Curing Madness?: A Social and Cultural History of Insanity in Colonial North India, 1800–1950s

By: Shilpi Rajpal

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Synopsis: Curing Madness? focusses on the institutional and non-institutional histories of madness in colonial north India. It proves that 'madness' and its 'cure' are shifting categories which assumed new meanings and significance as knowledge travelled across cultural, medical, national, and regional boundaries. The book examines governmental policies, legal processes, diagnosis and treatment, and individual case histories by looking closely at asylums in Agra, Benaras, Bareilly, Lucknow, Delhi, and Lahore. Rajpal highlights that only a few mentally ill ended up in asylums; most people suffering from insanity were cared for by their families and local vaidyas, ojhas, and pundits. These practitioners of traditional medicine had to reinvent themselves to retain their relevance as Western medical knowledge was widely disseminated in colonial India. Evidence of this is found in the Hindi medical advice literature of the era. Taking these into account Shilpi Rajpal moves beyond asylum-centric histories to examine extensive archival materials gathered from various repositories.

Book Quality:: Publisher Quality
ISBN-13:: 9780190993320
Related ISBNs:: 9780190128012
Publisher:: OUP India
Date of Addition:: 09/17/22
Copyrighted By:: Oxford University Press
Adult content:: No
Language:: English
Has Image Descriptions:: No
Categories:: History, Nonfiction, Psychology, Social Studies, Medicine, Politics and Government
Submitted By:: Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:: This is a copyrighted book.