Medicine Power in India

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course examines social dimensions of medicine, health and power in India. We begin with an exploration of the history of medicine in the colonial encounter to consider how disease, medicine, and public health reveal the interests, power, and limits of the British colonial empire. The focus will be on the social context of medicine and public health and on the lived experience of disease and medical care in postcolonial India. The course highlights the ways in which social structures of inequality relating to colonialism, race, class, caste, gender and religion complicate efforts to prevent and treat disease in India while also demonstrating how people negotiate structures of power in their efforts to prevent disease, endure illness and confront death with dignity. We will explore these issues through reading in-depth ethnographies and consider how knowledge gained through ethnographic research can help inform policymakers and practitioners involved in improving health and healthcare in the region. The course will be of interest to students of Asian Studies; science, technology and society studies; global health; and anthropology.