Ayurveda, state and society in colonial north India, 1895-1947

In this thesis I examine the historical development of the composite of theories and practices which became modern Ayurveda, a South Asian medical system. I draw a distinction between the systems of knowledge production about the body and the institutionalisation of medical practice. This allows me to examine how both processes contributed to the development of South Asian national identity in the early twentieth century. I do this through an examination of governmental (at both the central and provincial level) negotiations of Ayurveda contrasted with popular understandings, in order to examine the meaning of Ayurveda as a knowledge system and as lived practice in the late colonial period. Chapter 1 traces the evolution of Ayurveda from its inception as an idea in the Atharvaveda to the end of the Mughal period, framing its importance as a textual tradition overseen by Brahman Pandits, but also as a lived medical practice associated with complicated ties to religious, ethnic, or community identity. In Chapter 2, I investigate the history of Ayurveda from 1780 until the end of the nineteenth century, focusing on its relationship to the colonial state. Chapter 3 explores a shift in attitude on the part of the Imperial Government beginning in 18995, when the Indigenous Drugs Committee was created in order to explore the potential contribution of Ayurvedic ‘knowledge’ to the development of an Indian-based pharmacological industry, juxtaposed with the imposition of medical regulatory acts that limited the practice of the indigenous medical systems in the Provinces of British India. Chapter 4 explores the development of a discourse about medicine in Hindi-language popular publishing. Chapter 5 traces the development of a legislative framework established to incorporate the adoption of the indigenous medical services through several significant political periods. Chapter 6 explores the functioning of some of the institutions developed, and reflects upon the social and cultural concerns that framed the unfolding of institutions.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo