Tuberculosis control in postcolonial South India and beyond: Fractured sovereignties in international health, 1948-1960

Abstract

Between 1948 and 1960, South India (Madras State) and Southeast Asia emerged as global centres for tuberculosis control. This article attempts to situate tuberculosis control of these two regions within the broader context of international health. It investigates the unique ways in which tuberculosis control in Madras state reflected the inner tensions between the notional magic bullet approach, which focuses on specific cures to root out the cause of the disease, and a more holistic approach that relates disease prevention to overall well-being of the population. The implementation of tuberculosis control across South India and Southeast Asia shed light on the nature of the post-colonial state sovereignty in public health. Across India, as in Southeast Asia, the state sovereignty appertaining to the implementation of health policy was fractured, as evident in the opposition to the Bacillus Calmette– Guérin (BCG) vaccination. Based on a wide range of archival materials, this article examines tuberculosis control in South India and Southeast Asia between 1948 and 1960. It situates tuberculosis control within the context of nationalist discourse and preventive medicine. In doing so, it adds not only to the historiography of tuberculosis in non-Western contexts, which has hitherto focused on India, Sri Lanka, Africa, or the Caribbean, but also to the relatively new field of Southeast Asian medical history.