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

Abstract

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.