The book maps developments in public health, the emergence of specialised medical institutions, the influence of western medicine on indigenous medical communities (and their patients) and the interaction between them. Two comparatively large states (Mysore and Travancore), considered progressive and enlightened, and some of the 24 Orissa Princely States, seen as backward and despotic, will be at the centre of investigation. Contentious issues currently debated in the existing scholarship on medicine in British India and other colonies will be explored (such as the indigenisation of health...