From Yorubaland to Punjab: Culture, Reconstruction in Indigenous Medical Systems and ImperialMedicine, 1900-1928

From the colonial era, settlers ‘technologies including imperial medicinehave shaped the social, cultural and economic landscape of the colonies indiverse dimensions. In the post-modern world, global medicine still has thetrappings of health inequities and imperialism, particularly in lower- andmiddle-income countries and the Global South. In this regard, this researcharticle examines how Yoruba medicine practitioners deployed their culturalsanctity to withstand the domineering influence of imperial medicine inthe early twentieth-century. In the same era, we compare this phenomenonwith how Hakims and Vaids in colonial Punjab deployed Urdu literati toreconstruct their social relevance. Thus, we argue that Yoruba medicinewas a site of cultural reformation while Punjab medicine was a site ofsocial reconstruction. This historical research engaged archival sources andsuitable secondary data, and exposed varied reactions of Indigenous medicalpractitioners to colonial medical institutions in the early 20th century. A studyof this caliber highlights the inextricable interface between culture, medicine,and technology in the context of colonialism. It reinforces the significance ofacculturation in cultural encounters to forestall cultural emasculation.