Laboratory Medical Research in Colonial India, 1890-1950. (360G-Wellcome-078703_Z_05_Z)

From the 1890s several medical research laboratories were established in British India, notably the Plague Research Laboratory, at Bombay (1899), Pasteur Institutes at Kasauli (1900), Coonoor (1907), Rangoon (1916), Shillong (1917) and Calcutta (1924), as well as the Central Research Institute (CRI) at Kasauli (1905). The proposed research will focus on these three establishments for the period 1890 to the 1950s. The primary aim is to fill a major gap in the historiography of Indian medical research as these institutions have only received brief mention in histories of epidemics, public health and vaccination. The research aims to illustrate how these institutions played a crucial role in research in tropical diseases and public health and also in facilitating international research. Their history would unfold the genesis of laboratory medical research in modern India. The research will focus on setting up and funding of the three establishments, highlighting the distinctive orientation and cultural differences of each. These will be linked to conditions of work, available facilities, recruitment and training of staff, etc. The second focus will be on their engagement with contemporary international and local medical research. While contemporary medical research and experimentation had increasingly become international and collaborative endeavour, the main concern behind the setting up of the laboratories was to provide better health care for the military and civilian population of the colony. The implications of this dual engagement of the laboratories will be analysed. The third focus will be the role of these institutions in influencing public health provisions and in shaping public opinion about modern medicine in colonial India. The laboratories developed during a period of increasing nationalist assertion in India. The focus will be on the interface of laboratory research and public health. In summary the project will provide a comprehensive analysis of laboratory research in India through the study of these three establishments and further the historical elucidation of modern medicine in India.