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Medical Culture in Transition: Mughal Gentleman Physician and the Native Doctor in Early Colonial India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2008

SEEMA ALAVI
SEEMA ALAVI*
Affiliation:
Jamia Millia Islamia (Central University), Jauhar Ali Marg, New Delhi 110025 Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The essay explores a Greco-Arabic healing tradition that arrived in India with the Muslims and evolved with the expansion of the Mughal Empire. It came to be known as unani in the sub-continent. It studies unani texts and its practitioners in the critical period of transition to British rule, and questions the idea of ‘colonial medicine’ being the predominant site of culture and power. It shows that in the decades immediately preceding the early 19th century British expansion, unani underwent a critical transformation that was triggered by new influences from the Arab lands. These changes in local medical culture shaped the later colonial intrusions in matters related to health. The essay concludes that the pro-active role of the English Company and the wide usage of the printing press only added new contenders to the ongoing contest over medical authority. By the 1830s this complex interplay moved health away from its previous focus on individual aristocratic virtue, to the new domain of societal well being. It also projected the healer not merely as a gentleman physician concerned with individual health, but as a public servant responsible for the well being of society at large. These changes were rapid and survived the reforms of 1830s. They ensured that ‘colonial medicine’ remained entangled in local contestations over medical authority.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 42 , Issue 5 , September 2008 , pp. 853 - 897
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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References

1 In relation to the history of Unani medicine in particular, see Burgel, J. Christoph, ‘Secular and religious features of medieval Arabic medicine’, in Leslie, C., ed., Asian Medical System: a Comparative Study, reprint, Motilal Banarsidass Publications, Delhi, India, 1998. pp. 44–62.Google Scholar He laments the decline of Unani from the twelfth century and attributes it to its not following the path of Western science. In the same volume, see F. L. Dunn, ‘Traditional Asian medicine and cosmopolitan medicine as adaptive systems’. pp. 133–158. For Unani in India see also studies that view it as a medical system: J. Ahmed and A. Qadeer, Unani the Science of Greco–Arabic Medicine, Delhi, India, n.d.; Qaisar, N., ‘Politics, culture and colonialism: Unani's debate with doctory’, in Pati, B. and Harrison, M., eds., Health, Medicine and Empire: perspectives on Colonial India, Orient Longman, Delhi, India, 2001, pp. 329–30Google Scholar.

2 G. Attewell, ‘Authority, Knowledge and Practice in Unani Tibb in India, c. 1890–1930’, School of Oriental & African Studies, London (SOAS), PhD thesis, 2004. He moves away from the idea that Unani medicine was a scientistic medical system. He views Unani as a healing tradition that encompassed the moral and religious dimensions of well-being. He focuses on early twentieth-century Unani reforms and their linkage with notions of medical authority. See also for the same period, Liebeskind, Claudia, ‘Arguing science. Unani Tibb, hakims and biomedicine in India, 1900–50’, in Ernst, W., ed., Plural Medicine, Tradition and Modernity, 1800–2000, Routledge London, 2002, pp. 58–75Google Scholar. She looks at how practitioners of Unani made their tradition more compatible with Western science even as they retained its healing core.

3 Unani was a Greco–Roman system of medicine that came to India with the Muslims in the twelfth century. It thrived under court patronage throughout the period of the Delhi sultanate and the Mughal Empire.

4 The idea of healing as representative of a cultural system rather than a scientific medical system is best developed by medical anthropologists Arthur Kleinman, Mary Good and Byron Good. See their ‘Introduction’, in Good, M., Brodwin, P. E., Good, B. and Kleinman, A., eds., Pain as Human Experience: an Anthropological Perspective, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1994, pp. 1–20Google Scholar.

5 I use the concept of literature creating communities as elaborated by Sheldon Pollock. See Pollock, S., ed., Literary Cultures in History. Reconstructions From South Asia, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2003, pp. 1–36Google Scholar.

6 For a different argument that follows the Michael Foucault kind of knowledge–power coupling that gives the colonial state agency in manufacturing culture, see Dirks, N. B., ed., ‘Introduction: colonialism and culture’, in Colonialism and Culture, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1992; pp. 1–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For colonial science as power, see Arnold, D., Colonizing the Body. State Medicine and Epidemic Disease in Nineteenth Century India, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1993, pp. 1–11Google Scholar; For an argument on the cultural authority of science in colonial India, see Prakash, G., Another Reason. Science and the Imagination of Modern India, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1999, pp. 3–14, 156–8Google Scholar. And for an argument about the colonial state as a site of culture and power, see Said, E., Orientalism, reprint, Penguin, London, 1995Google Scholar.

7 For a discussion that sees Western science and modernity as the defining framework of India's response to colonial drives, see Chakrabarty, D., Provincializing Europe. Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2000Google Scholar; Chatterji, P., Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World—a Derivative Discourse?, Oxford University Press (OUP), Delhi, 1986Google Scholar; G. Prakash Another Reason; H. Bhaba, ‘Of mimicry and man: the ambivalence of colonial discourse’, in The Location of Culture, London, 1994, pp. 85–92.

8 Elgood, C., A Medical History of Persia and Eastern Caliphate From Earliest Time Until the Year AD 1932, Cambridge University Press (CUP), Cambridge, 1951, pp. 372–3Google Scholar. Shah Tahmasp of Iran had extended protection to Babar's sister. Later Emperor Humayun had sought refuge in the Safavid court after he was defeated by the Afghans in India.

