Western Medicine and Public Health in Colonial Bombay 1845-1895

Western Medicine and Public Health in Colonial Bombay maps a crucial 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-nineteenth-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 public health and civic amenities; and colonial and indigenous paradigms of medical practice and practitioners that sometimes bordered on medical activism. Of special interest to generalists is Ramanna’s re-evaluation of the alleged neglect by British colonial authorities of the Indian quarter of the city. The author corrects inconsistencies and errors of judgement in laying the blame entirely on the colonial regime. Earnestly detailed and meticulous, Ramanna’s historical account is by far the best we have of the hospitals and dispensaries of a city of such historical, strategic, and commercial importance as Bombay.