at Newcastle University. She was educated at the University of Delhi and the University of Oxford. Her publications include Colonial Medical Care in North India: Gender, State and Society, c. 1840-1920, 2013. This book addresses many neglected themes—the political economy of health, imperial history, and the importance of gender and ethnicity in shaping access to medical care in colonial India. Dr. Sehrawat’s research interests include the social history of medicine, the history of peasant societies, the transnational links created during the age of empires, and Indians in the First World War. She has published articles on gender history, urban history, and the history of princely states. She is currently working on a monograph on the social history of hospitals in Punjab in the Studies in Imperialism series of Manchester University Press.
'What is ‘Colonial’ about Colonial Medical Care?: Gender, society and the political economy of health care in India, c. 1840-1920' a talk by Dr. Samiksha Sehrawat at Seminar Room, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 4th April 2014
!['What is ‘Colonial’ about Colonial Medical Care?: Gender, society and the political economy of health care in India, c. 1840-1920' a talk by Dr. Samiksha Sehrawat at Seminar Room, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 4th April 2014]()
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Friday, April 04, 2014
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