History of Medicine in India: The Medical Encounter

Preface

This volume has grown out of a national seminar hosted by Corpus Research Institute in Jadavpur University Campus, Kolkata in 2002. There are altogether eighteen essays on various aspects of the history of medicine in India. This is a discipline which is universally acclaimed all over the world as vital for the health care of human civilisation. In India, it is yet to become an academic discipline in the universities. Only medical research institutes had such a wing from before. Fortunately, history of science and medicine is now entering the syllabus of postgraduate studies as a priority area of study as prescribed by the University Grants Commission. As it is a life and death question, the general reading public also have a lively interest in the subject. This book will cater to both levels of readership. It is divided into five sections. The first section deals with epidemics, both policy and practice. At least five epidemics are discussed in detail in this section. The second section deals with western medicine, its emergence and intervention in a traditional society. The third section highlights indigenous medicine which was on the crossroads of revival and survival. This is followed by a crucial section on gender and health especially dealing with the advent of gynaecology and approach to delivery deaths. The last section is on social work which focusses attention on social construction of health and social work in this field, much against the western notion of the lack of public initiative in India. This book is destined to be the first major Indian reply to medical orientalism dominating the area.

Chittabrata Palit Achintya Kumar Dutta