Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2008
The system of medicine known today variously as ‘international,’ ‘scientific,’ or ‘Western’ entered South Asia as early as the seventeenth century. For two centuries this system, known in India as allopathic medicine, coexisted with the medical traditions indigenous to South Asia. In 1835 the period of coexistence ended and the adherents of the allopathic tradition began to press claims that they, and only they, should be allowed to direct and staff the medical and health programs of the East India Company and, after 1858, the various Governments of South Asia. Allopathic medical men wished to decide the goal or goals of governmental medical efforts, who was to be allowed to participate in those efforts, and who was to be served by those programs. In short, allopathic medical men wanted control of the development of all facets of health policy in South Asia.
1 Maru, Rushikesh M., ‘Health Manpower Strategies for Rural Health Services in India and China: 1949–1975,’ Social Science and Medicine XI (1977): 535–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar This article is used as an example of a large body of literature on this topic. I have borrowed the terms ‘professional’ and ‘populist’ as defined by Maru. For a scathing official report of the results of the professional paradigm see West Pakistan, Health Department, Health Study Group Report (Lahore, 1971). However, the recommendations of this group called for a reorganization of the existing health services and for the expenditure of more money. It specifically recommended against any expansion of use of practitioners of indigenous systems of medicine.
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29 Ibid., p. 28.
30 PGP HG, 1874, A file no. 8, December.
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40 Hume, ‘Rival Traditions’.
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51 PGP HG, 1876, A file no. 6, May.
52 PGP HG, 1878, A file no. 12, February.
53 PGP HM&S, 1886, B file no. 18, May.