Medicine and Colonialism in South Asia since 1500
This article attempts to sketch some of the main themes in historical scholarship, focusing particularly on those issues that have generated the most controversy. It maps the contours of existing scholarship and identified some of the main themes and issues that have animated it. It discusses the historiography of medicine in India that is dominated by the study of epidemics and enables us to draw reliable conclusions about attitudes to state medicine and outbreaks of epidemic disease. It gives an account of medical practice and health care in rural areas, the only real exception being studies of missionary medicine. It also points to important lacunae that remain to be filled. This article may serve to indicate the vast opportunities that await any scholar willing to take up the challenge.