LUNACY FOR PROFIT: THE ECONOMIC GAINS OF ‘NATIVE-ONLY’ LUNATIC ASYLUMS IN THE BENGAL PRESIDENCY, 1850s-1870s

Kymberly C. Brumlik

Abstract


In the late nineteenth century, the understanding of ‘maladies of the mind’ was in the early stages of development. Those studying such disorders were striving to legitimize mental health as a field of medicine. As a result the British began to establish ‘Native-Only’ lunatic asylums throughout South Asia, particularly in the Bengal Presidency of their Colonial Empire. The purpose of these asylums appeared to have been to alleviate society from those inflicted with mental disease. Upon examination of reports pertaining to asylums supervised by the British, it became evident that these facilities were no more than forced labor houses producing goods for the British Empire. In reality, the asylums had little to do with the rehabilitation of mentally ill patients. By researching the yearly reports from the asylums, which were veiled in Victorian morality, it became apparent that the reports of medical treatment had evolved into profit margin data. The majority of the patients walking the halls were usually the traditional vagrants of India, those who were unaccounted for and remained uncontrolled. This paper examines the previously unexplored consequences of British colonial rule in regards to public health, specifically mental health.


Keywords


Lunacy, Mental Illness, Bengal, British Colonial, Asylum, Profits, Insanity, East India Company

Full Text:

PDF

References


Atharva-Veda Samhita.Translated by William Dwight Whitney. Massachusetts: Cambridge University Press, 1905. On Internet Archive. Accessed July 15, 2013.

http://www.archive.org/stream/atharvavedasamhi029175mbp#page/n9/mode/2up.

Blackstone, Sir William and Edward Christian et al. Commentaries on the Laws of England. Vol. I. New York: W.E. Dean Printer, 1863, 11, 223.

Brown, J. Campbell. Annual Report on the Insane Asylums in Bengal, for the Year 1870. Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Office, 1870, 4, 17. Accessed July 25, 2013. http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=foUIAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&pg=GBS.PP5.

Chevers, Norman. “Bengal Branch, State Sanitation: a Farewell Address at the First Annual Meeting of the Branch.” British Medical Journal (July 2, 1864).

Compson, Alexandra. ”Insanity: Ayurvedic vs. Western Medicine Perspectives.”At California College of Ayurveda. November 4, 2010. Accessed July 16, 2013. http://www.ayurvedacollege.com/articles/students/Insanity.

Donnely, Michael. Managing the Mind, a Study of Medical Psychology in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain. New York: Tavistock Publications, 1983, 11.

“Epilepsy: Temporal lobe epilepsy; Seizure disorder.” PubMed. Health, National Institutes of Health, February 16, 2012. Accessed July 25, 2013. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001714/.

“Experts and Criminal Lunatics.” British Medical Journal (February 20, 1864): 208. Accessed July 23, 2013.pubmedcentralcanada.ca/picrender.cgi?artid=754920&blobtype=pdf‎.

Foucault, Michel. Madness and Civilization, a History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. New York: Vintage Books, 1965, 7.

Hill, Christopher V. “Of Nature and Nurture: Sedentary Agriculture and the ‘Wandering Tribes’ of Jharkhand.” In Speaking of Peasants, Essays on Indian History and Politics in Honor of Walter Hauser, edited by William R Pinch. Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2008.

Jain, Sanjeev. “Psychiatry and Confinement in India.” In The Confinement of the Insane: International Perspectives, 1800-1965. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, 273.

Kolb, Lawrence C. Noyes’ Modern Clinical Psychiatry. 7th Edition. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company, 1968.

“Lunatic Asylum Reports.” British Medical Journal. February 20, 1864. Accessed July 23, 2013.europepmc.org/articles/PMC2371624/pdf/brmedj04486-0034b.pdf‎.

MacPherson, John. “Report of the Lunatic Asylums in the Bengal Presidency.” (Published by Order of the Government of the Northwestern Provinces).The Calcutta Review 26 (January-June 1856): 592-602.

McClelland, J., and Arthur Payne. Annual Reports and Returns on the Insane Asylums in Bengal, for the Year 1862. Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Office, 1863. Accessed July 22, 2013. http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=WoUIAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&pg=GBS.PP7.

McClelland, J. & Arthur Payne. Annual Reports and Returns on the Insane Asylums in Bengal, for the Year 1863. Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Office,

Accessed July 24, 2013. http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=WoUIAAAAQAAJ&num=16&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&pg=GBS.PA93.

McClelland, J. & Arthur Payne. Annual Reports and Returns on the Insane Asylums in Bengal, for the Year 1864. Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Office, 1865. Accessed July 25, 2013. http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=WoUIAAAAQAAJ&num=16&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&pg=GBS.RA1-PA73.

Mills, James H. Madness, Cannabis and Colonialism: The ‘Native-Only’ Lunatic Asylums of British India, 1857-1900. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000.

Prioreschi, Plinio. A History of Medicine: Byzantine and Islamic Medicine. Omaha: Horatius Press, 2001.

Rig Veda. Translated by Ralph T.H. Griffith.2nd edition. 1896. At sacred-texts.com. Accessed July 13, 2013. http://www.sacredtexts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10136.htm.

“Subordinate Medical Care in India.” British Medical Journal (July 25, 1868): 86.

Winslow, Forbes, ed. “Article III-Insanity in India.” In The Journal of Psychological Medicine and Mental Pathology. Vol. VI. London: John Churchill, 1853, 359. Accessed July 20, 2013. http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=SFHOAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader.

Wise, James. Annual Report on the Insane Asylums in Bengal, for the Year 1870. In Campbell Brown. Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Office, 1870, 34. Accessed July 24, 2013. http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=foUIAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&pg=GBS.PP5.

Wise, T. A. “Practical Remarks on Insanity as it occurs among the Inhabitants of Bengal.” In The Monthly Journal of Medical Science. London: Simpkin Marshal and Co., 1852.

Yang, Anand A. “Dangerous Castes and Tribes: the Criminal Tribes Act and the Magahiya Doms of Northeast India.” In Crime and Criminality in British India. Edited by Anand A. Yang. Arizona: University of Arizona Press. 1985.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2014 Kymberly C. Brumlik

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Journal of South Asian Studies
ISSN: 2307-4000 (Online), 2308-7846 (Print)
© EScience Press. All Rights Reserved.