gender and health in colonial India. The growing body of research on this area, though somewhat uneven, assumes significance especially since it has enriched our understanding of the complexities of Indian society. Colonial Bengal has attracted a lot of attention, and here one needs to perhaps mention that Sujata Mukherjee’s book is a major milestone and in many ways a logical culmination of earlier attempts made by her to research this area and publish short articles and chapters in books. A historian by training, Mukherjee has seen a wide range of archival sources, official documents, and secondary, published sources. The author has been particularly careful to incorporate Bangla language tracts that add to the richness of this book. As for her method, it is nuanced and holistic, and contains the distinct footprints of colonial India. These range from caste, class, notions about patriarchy and race in colonial India to the broader world of the metropolis and the interaction between both. The book in fact sees the author having a dialogue with the colonial ‘past’ on the basis of clearly verifiable sources. The book unpacks six themes that are clearly interconnected. Interestingly, the importance attached to the health of the colonial army can be clearly seen in the way the lock hospitals were set up in the cantonments. This predates the first theme associated with early colonial intervention, and as delineated, by 1928, there were sixteen such hospitals in Bengal. Besides being very clearly army/health-centric, one witnesses the health of the Indian prostitute being subordinated to the larger agenda of colonial expansion. Mukherjee discusses the Calcutta Medical College that was established in 1835 and the lying-in hospital attached to it, and some other hospitals, including the lock hospital. Acknowledging the liminality of the space that opened up for women who were provided western health care, the author discusses the logic of the shifts and changes over the nineteenth century. This included the origin of the idea of medicalization, childbirth, andmaternity care, which were a distinct fall-out of the ‘civilising mission’. If anything, the 1857 Rebellion ignited a retreat in terms of the priorities, and the realization of the importance of the colonial army and the lock hospitals. HereMukherjee captures the specificities of the colonial context. The next theme the author examines is the development of medical education for women medical practitioners. Sometimes labelled as the ‘liberal’ phase of British administration in India, it contained the footprints not only of the ‘civilising mission’, but also of the effort to put in place systems of governance that were distinctly linked to the strategic needs of retaining what was emerging as the empire’s ‘crown jewel’. Here the ‘reformist’ component, including the collaboration of the colonial administration, the missionaries, and sections of the bhadraloks, is delineated. Mukherjee refers to the ‘lady doctor’, Haimabati Sen, to tell us about her life and her struggles. These illustrate the racist, sexual, and patriarchal abuses that she faced, both at work and within her domestic world. The next two themes focus on childbirth and women’s role within the broad frame of ‘colonial modernity’. Here Mukherjee highlights the institutionalization of midwifery that was connected with prenatal and post-natal care. She weaves in both English and Bangla tracts written by doctors and social reformers. The author foregrounds the manner in which this site situates women within a middle class ‘family framework’ with its prescriptive logic and the connected discourses that gazed at women and their health through a prism that upheld the need for a ‘male nation’ and the production of healthy, male progeny. Intricately connected with eugenic notions and the domesticization of women, they worked to ‘make’ good wives and mothers out of women. Among various factors, Mukherjee illustrates the power of the printed word in hegemonizing sections of women, who accepted these codes and thereby legitimized them. The vulnerability of women during the Famine of 1943–44 is the last theme taken up for scrutiny by the author. The author refers to a host of factors which, along with the starvation-related deaths of women and children, exposed their health status. The echoes of this theme can be ‘heard’ both in the short ‘Epilogue’ of the book and its continuities seen in the real world of the health of women (and children) even in this post postmodern twenty-first century India.

中文翻译：

---

书评

印度殖民地的性别与健康。该领域越来越多的研究虽然有些不平衡，但具有重要意义，特别是因为它丰富了我们对印度社会复杂性的理解。孟加拉殖民地吸引了很多关注，在这里也许需要提及的是，Sujata Mukherjee 的书是一个重要的里程碑，并且在很多方面都是她早期尝试研究这一领域并在书中发表短篇文章和章节的合乎逻辑的高潮。作为一名受过训练的历史学家，穆克吉看过大量的档案资料、官方文件和二级出版资料。作者特别小心地加入了孟加拉语小册子，以增加本书的丰富性。至于她的方法，它是细致入微的和整体的，并且包含了殖民印度的独特足迹。这些范围从种姓、阶级、关于殖民地印度的父权制和种族的概念到大都市的更广阔世界以及两者之间的相互作用。这本书实际上看到作者在明确可验证的来源的基础上与殖民“过去”进行对话。这本书解开了六个明显相互关联的主题。有趣的是，从营地内设锁医院的方式，可以清楚地看出对殖民军队健康的重视。这早于与早期殖民干预相关的第一个主题，正如所描绘的那样，到 1928 年，孟加拉有 16 家这样的医院。除了非常明显以军队/健康为中心之外，人们还见证了印度妓女的健康服从于更大的殖民扩张议程。Mukherjee 讨论了 1835 年成立的加尔各答医学院及其附属医院，以及其他一些医院，包括锁医院。作者承认为接受西方医疗保健的女性开放的空间有限，讨论了 19 世纪转变和变化的逻辑。这包括医疗化、分娩和产妇护理等概念的起源，这些都是“文明使命”的明显后果。如果有的话，1857 年的叛乱在优先事项以及对殖民军队和锁医院重要性的认识方面引发了撤退。在这里，Mukherjee 捕捉到了殖民背景的特殊性。作者考察的下一个主题是女医生医学教育的发展。有时被称为英国在印度管理的“自由”阶段，它不仅包含了“文明使命”的足迹，还包含了建立治理体系的努力，这些体系与保留什么的战略需求明显相关。逐渐成为帝国的“皇冠上的明珠”。这里描绘了“改革派”的组成部分，包括殖民政府、传教士和部分巴德拉洛克的合作。Mukherjee 提到了“女医生”Haimabati Sen，来告诉我们她的生活和她的挣扎。这些说明了她在工作和家庭世界中所面临的种族主义、性虐待和重男轻女的虐待。接下来的两个主题集中在“殖民现代性”的广泛框架内的分娩和妇女的作用。在这里，Mukherjee 强调了与产前和产后护理相关的助产士制度化。她用医生和社会改革者写的英语和孟加拉语写作。作者突出了该网站将女性置于中产阶级“家庭框架”中的方式，其规定的逻辑和相关的话语通过支持“男性国家”和生产需求的棱镜来关注女性及其健康。健康的男性后代。与优生观念和女性的家庭化有着错综复杂的联系，他们努力使女性成为好妻子和好母亲。在各种因素中，穆克吉说明了印刷文字在霸权女性部分方面的力量，她们接受了这些代码，从而使它们合法化。1943-44 年饥荒期间妇女的脆弱性是作者审查的最后一个主题。作者提到了许多因素，连同与饥饿相关的妇女和儿童的死亡，暴露了她们的健康状况。即使在这个后现代的 21 世纪印度，这个主题的回声也可以在这本书的简短“尾声”及其在妇女（和儿童）健康的现实世界中看到的连续性中“听到”。