History · History of Medicine · Medicine & Doctors

How the 1835 Calcutta Medical College catalyzed the ascendancy of biomedicine in India

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Two versions of this essay were published recently. I wrote one for the KEM Hospital Mumbai’s internal publication, named ‘Reflections on Medical Humanities’. The other version was published by the Wire on 29th March 2019, full article here. Below are some excerpts: One of the most striking developments in the first year of the CMC was human… Continue reading How the 1835 Calcutta Medical College catalyzed the ascendancy of biomedicine in India

Culture & Life · History · Recommended movies, books etc.

Dravidians, Aryans, and the question of how India/South Asia got its people

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[This write-up is also available on the website Quora, here] The humans (Homo sapiens) who first arrived in India were those early adventurers who left Africa – that is where our ‘modern human’ species first evolved – around 60000 years ago to reach India via land. Countless waves of migration happened later, and all of… Continue reading Dravidians, Aryans, and the question of how India/South Asia got its people

Culture & Life · History · Religion

The British colonial origins of gravity-defying ancient Indian science

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This was published in thewire.in on 13 January 2019. Here is the link, and below is an excerpt. All such developments from the 1800s gave rise to a trend that we sadly never fully abandoned. Faced with constant assaults on their traditions, the then-elite Hindus found solace and self-respect in ancient texts, and maybe didn’t… Continue reading The British colonial origins of gravity-defying ancient Indian science

Medicine & Doctors · Public health · Uncategorized

Cochrane and the challenges of producing trustworthy evidence in medicine

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This was published in the Wire on 18 Nov 2018. Here is the link, and below is an excerpt: “In 1972, a British doctor Archibald Cochrane wrote a book titled Effectiveness and Efficiency: Random Reflections on Health Services. It had a great influence on ideas about decision-making in medicine and public health. Archibald was concerned with… Continue reading Cochrane and the challenges of producing trustworthy evidence in medicine

History of Medicine · Medicine & Doctors · Public health · Recommended movies, books etc.

Review of the book ‘Healers or Predators: Healthcare Corruption in India’ by Nundy, Desiraju, Nagral

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This review was published in Wire.in on 18 Oct 2018. Here is the full article. Below is an excerpt: As a former physician now studying the history of the medical profession in India, I found the chapters written by veteran doctors most interesting. M.K. Mani, who has been in medicine for the last 60 years,… Continue reading Review of the book ‘Healers or Predators: Healthcare Corruption in India’ by Nundy, Desiraju, Nagral

Culture & Life · History · History of Medicine · Religion

Why do some Indians like to obsessively make outrageous claims about ‘ancient Indian science’?

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I wrote the following as an answer to the question on Quora What were some of the global events that had the greatest impact on the history of India? I will write about a very obvious global event and its very under-appreciated impacts on India’s history. The event is British colonialism. The underappreciated impacts are… Continue reading Why do some Indians like to obsessively make outrageous claims about ‘ancient Indian science’?

History · History of Medicine · Medicine & Doctors

The time when ANYBODY could practise as a doctor in the United States

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I wrote this as an answer to a question on Quora, Has there ever been a time when doctors were widely mistrusted (as a whole)? It might be perhaps accurate to say that healers in general – or doctors as we would call them today – have never received complete, unadulterated trust from the public… Continue reading The time when ANYBODY could practise as a doctor in the United States

History · History of Medicine · Medicine & Doctors · Public health · Recommended movies, books etc.

The history of medicine in India: Some reading recommendations for doctors and other healthcare practitioners

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Over the last two years I have fortunately had the time and resources to read some excellent scholarship on the history of medicine and public health in India. These books and articles have immensely helped me to understand the historical beginnings and trajectories of the different aspects of healthcare in our country. For example, one… Continue reading The history of medicine in India: Some reading recommendations for doctors and other healthcare practitioners