This article traces the history of India’s first tertiary cancer hospital, Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH). TMH was originally conceived in 1932 as a philanthropic project by the Tatas, an elite Parsi business family in Bombay. The founding of TMH represented a form of philanthro-capitalism which both enabled the Tatas to foster a communal acceptance for big businesses in Bombay and provide the Tatas with the opportunity to place stakes in the emerging nuclear research economy seen as essential to the scientific nationalist sentiment of the post-colonial state. In doing this, the everyday activities of TMH placed a heavy emphasis on nuclear research. In a time when radium for the treatment of cancer was still seen as ‘quackery’ in much of the world, the philanthro-capitalist investment and the interest in nuclear research by the post-colonial state provided an environment where radium medicine was able to be validated. The validation of radiotherapy at TMH influenced how other cancer hospitals in India developed and also provided significant resources for cancer research in early-mid twentieth century India. Ultimately, this article identifies ways in which cancer comes to be seen as relevant in the global south and raises questions on the relationship between local and global actors in setting health priorities.

本文追溯了印度第一家三级癌症医院塔塔纪念医院 (TMH) 的历史。TMH 最初是 1932 年由孟买的帕西精英商业家族 Tatas 构想的一个慈善项目。TMH 的成立代表了一种慈善资本主义形式，它既使 Tatas 能够促进孟买大企业的共同接受，又为 Tatas 提供了在新兴的核研究经济中投入股份的机会，这些经济被视为对科学民族主义情绪至关重要后殖民国家。为此，TMH 的日常活动非常重视核研究。在当时用于治疗癌症的镭在世界大部分地区仍被视为“骗子”，慈善资本家的投资和后殖民国家对核研究的兴趣提供了一个可以验证镭医学的环境。TMH 放射治疗的验证影响了印度其他癌症医院的发展方式，也为 20 世纪中期印度的癌症研究提供了重要资源。最后，本文确定了癌症在全球南方被视为相关的方式，并就当地和全球行动者在确定健康优先事项中的关系提出了问题。