9 Rizvi, S. A. A., Religious and Intellectual History of the Muslims in Akbar's Reign, With Special Reference to Abul Fazl (1556–1605), Munshiram Manoharlal Press, Delhi, India, 1975, p. 366Google Scholar.

10 Ibid., pp. 367–8.

11 Alam, M., ‘Sharia, akhlaaq & governance’, in Alam, M., ed., The Language of Political Islam in India 1200–1800, Permanent Black, Delhi, 2004, pp. 65–6Google Scholar.

12 Ibid.

13 Ibid. Thus it was as politically imperative for the Mughal Emperors to translate Sanskrit medical manuscripts and incorporate them into Unani texts as it was to translate Sanskritic Hindu scriptures and political tracts for an encompassing political definition of shariat. The Mughal definition of shariat connoted justice–adl.

14 It was said about Gilani that ‘he enjoyed much proximity to the King, and had so much persuasive influence over the King's temperament that even Jafer Barmaki did not have on [the Abbasid caliph] Harun Rashid’. He was appointed the sadr and the amin of the province of Bengal in 1579 A.D. And in 1580 the sadarat of the capital was entrusted to him. The following year he was made amin and diwan. He was duly honoured with a rank of 800. See Azmi, A. A., History of Unani Medicine in India, Jamia Hamdard University, Delhi, India, 2004, pp. 68, 202Google Scholar.

15 For an excellent account of the history of medieval European medical book production and the power of the written word in tenth–thirteenth centuries Italy, see Jones, P. M., ‘Medical books before the invention of printing’, in Besson, A., ed., Thornton's Medical Books, Libraries and Collectors. A Study of Bibliography and the Book Trade in Relation to the Medical Sciences, Gower Publishing, 3rd edition, Hants, England, 1990, pp. 1–29Google Scholar.

16 Ibid. This was very similar to the illuminated ornate medical manuscripts of medieval Italy.

17 The famous Delhi poet Abdur Rahim Khan Khanan, the son of Emperor Akbar's regent Bairam Khan, had a library in Delhi that housed many Persian manuscripts. Many learned men visited the library for study and self-improvement. Law, N. N., Promotion of Learning in India During Muhammadan Rule, by Mohammedans, Calcutta, India, 1916, p. 170Google Scholar.

18 M. Alam, ‘Shariah, akhlaaq and governance’, p. 67. The tradition of writing medical encyclopedias, which borrowed freely from across cultures to write a definitive global medicine text, corresponded to a similar trend in the writing of world histories by Mughal scholars. Alam has discussed one such important text of global history—Rauzat al-Tahirin. Tahir Muhammad Imad al-Din Hasan Sabzawari compiled the book in 1603 and integrated the history of his master, Emperor Akbar, into the larger history of the world. This spanned from the pre-Islamic Greek philosophers to the Pious Caliphs and into India's pre-Islamic kingdoms. All the people Sabzawari included in his history were, as the title suggests, among the tahirin—the pure, clean and holy. Sabzawari's book was a history of mankind. The author saw himself as an inheritor of the heritage of universal humankind.

19 A. A. Azmi, History of Unani Medicine in India, pp. 69–70.

20 WMS. Per. 580, Wellcome Library, London. He based his text on the Sihah al-adviyah of Husayn al-Ansari. The 1850 copy of the text compiled by the copyist Ghulam Mahomed has 138 folios and is divided into one preface (muqaddimah), one body (natijah) and one conclusion (khatimah). The text reveals that Shirazi collected drugs from the local Ayurveda pharmacopeias and combined them with those from Persia. He listed some 1441 items, in Arabic, Persian and Hindevy languages. Shirazi's medica caters to the humoral concept of health qualified by natures and elements that was central to both the Unani and Ayurveda system. But it nowhere acknowledges its debts to Ayurveda or any other texts or authors.

21 C. Elgood, History of Persia, p. 374. A copy of the text is in Bibliotheque Nationale Paris, No. 342, suppl. The Ms. contains 1711 folios.

22 Ilajat-i-Dara Shikuhi, 342A, vol. 2, Paris.

23 Ilajat-i-Dara Shikuhi, 857–9. Suppl. Persan 342, 342A, 342B.

24 A. A. Azmi, History of Unani Medicine in India, p. 227.

25 For the British Library copy of the manuscript, see Add Ms. 17954. This has 114 folios. The different copies of the Tibb-i-Akbari at the Wellcome Institute library include those copied in the years 1790, 1813, 1818 and 1826. WMS. Per. 172, 374 folios, 1790, copied in Peshawar; WMS. Per. 564, 185 folios, 1813 AD copyist haji Muhammad; WMS. Per. 566, 171 folios, 1818; WMS. Per. 563, copied for Sultan Mahmud, 1826; WMS. Per. 165, 525 folios, copied in the eighteenth century by Abd Allah for Sikandar Ali and Chiragh Ali. Keshavarz, F., A Descriptive and Analytical Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the Wellcome Institute of Medicine, London, 1986, p. 159Google Scholar.

