Hakims on Health and Hygiene: Advising Women and Optimising Reproductive Capacity in Urdu Instructional Literature, c.1880s–1940s

Summary This article reads Urdu domestic health manuals as texts that targeted women to convey instructions on hygiene, exercise, and reproductive health. By predominantly focussing on Tabib al-Nisa (1934) and Sinf-i-Nazuk (1938), authored by hakims (local medical practitioners), this article argues that Urdu manuals, in comparison to other female-targeted manuals, have received little attention in historical scholarship. This research offers a starting point from which to remedy this by arguing that Urdu manuals, drawing from and inspired by Unani Tibb (Greco-Arabic-derived medicine), were important texts that contributed to how medical knowledge was understood and applied to women. It does this by examining how this manual genre mediated ideas about race, gender, class, and conflicting modernities to mould idealised notions of well-being. Colonially sanctioned health advice coalesced with local forms of medicine to address primarily North Indian ashraf women as responsible caregivers within broader debates about public health, eugenics, and socio-religious instruction.