TY - JOUR
T1 - Between the bazaar and the bench
T2 - Making of the drugs trade in Colonial India, ca. 1900–1930
AU - Bhattacharya, Nandini
N1 - I wish to thank the Wellcome Trust, which funded the research for this article. I am grateful to the staff of the APAC, British Library, Wellcome Library, Baroda Record Office
Vadodara, and National Library, Calcutta, for all their help in the course of my research.
PY - 2016/3/1
Y1 - 2016/3/1
N2 - This article analyzes why adulteration became a key trope of the Indian drug market. Adulteration had a pervasive presence, being present in medical discourses, public opinion and debate, and the nationalist claim for government intervention. The article first situates the roots of adulteration in the composite nature of this market, which involved the availability of drugs of different potencies as well as the presence of multiple layers of manufacturers, agents, and distributors. It then shows that such a market witnessed the availability of drugs of diverse potency and strengths, which were understood as elements of adulteration in contemporary medical and official discourse. Although contemporary critics argued that the lack of government legislation and control allowed adulteration to sustain itself, this article establishes that the culture of the dispensation of drugs in India necessarily involved a multitude of manufacturer–retailers, bazaar traders, and medical professionals practicing a range of therapies.
AB - This article analyzes why adulteration became a key trope of the Indian drug market. Adulteration had a pervasive presence, being present in medical discourses, public opinion and debate, and the nationalist claim for government intervention. The article first situates the roots of adulteration in the composite nature of this market, which involved the availability of drugs of different potencies as well as the presence of multiple layers of manufacturers, agents, and distributors. It then shows that such a market witnessed the availability of drugs of diverse potency and strengths, which were understood as elements of adulteration in contemporary medical and official discourse. Although contemporary critics argued that the lack of government legislation and control allowed adulteration to sustain itself, this article establishes that the culture of the dispensation of drugs in India necessarily involved a multitude of manufacturer–retailers, bazaar traders, and medical professionals practicing a range of therapies.
KW - Adulteration
KW - Ayurveda
KW - Bazaar medicine
KW - Colonial India
KW - Drugs enquiry committee
KW - Drugs trade
KW - Indigenous drugs
KW - Medical market
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84962109771&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://muse.jhu.edu/issue/33321
U2 - 10.1353/bhm.2016.0017
DO - 10.1353/bhm.2016.0017
M3 - Article
C2 - 27040026
AN - SCOPUS:84962109771
SN - 0007-5140
VL - 90
SP - 61
EP - 91
JO - Bulletin of the History of Medicine
JF - Bulletin of the History of Medicine
IS - 1
ER -
