I want to compare transition of diseases and risk factors in India and the West. I can find innumberable literature about the west but hardly any on India
The objective that you have set out seeks to ‘compare transition of diseases and risk factors in India and the West’. The period for which you seek information is the 18th century and perhaps even earlier (dating back before 1800s). It appears you are looking for health information for India as a whole - treating it as one single unit for this period. No such compiled information will be available and no archives (and certainly not online) for ‘Health for India’ for the period are available.
The few medical historians who have written on health and medicine for the pre-colonial period have restricted themselves to a region, indigenous medicine and medical practices, early European encounters with indigenous medicine and a single disease (small pox and its treatment). They draw upon Indian language medical tracts available in some archives or published contemporary accounts by European visitors or residents in India.
Thank you Mr. Shirish. Do you know where I can find the papers that you have described. If you have them would you mind mailing them to me or even attach it here? It will really be of great help.
However I must say there is very good information of health during colonial India mainly documented by the British themselves. But yes, you are right I am searching for health records before 1800s.
Yes there is a good deal of information for colonial India from 1800 on wards right up to independence. My own work on Indian medical history covers late 19th and early/mid 20th centuries.
I understand that you are doctoral student but unaware at what stage of work. Before planning visits to archives you may want to consult some of the secondary literature which provides information on some of the archival and other relevant sources.
Some books you could refer to:
Mark Harrison – Climates and Constitutions. Health, Race, Environment and British Imperialism in India.1600-1850, OUP,1999
Sumit Guha- Health and Population in South Asia from earliest times to the present, Permanent Black 2001
Deepak Kumar (ed) Disease and Medicine in India. A Historical Overview. Tulika Books, 2001 - the section on Pre-Modern India
Indian editions are available but I am doubtful if any library in Pune would have these though you could try the Gokhale Institute library
A more recent publication is: Anna Winterbottom and Facil Tesfaye (Ed) Histories of Medicine and Healing in the Indian Ocean World, Volume 1 -The Medieval and Early Modern Period . Palgrave Macmillan, 2016
This has some chapters on South India.
The Sarasvati Mahal Library archives in Thanjavur(TN) has documents in Tamil and Modi Marathi but these pertain mostly to medicine/ medical practice.
You may want to give the Maharashtra State Archives in Mumbai a try for the East India Company 18th century records - to begin with and then the National Archives of India.
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