Fractured States: Smallpox, Public Health and Vaccination Policy in British India, 1800-1947

Fractured States is an extraordinarily detailed account of efforts at smallpox control measures in colonial India. Departing from established analytical stereotypes, it seeks to focus on bureaucratic roles and functions in an attempt to understand why smallpox control policies and programmes were not as successful as they should have been. This work gives as much weight to the political, economic and scientific factors affecting the extension of vaccination as to the cultural and religious responses of this medical intervention. The complexities of conflicting medical technologies, bureaucratic disharmonies and widely varying civilian responses have been vividly captured in this comprehensive monography. By stressing on an empirical rather than ideological approach, the authors posit a new perspective on the attempts of a deeply divided colonial administration and scientific establishment to control a highly infectious disease. Making extensive use of the enormous documentation generated by the raj, this book also conveys the immediacy of the issues of smallbox control that so dominated public health policy in colonial India. Lucidly written, cogently argued and highly readable, this book has much to offer to both a specialized and general readership.