The Health Scene in Colonial India, The Sunday Tribune, 9-Jul-06

Old Potions, New Bottles
by Kavita Sivaramakrishnan.
Orient Longman. Pages xiv + 280. Rs 795.

Expunging Variola
by Sanjoy Bhattacharya
Orient Longman. Pages xv + 327. Rs 750.

Reproductive Health in India
edited by Sarah Hodges
Orient Longman. Pages ix + 264. Price Rs 620.

Literature on health scene in India is not exactly abundant. Empirical studies – both at macro and micro levels – have been less than adequate, and are certainly not systemised. Public discourse has been lacking too. The scenario pertaining to pre-Independence India is equally dismal in this regard. Therefore, the following three studies published by the Orient Longman –commissioned by UK’s Wellcome Trust – are welcome additions to the corpus. These books focus on different aspects of the health scenario while taking into account the political, social and medical conditions obtaining in India during the period spanning early-mid-19th century to late-mid twentieth century. The common factor in all the three books is the British Raj that, on the one hand, posed a threat to the indigenous medicine and, on the other, introduced and institutionalised modern medicare systems that helped fight such deadly epidemics as small pox and made childbirth a safe phenomenon even as it spurred on vaids and hakeems to "corporatise" indigenous medicine. The books have been reviewed in a chronological order and should interest experts and laymen alike. >>>