ENGLISH

Colonizing the Body: State Medicine and Epidemic Disease in Nineteenth-Century India

By David Arnold

Book information

Publisher
University of California Press
Year
1993
ISBN
0520082958, 9780520082953
LCC
R606 .A75 1993
Open Library ID
OL1722178M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
1 MB (1357952 bytes)
Pages
230\230
Time added
2011-08-31 04:54:40

Description

In this innovative analysis of medicine and disease in colonial India, David Arnold explores the vital role of the state in medical and public health activities, arguing that Western medicine became a critical battleground between the colonized and the colonizers.Focusing on three major epidemic diseases--smallpox, cholera, and plague--Arnold analyzes the impact of medical interventionism. He demonstrates that Western medicine as practiced in India was not simply transferred from West to East, but was also fashioned in response to local needs and Indian conditions.By emphasizing this colonial dimension of medicine, Arnold highlights the centrality of the body to political authority in British India and shows how medicine both influenced and articulated the intrinsic contradictions of colonial rule.

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