HI269 Week 8 The White Mans Burden Take up the White Mans burden Send forth the best ye breed Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives need To wait in heavy harness ID: 239381
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Slide1
Imperial medicine and the ‘civilising mission’
HI269
Week
8Slide2
The White Man’s Burden
“Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed-
Go, bind your sons to exileTo serve your captives' need; To wait, in heavy harness,On fluttered folk and wild-- Your new-caught sullen peoples, Half devil and half child.”Rudyard Kipling, ‘The White Man’s Burden’, 1899Slide3Slide4
WHOSE burden?
"The White (?) Man’s Burden"
The "white”
colonial powers being carried as the burden of their "colored” subjects.First printed in Life, March 16, 1899.Slide5
Imperialism and
‘Progress’Slide6
Defining Characteristics of Imperial and Colonial
Medicine
universalising
claimscreation/reproduction of race and gender stereotypes pathologizing the bodies of colonial peoplesused as a source of political authority and social control, legitimationprofound role of environment in determining medical priorities, interpretations, policiesmedicine state-oriented, state-dependent, expressive of imperialist ideologiesclose links with military establishmentoften enclavist, privileging European health over that of nativessanitary and public health measures have strong component of population controlaimed at creating and reinforcing European hegemony, cultural, political and socialSlide7
Case Study: Smallpox, Sitala
, and the Civilising missionSlide8Slide9Slide10
From inoculation to vaccinationSlide11
A case study in colonial medicine: chronology and context of vaccination in
India
Time frame -- This is by no means an exhaustive or definitive chronology, but merely aims to suggest the context and phases of colonial medicine in India. 1763 Britain defeats France in India1780s Indian Medical Service begins to expand (IMS)1784 India Act puts India under parliamentary control (administered by East India Company [EIC]); Asiatic Society of Bengal founded1803 Mughal Emperor accepts British protection1804 First attempt to ban variolation, and impose vaccination (unenforced,
unenforceable
)
1813
Charter Act forces EIC to accept responsibility for education of the Indian
people
, particularly in ‘Oriental and Occidental science,’ as counterpoise
to
missionary education
1818
First vernacular newspaper started (by missionaries)
1822
Native Medical Institution founded in Calcutta, to train Indians in w. med. for
army/civilian
govt.
1827
Calcutta
Madrasa
and Calcutta Sanskrit College offer classes in
unani
and
ayurveda
respectively
1828
Brahmo
Samaj
, an org. supporting western-style education and the printing
of
Hindu works in vernacular, founded by native
reformers
;Slide12
1833
East India Company monopoly revoked
1835
Official policy supporting Western-style education and westernization (esp in languages, science and medicine); support withdrawn from Madrasa, Sanskrit College, NMI, and Calcutta Medical College founded instead, offering English-language medical training1836 first dissection in modern times performed by an Indian vaidya (formerly a medical instructor at Sanskrit College)1840s Conquest of Sind and Punjab1844 Calcutta Medical College founded1853 India loses dominance in cotton textiles and becomes importer of Lancashire cotton cloth; first railway line opens1857 Universities established in the three Presidencies; two would subsequently
exclude
vernacular languages from their courses of study
1857-8
‘Mutiny’ or first Indian Uprising
1860s
Medical men calling for regulation of native Indian medical practitioners
;
Contagious
diseases Act, just passed in Britain, swiftly enacted in India as
well
1864
Sanitation Boards established in each Presidency
1865
Govt of Bengal prohibited
variolation
in Calcutta
1868
Indian Pharmacopoeia published, aimed at IMS personnel
1869
Suez opens, hugely facilitating trade and travel between Europe and
IndiaSlide13
1870-71
rumours of compulsory vaccination spark riots in Delhi
1877
Govt. of Bombay passes Vaccination act, making vaccination compulsory for infants1880 permissive legislation passed allowing local govts to mandate vaccination1885 1st Indian National Congress1890s plague epidemics1897 Plague Act granting Govt. draconian powers over people, property, trade, pilgrimage, sanitation, passed over heads of Indian local, regional governments, in order to suppress plague (which was threatening European trade with India). Legislation and subsequent actions provoked unprecedented civilian resistance and violent rioting (Chairman of Plague Committee assassinated
)
1905
1st mass agitation
1909
Indian Councils Act, making majority of legislative council seats directly
elective
, w/ separate electorates for Muslims and Hindus. India
representatives
to viceroy’s council and to secretary’s council in UK.
1917
policy promoting Indian self-government first announced; deemed inadequate
by
Indian nationalists
1919
‘anti-sedition’ laws enabling detention without trial etc., for Indian nationalist
activists
; influenza epidemic and mass famines; sanitation and education
matters
transferred from Governor’s portfolio to Indian ministers
1920
first non-cooperation campaign and boycott on British goods
1935
Government of India Act
1947
Independence and Partition
.Slide14
Medical Mandates and Civilising Missions
“In no country does the public health more urgently demand the aid of that science. But the ignorance, prejudice, and suspicions of the people on one hand, and the vast demands upon the revenues for more visibly and perhaps more urgently needed public works on the other, do not leave sanitation a chance
.” India, 1872 (in response to epidemic cholera)
“The basis of all sanitary achievement... must be a knowledge of the people and the conditions under which they live, their prejudices, their ways of life, their social customs, their habits, surroundings and financial means...” Sir Harcourt Butler, November 1911. Slide15
Letter of donation of a Tropical Medicine Laboratory to the Gordon Memorial College, Khartoum, Sudan
.
1901
, from Sir Henry Wellcome to General Sir Reginald Wingate KCMG, KCB, DSO etc. Governor General of the Sudan. September 28th,1901, London. Sir, I beg to offer for the acceptance of the Gordon Memorial College, Khartoum , a complete equipment for Chemical and Bacteriological Laboratories for Analytical and Research Work. The Laboratories would be designed: To promote technical education.To undertake the testing and assaying of agricultural, mineral and other substances of practical interest in the industrial development of the Sudan. To carry out such tests in connection with waters, food stuffs and sanitary matters as may be found desirable.
To aid in criminal investigation in poisoning cases (which are so frequent in Sudan) by detecting and experimental determination of toxic agents , particularly those obscure potent substances employed by the natives.
To study
bacteriologically
and physiologically tropical disorders especially the infective diseases of both man and beast peculiar to the Sudan, and to render assistance to the officers of health and the clinics of civil and military hospitals
.…
It
is anticipated that the work of the laboratories will prove beneficial to both the European and native population. It is my desire that the laboratories be made as far as practicable self-supporting, by the charging of such reasonable fees as will aid in covering the cost of maintaining them.
…
In
the event of your doing me the honour of accepting my offer, I propose that the equipment shall be delivered either at Alexandria or Port Said, as you may prefer.
I have the honour to be, Sir
your obedient Servant.
(signed) Henry S.
WellcomeSlide16Slide17