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Colonialism and Sanitary Medicine: The Development of Preventive Health Policy in the Punjab, 1860 to 1900

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

John Chandler Hume Jr
Affiliation:
Department of History, St Mary's College

Extract

The system of medicine known today variously as ‘international,’ ‘scientific,’ or ‘Western’ entered South Asia as early as the seventeenth century. For two centuries this system, known in India as allopathic medicine, coexisted with the medical traditions indigenous to South Asia. In 1835 the period of coexistence ended and the adherents of the allopathic tradition began to press claims that they, and only they, should be allowed to direct and staff the medical and health programs of the East India Company and, after 1858, the various Governments of South Asia. Allopathic medical men wished to decide the goal or goals of governmental medical efforts, who was to be allowed to participate in those efforts, and who was to be served by those programs. In short, allopathic medical men wanted control of the development of all facets of health policy in South Asia.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

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2 India, Health Survey and Development Committee, Report (Delhi, 1946).Google Scholar See also India (Republic), Health Survey and Planning Committee, Report 0810 1961 (Delhi, 1962).Google Scholar See as well India (Republic), Planning Commission, Five Year Plans (New Delhi, 1952, 1956, 1961, 1970).Google Scholar For Pakistan see Pakistan, Planning Commission, Five Year Plans (1957, 1965, 1969, 1970). See as well ‘Alternate, P. M. A.People's Health Scheme’, The Bulletin: Journal of the P. M. A. West Wing, V (06 1972) Special issue.Google Scholar

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4 A partial and very idealized history of the organization of Anglo-Indian medicine is provided in Crawford, Dirom Grey, A History of the Indian Medical Service, 2 vols (London, 1914).Google Scholar See also Hume, John C. Jr, ‘Medicine in the Punjab 1849–1911: Ethnicity and Professionalization in the Control of an Occupation’, Ph.D. Dissertation, Duke University, Durham, N.C., 1977, ch. 2.Google Scholar

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32 PGP HG, 1875, A file no. 11, January.

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34 PGP HG, 1875, A file no. 15, February.

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40 Hume, ‘Rival Traditions’.

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48 PGP HM&S, 1885, B file nos. 40–1, February. The Dallas promotion was criticized by an editorial in Lancet (15 November 1884): 884–5. HoweverGoogle Scholar, DeRenzy, A. C. C. supported the Dallas promotion in a letter to the editor, Lancet (22 November 1884): 935.Google Scholar

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52 PGP HG, 1878, A file no. 12, February.

53 PGP HM&S, 1886, B file no. 18, May.