Imperial medicine and indigenous societies : disease, medicine and empire in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Medicine,' declared a French imperialist, is the 'sole excuse for colonialism.' If colonial rule had its harsh and negative side, the work of the doctor ennobled and justified it. Historians, even nationalist writers, have echoed this view. The white man's medicine at least was always welcome. But was it as rational and humanitarian as is commonly supposed, one of imperialism's 'undeniable benefits? Was there no doubt or suspicion? Might it not in fact have been another weapon in the armoury of alien rule? For too long on the margins of the history of empire, the study of disease and medicine has begun to move centre-stage. This book investigates the purposes, nature and impact of Western medicine in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It ranges widely, from the Belgians in the Congo to the Americans in the Philippines, from the treatment of European 'lunatics' in India to the 'discovery' of Third World malnutrition. But the central concern is the way in which colonial doctors and imperial medicine shaped the interaction between rulers and ruled. At first largely confined to the needs of Europeans abroad, Western medicine rose in the late nineteenth century to global assertiveness. At a time of expanding empires medical science gave imperial administrations a sense of purpose, a confidence in their capacity to transform entire societies in the light of their own notions of progress, sanitation and science. Yet they were held back as much by political constraints and cultural resistance as by technical limitations. By 1930 the first, 'heroic' age of Western medical intervention was over. This volume points the way to a major reappraisal. It will be of particular importance to students of imperialism and the history of medicine. It also raises issues relevant to current debates over health and development in the Third World. It sheds fresh light on the politics of imperialism and the anthropology of medical belief and practice. In recent years it has become apparent that the interaction of imperialism with disease, medical research, and the administration of health policies is considerably more complex. This book reflects the breadth and interdisciplinary range of current scholarship applied to a variety of imperial experiences in different continents. Common themes and widely applicable modes of analysis emerge include the confrontation between indigenous and western medical systems, the role of medicine in war and resistance, and the nature of approaches to mental health. The book identifies disease and medicine as a site of contact, conflict and possible eventual convergence between western rulers and indigenous peoples, and illustrates the contradictions and rivalries within the imperial order. The causes and consequences of this rapid transition from white man's medicine to public health during the latter decades of the nineteenth and early years of the twentieth centuries are touched upon. By the late 1850s, each of the presidency towns of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras could boast its own 'asylum for the European insane'; about twenty 'native lunatic asylums' had been established in provincial towns. To many nineteenth-century British medical officers smallpox was 'the scourge of India'. Following the British discovery in 1901 of a major sleeping sickness epidemic in Uganda, King Leopold of Belgium invited the recently established Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to examine his Congo Free State. Cholera claimed its victims from all levels of society, including Americans, prominent Filipinos, Chinese, and Spaniards. Introduction : Disease, Medicine And Empire / David Arnold -- The European Insane In British India, 1800-1858 : A Case Study In Psychiatry And Colonial Rule / Waltraud Ernst -- Smallpox And Colonial Medicine In Nineteenth-century India / David Arnold -- Medicine And Racial Politics : Changing Images Of The New Zealand Maori In The Nineteenth Century / Malcolm Nicolson -- Sleeping Sickness Epidemics And Public Health In The Belgian Congo / Maryinez Lyons -- Cholera And The Origins Of The American Sanitary Order In The Philippines / Reynaldo C. Ileto -- Plague And The Tensions Of Empire : India, 1896-1918 / I.j. Catanach -- The Influenza Pandemic In Southern Rhodesia : A Crisis Of Comprehension / Terence Ranger -- Bilharzia : A Problem Of 'native Health' : 1900-1950 / John Farley -- The Discovery Of Colonial Malnutrition Between The Wars / Michael Worboys. Edited By David Arnold. Includes Earlier Versions Of Papers Presented At A Conference Held By The Society For The Social History Of Medicine At The University Of Aston On Apr. 19, 1986. Includes Bibliographies And Index. Front matter 1 Contents 6 General editor's foreword, acknowledgements, and notes on contributors 7 Introduction: disease, medicine and empire 10 The European insane in British India, 1800–1858: a case-study in psychiatry and colonial rule 36 Smallpox and colonial medicine in nineteenth-century India 54 Medicine and racial politics: changing images of the New Zealand Maori in the nineteenth century 75 Sleeping sickness epidemics and public health in the Belgian Congo 114 Cholera and the origins of the American sanitary order in the Philippines 134 Plague and the tensions of empire: India 1896–1918 158 The influenza pandemic in Southern Rhodesia: a crisis of comprehension 181 Bilharzia: a problem of ‘Native Health’, 1900–1950 198 The discovery of colonial malnutrition between the wars 217 Index 235