Abstract
While the histories
of colonial medicine have highlighted the hegemonic impact of western
bio-medical notions on indigenous understanding of diseases, recent historians
working with marginalized vernacular archives in the colonies have brought into
focus the vernacular understanding of diseases that not only survived the
onslaught of western clinical notions and therapeutic practices but got a fresh
lease of life through the growth of a shared medical market of vernacular print
and medicines. I would look at the vernacular histories of syphilis and
gonorrhoea in the context of late colonial Bengal. Locally known as upadangsha and prameha, these indigenous categories of venereal diseases elicited
much debate and discussion in the late 19th century Bengali public sphere,
while indigenous understanding of these diseases, circulated through the local
commercial circuits. Using commercial advertising material and vernacular
medical print, I would try to recuperate the vernacular histories of venereal
diseases in the context of late colonial Bengal. In doing so, I would question
some of the assumptions held by colonial medical historians who overwhelmingly
concentrate on state sponsored western medicine and in turn ignore the rich
histories of vernacular medicine.
Speaker: Ratnabir Guha
Research
Scholar, CHS, SSS, JNU
Venue: Committee Room, Central Library, JNU
Date and Time: 16th August 2014 (Saturday), 4:00
pm