26 The different copies of the Mizan-i-Tibb at the Wellcome Institute library include those copied in the years 1811, 1818 and 1844. See WMS. Per. 179 (A), 112 folios dated 1811; WMS. Per. 515 (C), 95 folios, 1818, copied by Mirza Awlad Ali; WMS. Per. 514, 111 folios, 1839; WMS. Per. 126, 1844. Keshavarz, A Descriptive and Analytical Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts, p. 84.

27 Add Mss. 17949, 48 folios. British Library, London. This is a 1742 copy.

28 Alam, M., ‘The pursuit of Persian: language in Mughal politics’, MAS, 32, 2, May 1998, pp. 317–49Google Scholar. Alam shows the attention the Mughals were forced to give to Hindavi/Braj in the early eighteenth century as a result of regional assertion. He argues that this affected the dominance of Persian. The Mughal attempts to purge Persian of Hindavi influences followed. So did the move to Persianise the vernaculars.

29 It is not surprising that the use of the Mizan and the Tibb-i-Akbari outlived the Mughal Empire. They were seen not just as library items in the collections of the elites, but used as teaching primers until the early nineteenth century. They were used as texts, were recopied by different copyists throughout the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and used as texts in the syllabus of the Persian schools set up by the zamindars and rajas in the Bengal province. They were also in use at the Calcutta madrasa. See British Library catalogue, Egerton 1006 and 1007 being vols. 1 and 2 of Tibb-i-Akbari. For the medical syllabus of the Calcutta madrasa, see Leitner, G. W., History of Indigenous Education in the Punjab Since Annexation and in 1882, Calcutta, India, 1882, p. 74Google Scholar. See also IOC/v/24/942, pp. 6, 39.

30 Elgood, C., Analecta Medico-Historica. Safavid Surgery, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1966, p. 8CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also his History of Persia, p. 63.

31 M. Alam, ‘The pursuit of Persian’, p. 326.

32 The shift to Arabic began to give medical knowledge an Islamic slant. And this may have intersected with the other forms of Islamisation that were underway at the regional level in this period. See Eaton, R., ‘Sufi folk literature and the expansion of Indian Islam’, in Eaton, R., ed., Essays on Islam and Indian History, OUP, Delhi, India, 2001, pp. 189–202Google Scholar. Also see his The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1993.

33 For a discussion on the new learning in religious knowledge, see Robinson, F., ‘Islam and muslim society in South Asia’, in Robinson, F., ed., Islam and Muslim History in South Asia, OUP, Delhi, India, 2000, pp. 44–65Google Scholar.

34 A. Sprenger, assistant to resident in Lucknow, to H. M. Elliott, foreign sec. to Govt. of India, 18 March 1849, Selections from the records of the Govt. of India, foreign deptt., No. CCCXXXIV, serial No. 82. Report of the researches into the Muhammadan libraries of Lucknow, by Alois Sprenger, Calcutta, India, 1896, pp. 18–9. He catalogued only 1,1453 manuscripts in the Topkhana. A small collection of Arabic manuscripts also existed. In the Kings libraries alone—the Topkhana and the Farh Baksh–there were at least 6000 Persian and 310 Arabic manuscripts. Besides these royal repositories, there also existed private libraries, like in the Moti Mahal, maintained by rich bibliophiles. These too were plush with Persian manuscripts.

35 For Persian medical manuscripts in Tipu Sultan's collection, see Stewart, C., A Descriptive Catalogue of the Oriental Library of the Late Tipu Sultan of Mysore, Cambridge, 1809, pp. 108–3Google Scholar. These included a copy of the Zakhirah-i-Khwarzmshahi, the Dastur al ilaj of the pre-Mughal period. And the Tibb-i-Akbari, the Qarabadeen-i-Qadiri and the Tejurribati Akbari of the Mughal hakim Muhammad Arzani. Some home grown Persian manuscripts, like the Bihr-al Munafi or the ‘Sea of Profit’ (a treatise on midwifery) of Mulud Muhammad, were dedicated to Tipu Sultan.

36 Ibid., pp. 114–6.

37 R. Eaton has shown the emergence of a Sufi folk tradition and literature, in the vernacular Dakhani, in Bijapur. This gave a unique Muslim identity to the Deccani Muslims. See R. Eaton, ‘Sufi folk literature and the expansion of Indian Islam’. And in the case of Eastern Bengal, Islamisation is seen by him as an unintended consequence of expansion of the Mughal agrarian frontier. Muslim pioneer settlers, the madad-i-maash, introduced Mughal-style Islamic piety structured around the mosque and Sufi-style belief in a range of local cultural cosmologies. As Islamisation gained momentum they too were venerated and remembered as local pirs. This gave Bengali muslims a distinct identity. See R. Eaton, The Rise of Islam.

38 Asim Roy talks about the Perso–Arabic reading elites isolating themselves from the evolving syncretistic regional culture of pre-colonial West Bengal. His focus is more on their preservation of religious knowledge through the resort to Arabic. Roy, A., The Islamic Syncretistic Tradition in Bengal, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1983Google Scholar.

39 Extract Bengal Pol. Consult., 5 June 1829, L No. 463, education committee to vice president in council, 9 July 1827, Boards Collection, F/4/1170, file No. 30640, p. 511.

40 I. M. Boulderson, collector Bareilly, to Holt Mackenzie, Sec. to Govt. Gen. 29 Jan. 1827, extract Bengal Pol. Consult., 5 June 1829, Boards Collection, F/4/1170, file No. 30640, pp. 633–6.

