Legislation, activism and power play - Medical education policies in colonial and post-colonial India.

Publisher: Informa Healthcare Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 101256323 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1744-1706 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 17441692 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Glob Public Health Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: London : Informa Healthcare
Original Publication: Abingdon, UK : Routledge, c2006-

Colonialism* ; Education, Medical*; History, 20th Century ; Humans ; India ; Politics ; Public Policy ; Social Change

Colonial medical education and public health policies emerged from an intriguing discourse of negotiation between the government and the people. These 'structured conflicts', rooted in the politics and the debates of the colonial institutions not only provided opportunities for creative thinking about public health but also for imposing constraints. The colonial and post-colonial India medical legislative debates revealing a new language of protest, assumed greater significance with the growing nationalist movement and the general (though variegated) intellectual polarisation - western and indigenous systems of medicine. Problematising the historiographic assertion of medical modernisation in colonial India to be a part of 'civilising mission', this paper argues that legislature emerged as a platform of activism and protest against the colonial and post-colonial State's appropriation of modernity. While some members appealed for extending the benefit of 'modern' western medicine to the general Indian population, some debated in favour of introducing the indigenous medical systems to the terms of modern professionalisation. The post-colonial policies reveal the true significance of the legislative debates in reviving the position of indigenous systems of medicine in the context of professional modernity.

Keywords: Legislature; debates; knowledge system; medicine; protest

Date Created: 20220811 Date Completed: 20220926 Latest Revision: 20221024

20221213

10.1080/17441692.2022.2110913

35951722