Thwarted ambition and disappointing careers? Narratives of the Indian Medical Service

Men recruited to the Indian Medical Service would have been justified in regarding their careers with apprehension, given the high mortality among medical men in India and the slim chances of either swift promotion or rich rewards. This chapter uses both quantitative and qualitative means to consider the dissatisfactions of Indian service including challenges to medical masculinity. It identifies the need for patronage, and the drive towards competition, as ongoing features of professional life, particularly from the diaries and letters of men serving 1810-1850.