International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research

E-ISSN: 2582-2160   •   Impact Factor: 9.24

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Negotiating Medical Authority in Colonial United Provinces (1858–1940)

Author(s) Prof. Poonam Pandey, Ms. Ranniti Rai
Country India
Abstract This research paper “Between Ayurveda and Empire: Negotiating Medical Authority in Colonial United Provinces (1858–1940)” investigates the contested terrain of medical authority in the colonial United Provinces where Western biomedicine under British rule confronted indigenous systems such as Ayurveda. Instead of treating this encounter as a simple story of displacement the study highlights how medical authority was continuously negotiated. Using colonial sanitary reports, missionary medical archives, Dufferin Fund proceedings, and vernacular Ayurvedic journals this paper shows how local vaidyas resisted marginalization by adopting scientific idioms of hygiene and bacteriology while simultaneously invoking cultural legitimacy to safeguard their traditions.
At the same time colonial authorities attempted to institutionalize biomedicine through hospitals, medical colleges, and public health policies. These interventions were embedded within a broader framework of governance and control. Resistance from local elites, practitioners, and women’s organizations complicated efforts at medical centralization. By situating the United Provinces particularly Varanasi as a key site of interaction this paper emphasizes how sacred geographies, gendered spaces, and vernacular print culture shaped medical encounters.
The paper argues that colonial north India was not simply a site of medical dominance but a laboratory for negotiating cultural authority, political legitimacy and the very definition of science. This intervention challenges Eurocentric narratives of colonial medicine and demonstrates the resilience and reinvention of Ayurveda under empire.
Keywords Colonial medicine, Ayurveda, United Provinces, Public health, medical authority, Indigenous knowledge systems, Biomedicine, Missionary medicine, Empire and science
Published In Volume 7, Issue 5, September-October 2025
Published On 2025-09-30
DOI https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i05.56952
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E-ISSN 2582-2160
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