41 Ibid., I. M. Boulderson, collector Bareilly, to Holt Mackenzie, Sec. to Govt. Gen., 29 Jan. 1827, p. 617, pp. 582–7.

42 Ibid., L No. 463, Education committee to vice president in council, 9 July 1827, p. 515.

43 Ibid., I. M. Boulderson, collector Bareilly, to Holt Mackenzie, Sec. to Govt. Gen., 29 Jan. 1827, p. 587.

44 J. Kerr, A Review of Public Instruction in the Bengal Presidency 1835–51, Calcutta, India, 1852, part 1, p. 155.

45 G. W. Leitner, Reports on the State of Education in the Punjab Since Annexation and in 1882, Lahore, Pakistan, 1882, p. 74.

46 Adam, W., Reports on the State of Education in Bengal (1835–8) Including Some Account of the State of Education in Bihar and a Consideration of the Means Adapted to the Improvement and Extension of Public Instruction in Both Provinces, Ed. Basu, A., Calcutta, India, 1941, pp. 286–7Google Scholar.

47 Ibid., pp. 281–3.

48 Ibid., p. 284.

49 Adam, W., Third Report on the State of Education in Bengal Including Some Account of the State of Education in Behar, and a Consideration of the Means Adapted to the Improvement and Extension of Public Instruction in Both Provinces, Calcutta, India, 1838, pp. 70–3Google Scholar.

50 W. Adam, Reports on the State of Education in Bengal (1835–8), Ed. A. Basu, pp. 281–3.

51 G. W. Leitner, History of Indigenous Education, p. 74.

52 Extract Bengal Pol. Consult., 5 June 1829, L No. 463, education committee to vice president in council, 9 July 1827, Boards Collection, F/4/1170, file No. 30640, p. 515.

53 W. Adam, Reports on the State of Education in Bengal (1835–8), Ed. A. Basu, p. 286.

54 Extract Bengal Pol. Consult., 5 June 1829, L No. 463, education committee to vice president in council, 9 July 1827, Boards Collection, F/4/1170, file No. 30640, p. 639.

55 This obviously contradicts the position held by David Arnold, Jean M. Langford and others who argue that the Company's motives were more ideological than material in the encounter with Unani. See D. Arnold, Colonising the Body; Langford, J. M., Fluent Bodies. Ayurvedic Remedies for Post Colonial Imbalance, Duke University press, Durham, NC, 2002Google Scholar.

56 Scholars such as Arnold, Prakash and Langford have hitherto argued that the 1830s signaled a turn towards coercion on the part of the Company as it abandoned orientalism, ‘colonised the body’, and introduced new style Western knowledge with the help of the English language.

57 L No. 12, Warren Hastings to Board of Directors, n.d., extract rev. letter to Bengal, 28 Oct. 1814, Boards Collection, F/4/708, file No. 19201, pp. 91–7. The madrasa had a rich library for which in 1820 Rs. 6818.3.7 were sanctioned by the government. See H. Mackenzie, Sec. to Govt., to madrasa committee, 21 July 1820, Ibid., p. 167. The madrasa divided the students into five classes with separate teachers. Apart from the Arabic and Persian language instruction, the sciences taught in the madrasa were entirely through the medium of Arabic texts. These included natural philosophy including medicine (hikmat), theology, law, astronomy, arithmetic, geometry, logic and rhetoric. Students were expected to finish the course in 7 years.

58 See for medical class, ‘Report of the general committee for the diffusion of instruction among the natives of India for the year 1829’, Bengal Pub. Collection, Pol. Letter transferred to Pub. Deptt., 27 Aug. 1830, Pub. Deptt. 29 Sept. 1830, Boards Collection, F/4/1255, file No. 5050 (1), p. 55. Later in 1829, the madrasa introduced an English department as well that catered to a lower stratum of Muslim society who at a small fee learnt only the English language. In 1849 for a high fee of Rs. 100 per month an Anglo–Arabic class was started to instruct in the English language such students from the Arabic classes who wanted to learn English. See recommendations on madrasa to the government by the council of education. Selections from the records of the Bengal government, No. XIV, papers relating to the establishment of the Presidency College of Bengal, Calcutta, India, 1854, MF 1/871, p. 7.

59 J. Tytler, to P. Breton, H. H. Wilson and J. Adam, members medical board, 19 Aug. 1829, Bengal Pub. Collection, 27 Aug. 1830, Boards Collection, F/4/1255, file No. 5050 (1), pp. 726–7.

60 Tytler, J., Trans. into Arabic, A Short Anatomical Description of the Heart Extracted From the Edinburgh Medical Dictionary, Calcutta, India, 1828, p. v.Google Scholar

61 R. Hooper, The Anis ul Musharrahin or the Anatomist's Vade-Mecum, Trans. into Arabic by J. Tytler, Calcutta, India, 1830, p. 8. Tytler lowered his tirade against the vernaculars in 1834 when the introduction of English as the language of all instruction seemed imminent. He preferred the vernaculars like Urdu to English as the language of medical science and utility. He cited the success of the native medical institution in providing public servants as an example of the usefulness of offering medical instruction in the Urdu language. See Tracts 1881/a/3, The Calcutta Literary Gazette, June 14 1834, essay No. VII by J. Tytler, pp. 1–4.

