‘Uncivilized Practitioners’: Medical Subordinates, Medico-Legal Evidence and Misconduct in Colonial Burma, 1875–1907

Abstract

Indian and Burmese medical subordinates were problematic figures for British colonial officials in Burma during the nineteenth century. They were intrinsic to their plans for furthering colonial medicine in the colony, at the expense of indigenous practices. Yet, at the same time, they were never under the complete control of British officials, often being accused of negligence, misconduct and outright corruption. In short, they were seen as a necessary evil. This article explores the role played by medical subordinates in colonial Burma, as well as the ambivalent British attitude towards them, by tracing the history of attempts to train them and by examining episodes of their misconduct, which was especially prominent in the production of medico-legal evidence. Focusing on these medical subordinates highlights the need for a historiographic rethink of the relationship between medicine and the colonial state. Medicine was not a tool of the colonial state, but a set of practices through which the state was performed.

• colonialism
• medicine
• misconduct
• Burma

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jonathan Saha

Author Details:

Dr Jonathan Saha is a Teaching Fellow in History in the Department of History at the University of Bristol, 11 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TB, UK. E-mail: [email protected].