While exploring the historical relationship between the Burdwan fever and agriculture in Burdwan, a district in West Bengal, in connection with my PhD research in the 1990s at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, I was considerably excited and resolved to undertake a project on the history of kala-azar as my postdoctoral studies. I noticed the conflicting comments of contemporary physicians and health personnel on the nature of the Burdwan fever—some referring to it as malaria whereas others naming it kala-azar. Malaria in Bengal by then had already gripped the attention of historical scholarship, and some scholars were engaged in research on various aspects of malaria, including its epidemic episodes and endemicity. The history of kala-azar was rather a neglected field of historical enquiry even though there was abundant material on it. This sparked my interest and attracted my attention. After having completed my PhD, I started exploring the history of kala-azar and wrote a small piece on it towards the end of the 1990s. Subsequently, I undertook it as my postdoctoral project, came into contact with David Arnold, and applied for Commonwealth Fellowship to work with him on this subject. I was selected and was based at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, to pursue my studies during 2002–2003, and thus began the trajectory of my postdoctoral work. I felt honoured to work with Professor Arnold, who was very supportive and generous with suggestions, and inspired me a lot to produce a book based on my work. Thus, the idea of this treatise was conceived way back in the early 2000s. It took a long time to produce this treatise since after gathering information on it in the United Kingdom's libraries and archives, I looked into some additional sources in India. Finally, the baby came out of the womb. I am grateful to Professor Arnold for his advice and assistance in completing the research successfully.

I am greatly indebted to the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, London, for sponsoring my trip to and supporting my stay in London during 2002–2003, which gave me ample opportunities to use the esteemed libraries and archives in London. This facilitated my research at the British Library, Wellcome Library, London School of Tropical Medicine Library, and the British Medical Association archives in London.

The process of colonization made the colonial administration face terrible diseases in India that threatened the army, white civilians, and the economy of the colony, and generated tremendous insecurities and anxieties. Western medicine and medical men were brought to India to tackle the diseases and protect the ‘crown jewel’ of the British Empire. At the same time, the introduction of Western medicine into India by the British generated a host of complexities that have significance insofar as the history of medicine in colonial India is concerned. What was essential for combating the dreadful diseases was advanced medical knowledge, and it emerged from the sincere and sustained work of medical researchers in India. The scientific efforts of researchers were essential to enabling everything from the diagnosis of the illness to the development of therapeutic treatments. Only by the diligent research of medical scientists—whether it was quinine for malaria, smallpox or plague vaccinations, or anti-kala-azar drugs—was remedial chemotherapy known to the hospitals. The research yielded unquestionably enormous advantages, but to what extent the government appropriately utilized those gains to contain the diseases is another story entirely. It is the painstaking research of the IMS men and members of the Bengal Medical Service that brought to light what we know about kala-azar. Investigations undertaken by them continued until the end of British rule and produced a plethora of information about the disease, its chemotherapy, and its prognosis. This chapter focuses on the growth of medical research on black fever, or kala-azar, against the background of medical research in general in colonial India. It also seeks to shed light on the government's response to it and the extent the research reached fruition.

A new era in the history of fighting the fever began in 1903 when the kala-azar parasite was correctly identified. Thenceforth, further study on it made India one of the world's leading countries that produced enormous medical knowledge about this disease, thereby enriching the knowledge base of black fever. Despite the overwhelming wealth of information on this ailment, the colonial state in India and its subjects had to wage war against kala-azar till the end of colonial rule. Eastern India experienced serious medical intervention by the colonial administration to combat kala-azar, but the progress of the disease could not be checked successfully even in the late colonial period despite pursuing treatment campaigns and health propaganda. The administration failed to prevent its occurrence, though successful treatment from the 1920s saved innumerable people. The disease was rather widely prevalent despite the availability of all possible means to eliminate it. This raised doubt over the efficiency of the anti-kala-azar measures implemented by the health administration.

Despite the fact that the health policy of the British Indian government had certain limitations, the contribution and efficacy of Western medicine cannot be questioned. It had a liberating, though limited, role in the control of communicable diseases. It introduced modern scientific and medical knowledge and evoked interest among the local populace. The notion of public health was certainly attractive to the Indian elite and intelligentsia, who accepted some of its doctrines and wanted to see the principles of public health working in India. The developing concept of public health and hygiene, medical institutions and hospitals, IMS and subordinate medical services, and so on, provided an organized medical system and an iron framework of public health administration in independent India. It gave certain benefits to the Indian people. The Indian medical system was not as methodical, pervasive, and penetrative as Western medicine. Colonial medical research based on the method of experiment and observation carried out by experts on different diseases provided new knowledge about preventive and curative aspects of medicine and also about the containment of dreadful diseases.

Unquestionably, the government was sorely tempted to retaliate against the inroads of kala-azar and set forth plans and strategies for that purpose. Treatment was used as an effective tool to arrest the disease. The sustained and extensive treatment for kala-azar had a great effect on saving lives in the areas under study.

The introduction of Western medicine in India by British colonialism is a milestone in the history of modern India. Many of the new ideas of medical science—hospitals, health, hygiene, sanitation—came to India with colonialism. At the same time, there evolved an encounter between Western and indigenous medicines—a cultural encounter between India's traditional society and the West. The relationship between Western and Indian medical systems has always been a significant topic in medical history, and in recent decades historical studies have focused on this relationship. In his essay titled ‘Medicine and Orientalism: Perspectives on Europe's Encounter with Indian Medical Systems’, Mark Harrison deftly examines this topic. Discussing both collaboration and contradiction in the relationship between the two in the course of passing through several stages from the seventeenth century onwards, Harrison mentions that the Europeans’ attitude towards Indian systems of medicine underwent a change after 1820. Using ‘native’ medicinal herbs, examining Indian medical literature, and consulting practitioners of Indian medical systems, European physicians made substantial use of indigenous medical knowledge.