62 He says that he learnt Arabic in the 14 years that he spent in India. His stint began in 1813 when he was posted in the upper provinces. He learnt it because the government needed oriental scholars. And he says he used his own resources to learn the language and did not take any special favours from the government. See TR-15, ‘Memorial of Surgeon John Tytler addressed to the court of directors of the East India Company,’ pp. 35–6.

63 R. Hooper, The Anis ul Musharrahin or the Anatomist's Vade-Mecum, Trans. into Arabic by J. Tytler, p. 12.

64 Tytler, J., ed., Trans. into Arabic Aphorisms of Hippocrates or the Fusool-i-Abkrat by Hoanin Ben Motawukkue, Calcutta, India, 1832Google Scholar.

65 IOC V/24/942, pp. 6, 39.

66 R. Hooper, The Anis ul Musharrahin or the Anatomist's Vade-Mecum, Trans. into Arabic by Tytler, p. 14.

67 Ibid., p. 15.

68 Ibid., p. 3.

69 Ibid.

70 P. Breton, Supdtt. Native Medical Institution, to H. H. Wilson, Sec. Gen. committee of public instruction, 5 Aug. 1829, Boards Collection, Bengal Pub. Consult., 27 Aug. 1830, F/4/1255, file No. 5050 (1), pp. 710–1.

71 Ibid., p. 712.

72 L No. 16, Hakim Abdul Majeed to William C. Bentinck, Govt. Gen., 16 Feb. 1835, consult. 25 Feb. 1835, Bengal Pub. Consult. 5 Jan.–6 May 1835, P/13/12.

73 Ibid.

74 L No. 26, Hakim Majeed to H. T. Prinsep, Sec. to Govt. in the gen. deptt. n.d., consult. 1 April 1835, Bengal Pub. Consult. 5 Jan.–6 May 1835, P/13/12. He got a salary of Rs. 60 per month from the Native Medical Institution itself. In 1835 after the abolition of the institute and the shift away from Arabic learning, men like Hakim Abdul Majeed were left jobless and in dire financial crisis. The hakim petitioned the government to be sanctioned an allowance of Rs. 60 per month, which was his last drawn salary, so as to maintain his large family. But the government refused this on grounds of there being no precedent for such allowances to men no longer in their service. In 1835, the government also refused to appoint Hakim Majeed in the newly founded Calcutta Medical College on grounds that he did not know the English language. Pundits of the Native Medical Institution, like Madhusudan Gupt and Prasad Pandit, were adjusted at the college because they knew English language. See L No. 128, Medical Board to W. C. Bentinck, 17 Feb. 1835, and L No. 133, J. C. C. Sutherland, Sec. General committee of public instruction, to Lt. Col. W. Casement, Sec. to Govt., 30 April 1835, consult. 4 May 1835, India Mil. Consult. 4–18 May 1835, P/35/16.

75 J. Tytler, to P. Breton, H. H. Wilson and J. Adam, members medical board, 19 Aug. 1829, Bengal Pub. Collection, 27 Aug. 1830, Boards Collection, F/4/1255, file No. 5050 (1), p. 726.

76 Madrasa exam report 1829/30, enclosure No. 2, D. Ruddell, Sec. madrasa committee, to H. Shakespeare and colleagues, madrasa committee, 22 Feb. 1830, Bengal Pub. Consult., 27 Aug. 1830, Boards Collection, F/4/1255, file No. 5050 (1), pp. 151–2. He suggested that the reading of the Arabic grammar text Muqamat be reduced to the first twenty-five stories only. In its place the Mujiz be substituted as the qualifying text for admission and scholarship.

77 P. Breton, Supdtt. Native Medical Institution, J. Tytler, Presidency Surgeon, J. Adam, Sec. Medical Board, to H. H. Wilson, Sec. to Gen. committee of public instruction, 24 Aug., 1829, Bengal Pub. Collection, 27 Aug. 1830, Boards Collection, F/4/1255, file No. 5050 (1), p. 702. The students of the madrasa even though not being trained as practitioners were expected to enhance their medical knowledge by attending practical training at the native hospital in Calcutta.

78 L No. 179, Members native medical education committee to W.C. Bentinck, n.d., consult. 28 Jan. 1835, India Mil. Consult. 23–28 Jan. 1835, P/35/9. In 1835 the absence of boys from established families of hakims and vaids in the NMI was evident when out of the sixty-seven students only one was recorded as the son of a hakim. Six or 1/11th of them were sons of native doctors. The bulk of them were from military families of non-commissioned native officers: five sons of subedars, sixteen sons of jemadar, fifteen sons of havaldar, three sons of naiks, three sons of sepoys, three sons of pundits, one son of ‘Tisser’, one son of Moolsoodee, one son of thanadar and one son of munshi.

79 L No. 100, J. Jameson, Sec. Med. Board, memorandum on Institution for education of native doctors, 1 May 1822, extract Bengal Military Consultation (BMC) 24 May 1822, Boards Collection, F/4/737, file No. 20085, p. 17.

80 L No. 133, J. Crawford, Sec. Med. Board, to Lt. Col. Casement, Sec. to Govt. in Mil. Deptt., 10 Feb. 1823, BMC 7–14 Feb. 1823, consult. FW 14 Feb. 1823, P/30/10.

