Facets of Public Health in Early Twentieth-Century Bombay by Mridula Ramanna

Abstract

Reviewed by: Facets of Public Health in Early Twentieth-Century Bombay by Mridula Ramanna Mrunmayee Satam Facets of Public Health in Early Twentieth-Century Bombay. By Mridula Ramanna. Delhi: Primus Books, 2020. Mridula Ramanna is one of the earliest contributors to the field of social history of health and healthcare in colonial India and her work has offered a valuable regional illustration of provisions of public health and medicine in Bombay Presidency. The book under review is a product of the postdoctoral research undertaken by the author and it attempts to uncover areas which were left unexplored in her earlier work titled, Health Care in Bombay Presidency, 1896-1930, published by Primus Books in 2012. Some of the new facets that the author sets out to explore include the study of advertisements of medical products published in the leading English newspapers and journals, the health of mill workers, private voluntary efforts in healthcare and observations made by the officials of the Rockefeller Foundation on medical education in Bombay Presidency. The book opens by briefly tracing the history of health in the Presidency and underscores that colonial public health policy was characterised by intrinsic racial biases, ad hoc medical interventions and coercive public health measures. At the turn of the twentieth century, following the "popular resistance to anti-plague measures," the colonial state focused more on preventive measures than on curative ones in addressing public health matters (4). In chapter one, Ramanna shines a spotlight on the advertisements of medical products promoted in the local English print media. The medical products include western medicines and Ayurvedic preparations, curatives and preventives for specific complaints, commodities for maternal and infant use, toiletries, tonics, medication to increase sexual potency and birth control products. There is little doubt that advertisements are an important primary source for historical study. However, the author lists down the various types of advertisements without offering any analysis about their intent or the social and cultural context of their creation. It would have been insightful if the author analysed the advertisements in the regional newspapers in comparison with the English print media. Chapter two and three focus on the health of textile mill labourers in urban centres with reference to diseases, working conditions, the diet of the mill workers, maternal and infant health and welfare facilities provided by the capitalist class. Ramanna presents a detailed note on the reports published by agencies such as the Indian Factory Labour Commission, the International Congress of Hygiene and Demography, and the Bombay Legislative Council. In addition, the author illuminates the work undertaken by voluntary organisations such as the Anti-Tuberculosis League and Social Service League in the provision of healthcare and medical relief to the mill workers. These two chapters would have significantly benefitted from engaging with Priyanka Srivastava's 2018 work, The Wellbeing of the Labor Force in Bombay, which makes a crucial contribution to labour health histories. Srivastava highlights the failure on the part of government agencies and industrialists to address issues related to workers' health and sanitation, and meticulously argues that the voluntary organisations often reflected "contemporary biases" and "paternalistic tendencies" that existed in society.1 Furthermore, while addressing the questions of the diet and housing of mill workers in Bombay city, the author has largely relied on statistical information provided in the Bombay Labour Gazette. Some of the relevant contemporary works, such as that of A.R. Burnett Hurst titled, Labour and housing in Bombay: A study in the economic conditions of the wage-earning classes in Bombay (1925) and that of G.R. Pradhan titled, Untouchable Workers of Bombay City (1938), find no mention in the study. These two publications are essential for understanding the relationship between the caste status of mill workers and access to decent housing and diet. Chapter four, "Voluntary Initiatives in Health Care," examines the work of semi-official and voluntary societies in the field of public health. Ramanna divides the chapter into two major themes—first, the issue of maternal and infant health and second, the "disadvantaged" sections of society, such as widows, rescued children, juvenile offenders and the visually challenged (9). The section on schemes promoting self-reliance among women and widows by...