Decolonizing International Health

Abstract

This informative series covers the broad span of modern imperial history while also exploring the recent developments in former colonial states where residues of empire can still be found. The books provide in-depth examinations of empires as competing and complementary power structures encouraging the reader to reconsider their understanding of international and world history during recent centuries. Titles include: Sunil S. Amrith DECOLONIZING INTERNATIONAL HEALTH India and Southeast Asia, 1930-65 Tony Ballantyne ORIENTALISM AND RACE Aryanism in the British Empire Anthony

World health by place: the politics of international health system metrics, 1924–c.2010

“…Britain's reluctance may have reflected imperial unease, for nationalist movements were increasingly deploying arguments about colonial neglect of public health, and statistical amplification might have advanced their cause. 77 Later, when the LNHO's funding suffered drastic reduction following the 1929 recession, the yearbooks' discontinuation was deemed an acceptable economy, though population health data continued to be published. 78 This is unsurprising: epidemiological surveillance had been the original spur to intergovernmental 'sanitary' cooperation in the era of cholera and plague pandemics, and continued to form common ground of collaboration as the health effects of the depression were debated.…”

Philanthropy, Medicine, and Health in Colonial India

“…First, there was the inauguration of a new chapter in the internationalization of health and medicine in which India was a key node in the generation and transmission of international knowledge about health (Amrith, 2006). Second, colonial medicine in India was making the shift away from its restricted focus on European health to a more inclusive health system.…”

Postcolonial nation-building and health in Indonesia

“…It is also interesting to compare the SEARO with the PAHO (Pan American Health Organization) in the same era. While PAHO activities were still strongly determined by the interests of the American regional hegemony, the WHO's regional office for Southeast Asia was perhaps more responsive to the desires of regional states, which used multilateral institutions strategically in postcolonial geopolitics (Amrith 2006;Saavedra 2017).…”