81 W. Casement, Sec. Govt, to Sec. Med. Board, 30 Dec. 1825, consult. 30 Dec. 1825, BMC 30 Dec. 1825, P/31/41.

82 L No. 179, Members native medical education committee to W.C. Bentinck, n.d., consult. 28 Jan. 1835, India Mil. Consult. 23–28 Jan. 1835, P/35/9.

83 L No. 108, GO 21 June 1822 for the NMI, extract BMC 24 May 1822, Boards Collection, F/4/737, file No. 20085, pp. 62, 68.

84 W. Casement, Sec. Govt., to Sec. Med. Board, 30 Dec. 1825, Consult. 30 Dec. 1825, BMC 30 Dec. 1825, P/31/41.

85 L No. 38, C. Lushington, Sec. to Govt., to Committee for reporting on Mr. Rind's plan for the formation of a government lithographic establishment, 29 March 1823, consult. 29 March 1823, Bengal Pub. Consult. 20–29 March 1823, P/11/1. In 1823 the government agreed to buy the private lithographic press run by Mr. Rind for Rs. 1650 and ordered four additional ones from Messrs. Gessop and Co. at Rs. 1200.

86 Ibid. See for details of the setting up of the government lithographic press, L No. 40, J. N. Rind, Supdtt. Lithographic press to lithographic committee, 25 Oct. 1828, extract Bengal Pub. Consult. 10 Dec. 1828, Boards Collection, F/4/1290, file No. 51650, pp. 62–71.

87 G. Proctor, Sec. Med. Board, to C. Lushington, Sec. to Govt. in Gen. Deptt., 20 Aug. 1823, consult. 21 Aug. 1823, Bengal Pub. Consult. 14 Aug.–4 Sept. 1823, P/11/8.

88 L No. 44, Govt. lithographic committee to Sec. Prinsep, 31 March 1829, Extract Bengal Pub. Consult. 5 May 1829, Boards Collection, F/4/1290, file No. 51650, p. 49. For instance, between January and December of 1826, the lithographic press had done 150 impressions of whole sheet drawings only for the NMI.

89 L No. 138, P. Breton, Supdtt. NMI, to Lord Amherst, Govt. Gen. in Council, n.d., consult. 19 April 1824, BMC 8–19 April 1824, P/30/47. See also L Nos. 139 and 140 for the confirmation of Breton's salary at Rs. 1600 per month. For family detail of Breton, see VCP Hodson, List of the officers of the Bengal Army 1758–1834, London, 1927, part 1, pp. 200–1. In October 1824, Surgeon Peter Breton, who came from an established Norman family of merchants of South Hampton, became the first superintendent to be confirmed to the office of NMI. After having cleared the language test of Fort William College, he resigned from the Ramghur Corps where he was surgeon. He joined as superintendent of NMI on a salary of Rs. 1600/month.

90 L No. 180, enclosure, P. Breton, Supdtt. NMI, to G. Proctor, Sec. to Med. Board, 14 Oct. 1824, consult. 18 March 1825, BMC, 11–25 March 1825, P/31/16.

91 L No. 181, enclosure, P. Breton, Supdtt. NMI, to G. Proctor, Sec. to Med. Board, 7 March 1825, consult. 18 March 1825, BMC, 11–25 March 1825, P/31/16.

92 L No. 125, enclosure, ‘List of treatises prepared by Dr Breton for use of NMI’, J. Tytler, Supdtt. NMI, to J. Hutchinson, Sec. to Med. Board, 28 March 1831, consult. 15 April 1831, BMC 15 April–6 May 1831, P/34/3.

93 L No. 143, J. Adam, Sec. Med. Board, to Lt. Col. Casement, Sec to Govt., 12 Nov. 1829, and reply dated 11 Dec. 1829, consult. 11 Dec. 1829, BMC 11–26 Dec. 1829, P/33/42.

94 L No. 136, J. Adam, Sec. Med. Board, to Lt. Col. W. Casement, 1 Aug. 1828, and reply L No. 137 Lt. Col. W. Casement, to J. Adam, Sec. Med. Board, 1 Aug. 1828, consult. 16 Aug. 1828 BMC 16–29 Aug. 1828, P/33/6.

95 They got salaries of Rs. 40 per month each. Ibid. Breton was also allowed, on his request, access to the library of Fort William. See for government's sanction of all his requests, L No. 75, Lt. Col. W. Casement, Sec. to Govt., to Medical Board, 1st April 1824, consult. 1 April 1824, BMC 1–8 April 1824, P/30/46.

96 L No. 100, J. Taylor, Supdtt. NMI, to Sec. Med. Board, 15 Feb. 1833, consult. 27 Feb. 1833, BMC 19 Feb.–5 March 1833, P/34/38; see also in same consult. L No. 101, Lt. Col. Casement, Sec. to Govt., to Med. Board, 27 Feb. 1833. Rahim Buksh later demanded and obtained a hike in his salary to Rs. 20 per month when he not only just had to paint but also draw some of the anatomical plates for the medical tracts.

97 L No. 180, enclosure, P. Breton, Supdtt. NMI, to G. Proctor, Sec. to Med. Board, 14 Oct. 1824, consult. 18 March 1825, BMC, 11–25 March 1825, P/31/16.

98 L No. 122 Members Med. Board to C.T. Metcalfe, VP in council, 19 June 1832, and L No. 123, Lt. Col. Casement, Sec. to Govt., to Med. Board, 25 June 1832, consult. 25 June 1832, BMC 18 June–2 July 1832, P/34/23.

