Colonizing the Body: State Medicine and Epidemic Disease in Nineteenth-Century India

David Arnold University of California Press, $18, pp 354 ISBN 0-520- 08295-8 The British Raj may have been the jewel in the crown of the empire but it had only slight impact on the everyday lives of most Indians. Similarly, Western medicine, as a component of the grand imperial project, also remained largely restricted to the enclaves of British political and cultural dominance such as the army, the prison, and the European settlement and had little effect on the overall health of India, at least before 1914. The medical …