After years of neglect the last decade has witnessed a surge of interest in the medical history of India under colonial rule. This is the first major study of public health in British India. It covers many previously unresearched areas such as European attitudes towards India and its inhabitants, and the way in which these were reflected in medical literature and medical policy; the fate of public health at local level under Indian control; and the effects of quarantine on colonial trade and the pilgrimage to Mecca. The book places medicine within the context of debates about the government of India, and relations between rulers and ruled. In emphasising the active role of the indigenous population, and in its range of material, it differs significantly from most other work conducted in this subject area.

An examination of medicine's role in the consolidation of colonial rule in the Indian Raj.
Reviews
"A scholarly, extensively researched, well-annotated, and amply referenced work, and a valuable resource." Choice
"Public Health in British India is a commendable work marked by its substantial scholarly apparatus -- fifty pages of notes, extensive utilization of primary sources, several graphs, and illustrations....this is a work of solid scholarship and should spawn historiographic research in the British colonial context. It is highly recommended for scholars and students of the Indian colonial history of preventive medicine." The Annals of the American Academy
"[Harrison's] arguments are well made and well supported by an impressive range of sources from contemporary medical journals to memoirs...The result is a solid contribution to the history of health and of imperialism." Histoire sociale



Book Information
ISBN 9780521466882
Author Mark Harrison
Format Paperback
Page Count 348
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 490g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 154mm * 22mm