99 L No. 84, J. Tytler, Supdtt. Med. Board, to J. Hutchins, Sec. to Med. Board, 11 April 1832, consult. 7 May 1832, BMC 23 April–14 May 1832, P/34/21.

100 L No. 84 enclosure, Members Med. Board to C. T. Metcalf, Govt. Gen. India, 1 Sept. 1835, consult. 14 Sept. 1835, BMC 31 Aug.–21 Sept. 1835, P/35/22.

101 L No. 7, enclosure, P. Breton, Supdtt. NMI, to J. Adam, Sec. to Med. Board, 25 March 1829, consult. 15 May 1829, BMC 8–15 May 1829, P/33/26.

102 Ibid.

103 L No. 13, Lt. Col. W. Casement, Sec. to Govt., to President and members of Med. Board, 11 Sept. 1829, consult. 11 Sept. 1829, BMC 4–11 Sept. 1829, P/33/34.

104 L No. 84, J. Tytler, Supdtt. Med. Board, to J. Hutchins, Sec. to Med. Board, 11 April 1832, consult. 7 May 1832, BMC 23 April–14 May 1832, P/34/21. The students were divided into four classes: the lowest class started with anatomy and the highest ended with surgery. In between they studied Materia Medica and physics. Teaching of anatomy ran through all the four classes of the NMI. Tytler himself introduced the discipline in an introductory lecture. He followed this up with the demonstration of real bones. He made the students aware of their different forms, the attachment of muscles and the passage of vessels and nerves. After this demonstration he explained to the students the soft parts—the viscera of thorax, abdomen, pelvis, brain and sense organs–on the bodies of sheep and goats. He compared the physiology of the animal body to that of the human structure. And through this comparison highlighted their difference. This training was padded up at the general hospitals and dispensaries, which the students attended to observe human dissections.

105 L No. 84, J. Tytler, Supdtt. Med. Board, to J. Hutchins, Sec. to Med. Board, 11 April 1832, consult. 7 May 1832, BMC 23 April–14 May 1832, P/34/21.

106 J. Hutchinson, Code of regulations for medical department of the Bengal establishment, compiled by order of government under superintendence of the medical board, Calcutta, India, 1838, L/Mil/17/2/450, Article 4, p. 207.

107 L No. 95, enclosure in L No. 93, civil finance committee to W. C. Bentinck, 9 Sept. 1830, consult. 3 Oct. 1833, BMC 5 Sept.–3 Oct. 1833, P/34/47.

108 Extract from GO relating to NMI, 21 June 1822, J. Hutchinson, Code of regulations for medical department of the Bengal establishment, compiled by order of government under superintendence of the medical board, Calcutta, India, 1838, L/Mil/17/2/450, p. 265. In 1834, native doctors were posted in civil stations in southern central Assam, in Guwahati and in Patna. See L No. 113, Members Medical Board to C. T. Metcalfe, 26 July 1834, consult. 7 Aug. 1834, BMC 31 July–21 Aug. 1834, P/34/66; and L No. 55, Members Medical Board to C. T. Metcalfe, 17 Oct. 1834, consult. 23 Oct. 1834, BMC 16 Oct.–6 Nov. 1834, P/34/69.

109 For a native doctor appointed as vaccinator, see L No. 17, Col. J. A. Paul Macgregor, Mil. and Auditor Gen. to W. C. Bentinck, 16 April 1833, consult. 19 April 1833, BMC 3–19 April 1833, P/34/40.

110 Native doctors Jashoda Misser and Ram Ishawar Awasthi were employed at Rs. 25 per month to be assistant teachers at NMI. See L No. 6, Col. W. Casement, Sec. to Govt. of India Mil. Deptt., to Medical Board, 26 Sept. 1836, consult. 26 Sept. 1836, India Mil. Consult. 19–26 Sept. 1836, P/35/45; and L No. 18, Col. W. Casement to Col. J. A. Paul Macgregor, Mil. and Auditor Gen., 19 April 1833, consult 19 April 1833, BMC 3–19 April 1833, P/34/40.

111 Extract from GO relating to NMI, 21 June 1822, J. Hutchinson, Code of regulations for medical department of the Bengal establishment, compiled by order of government under superintendence of the medical board, Calcutta, India, 1838, L/Mil/17/2/450, p. 265. See also L No. 135, Maj. J. Stuart, Deputy Sec. to Govt. in Mil. Deptt., to Med. Board, 27 Feb. 1834, BMC 27 Feb.–13 March 1834, consult. 27 Feb. 1834, P/34/59. The government discouraged long leave and left it to the discretion of the Commander-in-chief.

112 The medical officer had to certify that the general character and professional conduct of the individual was worthy of this hike in salary. See extract from GO relating to NMI, 21 June 1822, J. Hutchinson, Code of regulations for medical department of the Bengal establishment, compiled by order of government under superintendence of the medical board, Calcutta, India, 1838, L/Mil/17/2/450, p. 265.

113 Ibid.

114 Ibid.

115 Ibid., p. 207.

116 In 1828 the government gave the sanction to the lithographic press for one such big contract for texts in Urdu that was made on applications received from surgeons of native corps and civil stations for them. See L No. 149, J. Adam, Sec. Med. Board, to Lt. Col. W. Casement, 7 Feb. 1828 and L No. 150, Lt. Col. W Casement, to J. Adam, Sec. to Med. Board, 15 Feb. 1828, consult. 15 Feb. 1828, BMC 15–22 Feb. 1828, P/32/55.

