HISTORIOGRAPHY OF GENDER AND HEALTH DEVELOPMENT IN COLONIAL PUNJAB (1849 -1947)

Abstract

This study intends to analyses the health culture of the Colonial society of Punjab through the gender lens from 1849 - 1947. Focusing on the relation between gender and the colonial subjects during the emergence of western medicine. This work based on the secondary sources hitherto traces almost since the middle of the nineteenth century which paved the pivot towards the establishment of hospital medical facilities in Punjab. This created a public space for western health-care system for female patients___ albeit a narrow one. The Western Medicine health services in Colonial Punjab initially were predominantly in approach of the British troops, mainly the Europeans, Eurasians, Government employs, members of Indian Medical Service and the indigenous elite. Subsequently, the rich class also benefited by the Western medicine services on handsome spending of money. Before the emergence of Western medicine hospital culture in contrast unlike to colonial medical practice, female patients were predominantly treated by the female indigenous practitioners or therapists known as vaids, hakims or dais. This study also analyses the growth and advancement in medical education especially for females in the colonial Punjab and the colonial administrative role in its process. This study also probes the gender discrimination after probing the official records and documents, determinants such as sexual health, mortality rates, reproductive health services, famines and racial discrimination against the role of female administration in the Western medicine system determined, moreover, health services and practices in the colonial administrative health care setup in Punjab analyzed. It also discusses the social history about the discrimination and brutality against women in western health care practices such as European styled hospitals, dispensaries and colonial lock-hospitals.