Complex Alliance: Nursing and Public Health in Colonial Bengal

Medicine and public health cannot be understood without considering the role of nurses, both as professionals and as working women. In India, unlike other countries, nurses have suffered an exceptional degree of neglect at the hands of the state (as well as medical professionals). This situation has been detrimental to the quality of both rural and urban health care. The present article examines the reasons why nurses have so consistently been marginalised and excluded from the public health system and policymaking. It questions the general assumption that nursing’s poor status is mainly due to sociocultural factors—such as caste, religion, social taboos, etc. The article is an analysis of the evolution of a profession, including the impact of the colonial health policies on nursing, in Bengal during British rule. Based on a wide range of primary sources, the article aims to provide a political history of nursing that underlines the reasons for the lack of development of the profession under British rule.