117 L No. 7, enclosure, P. Breton, Supdtt. NMI's report on the NMI, to J. Adam, Sec. to Med. Board, 25 March 1829, consult. 15 May 1829, BMC 8–15 May 1829, P/33/26. See also for dispatch and receipt of Bretons's texts to Bombay and Madras, L No. 155, J Adam, Sec. to Med. Board, to Lt. Col. Casement, Sec. to Govt., 13 April 1829 and his reply L No. 156, consult. 18 April 1829, BMC 10–18 April 1829, P/33/24.

118 L No. 181, enclosure, P. Breton, Supdtt. NMI, to G. Proctor, Sec. to Med. Board, 7 March 1825, consult. 18 March 1825, BMC, 11–25 March 1825, P/31/16.

119 L No 93, Civil Finance Committee to W. C. Bentinck, 9 Sept. 1830, consult. 3 Oct. 1833, BMC 5 Sept.–3 Oct. 1833, P/34/47.

120 See Dr. H. H. Goodeve's paper on the NMI that makes a case for its abolition and suggests the setting up of an alternate institute that would impart Western medical training in English to Indians from respectable family backgrounds. He hoped this would create a class of medical professionals called sub-assistant surgeons. L No. 103, H. H. Goodeve's paper, consult. 3 Oct. 1833, BMC 5 Sept.–3 Oct. 1833, P/34/47.

121 See for the details of this debate, D. Arnold, Colonising the Body.

122 For the detailed report of the native medical education committee, see L No. 179, Members native medical education committee to W. C. Bentinck, n.d., consult. 28 Jan. 1835, Indian Military Consult. 23–28 Jan. 1835, P/35/9. Their objections to the NMI were on grounds of economy, unsatisfactory administrative command structure and lack of regulations. They critiqued the knowledge imparted in Urdu that did not teach Western medical science in its entirety. For Bentinck's minute abolishing the NMI, see L No. 183, Minute by the Govt. Gen of India, 26 Jan. 1835, consult. 28 Jan. 1835, India Mil. Consult. 23–28 Jan. 1835, P/35/9.

123 In 1835 the Medical Board forwarded the applications of NMI staffers Hakim Abdul Majeed, Madhusudan Gupt and Prasad Pandit. They wanted appointment at the new college or at the education deptt. They also requested for a pension since the closure of the NMI had left them jobless. Hakim Majeed could not be adjusted since he did not know English, but the other two were taken into the service of the General Committee of public instruction that produced books for the new college. See L No. 128, Medical Board to W. C. Bentinck, 17 Feb. 1835, consult. 4 May 1835, Indian Mil. Consult. 4–18 May 1835, P/35/16; also see L No. 133, J. C. C. Sutherland, Sec. to GCPI, to Col. W. Casement, 30 April 1835, consult. 4 May 1835, Indian Mil. Consult. 4–18 May 1835, P/35/16.

124 Tracts 15, Memorial of Surgeon John Tytler of the Bengal establishment, addressed to the court of directors of the EIC. L No. ix, J. Tytler's reply to the committee of native medical education as to the best language to be used as a medium of instruction, p. 26.

125 Ibid., p. 6. See also L No. xi, J. Tytler to J. Cosmo Melvill, Sec. to EIC, n.d., pp. 31–40, for his strong case for the job of superintendent of the new college.

126 Selections from the records of the Bengal Govt., no. XIV, papers relating to the establishment of the Presidency College of Bengal, Calcutta, India, 1854. MF 1/871., pp. 4, 10–11.

127 L No. 129, Col. W. Casement, Sec. to Govt. of India, to Med. Board, 19 Feb. 1835, consult. 19 Feb. 1835, India Mil. Consult. 19–24 Feb. 1835, P/35/11; and L No. 9, List of medicines and other articles from NMI to M. J. Bramley, Supdtt. of Calcutta Medical College, 19 May 1835, consult. 1 June 1835, India Mil. Consult. 25 May–8 June 1835, P/35/17. The list of items included anatomical models, surgical instruments, books like Lizar's Anatomical Plates, Tuson's Mythology, Dewhurst's Anatomy of Muscles, Annesley's Diseases of India, and accessories like tables, chairs, thermometer, electric machine and other professional articles.

128 For Bentinck's minute abolishing the NMI, see L No. 183, Minute by the Govt. Gen of India, 26 Jan. 1835, consult. 28 Jan. 1835, India Mil. Consult. 23–28 Jan. 1835, P/35/9.

129 L Nos. 184, 186–190. These are copies of the Government Order of 26 Jan. 1835, abolishing the NMI, that were sent to the Adjutant General Army, Medical Board, John Tytler, etc. consult. 7 May 1832, BMC 23 April–14 May 1832, P/34/21.

130 L No. 184, Members Medical Board to W.C. Bentinck, 4 March 1835, consult. 13 March 1835, India Mil. Consult. 13–18 March 1835, P/35/13.

131 J. Hutchinson, Sec. Med. Board, to members of Medical Board, 16 May 1835, consult. 1 June 1835, India Mil. Consult. 25 May–8 June 1835, P/35/17.