«Чесотка дхоби»: домашние слуги и гигиена в английских домах колониальной Индии

Abstract

In colonial India the sickness and mortality rate among the British was significantly higher than among their compatriots in the metropolis. The native servants working for the British, who were in close contact with their masters and connected between the colonial houses and the outside tropical world, were considered one of the sources of infections. They themselves were its carriers, or carried out their duties in such a way that they unwittingly provoked the spread of disease. Thus, the servants not only crossed the boundaries of the masters’ private spaces, which was dictated by their professional mission, but also unauthorizedly violated the integrity of the physical shells of English bodies, exerting a harmful effect on their internal organs and nervous systems. The fear, anxiety and physical malaise acquired by the European masters through this negative contact were an incentive for the development of protective mechanisms, some of which can be combined with the concept of hygiene...