The historiography of medicine in South Asia often assumes the presence of preordained, homogenous, coherent and clearly-bound medical systems. They also tend to take the existence of a medical 'mainstream' for granted. This article argues that the idea of an 'orthodox', 'mainstream' named allopathy and one of its 'alternatives' homoeopathy were co-produced in Bengal. It emphasises the role of the supposed 'fringe', ie. homoeopathy, in identifying and organising the 'orthodoxy' of the time. The shared market for medicine and print provided a crucial platform where such binary identities such as 'homoeopaths' and 'allopaths' were constituted and reinforced. This article focuses on a range of polemical writings by physicians in the Bengali print market since the 1860s. Published mostly in late nineteenth-century popular medical journals, these concerned the nature, definition and scope of 'scientific' medicine. The article highlights these published disputes and critical correspondence among physicians as instrumental in simultaneously shaping the categories 'allopathy' and 'homoeopathy' in Bengali print. It unravels how contemporary understandings of race, culture and nationalism informed these medical discussions. It further explores the status of these medical contestations, often self-consciously termed 'debates', as an essential contemporary trope in discussing 'science' in the vernacular.
The account so carefully given by St Luke of the planting of the Churches in the Four Provinces … was certainly meant to be something more than the romantic history of an exceptional man like Paul, … it was intended to throw light on the path of those who should come after.' i … the answer comes with irresistible force that most of St Paul's converts were born in an atmosphere certainly not better and in some respects, even worse that which we have to deal today in India or China.' ii 'Admit then, that Paul was a necessary logical adjunct and consequent of Christ, as Moses was, indeed, his antecedent …If you cannot separate Paul from Christ, surely you cannot separate Paul from us. Are we not servants of Paul and Apostles of Jesus? Yes.' iii St Paul, the apostle who taught the Gospel of Christ to the first-century world, is seldom remembered either in the historiography of Indian Christianity or that of the British Empire in India. This is remarkable considering the regularity with which St Paul, his life and his letters were invoked by both Protestant missionaries and Indian Christian literature, including converts' narratives. As the quotations above illustrate, Paul remained equally relevant for the two distinct nineteenth-century personalities. For Roland Allen, the late nineteenthcentury Anglican missionary to China, the ancient saint's activities provided the most robust blueprint against which to evaluate the future policies for missionaries in India and China.For the Indian theologian and founder of the Hindu-reformist sect Brahmo Samaj, Keshab Chandra Sen, Paul held the key to his Hindu reformist agenda. For both, Paul's life and letters were not simply an 'interesting detail of ancient history' but all-important in its message to spiritualise peoples. At a period when the historical origins of Christianity and the Bible were being reviewed afresh, and often challenged in scholarly circles, St Paul also received critical attention with relation to questions of evangelical missions, imperialism and conversion. He was projected as an advocate of the Roman Empire by some circles while others also appropriated his ideas to bolster radical critiques of imperialism or the caste system in nineteenth-century India. The figure of Paul therefore excited the imagination of a
No abstract
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.