Western Medicine and Public Health in Colonial Bombay 1845-1895

This maps a critical area in the medical history of India, otherwise marked by competing claims of dominance by, and submission to, a colonial regime. Mridula Ramanna has researched the impact of Western medical thinking and practices on the early institutions of rest and cure in mid-19th century Bombay. Among the major themes she addresses here are: British medical reformist policies and the Indian reactions they evoked; complex interrelations between power, politics and people in the domain of the public health and civic amenities; and colonial and indigenous paradigms of medical practice and practiconers that sometimes bordered on medical activism.