Category: History India South Asia

Cinema & Bollywood · History India South Asia · History of Medicine · Medicine & Doctors · Public health

How B&W Bollywood has preserved a multi-hued snapshot of India’s public health story

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This was published on 28 Sep by the Wire India, here. Below are some excerpts: “TB was, and is, a formidable enemy but the foremost public health enemy in the early and mid-1900s in India, accounting for almost a quarter of all deaths every year, was malaria. Observers used terrible superlatives to describe it, such… Continue reading How B&W Bollywood has preserved a multi-hued snapshot of India’s public health story

Why reading is as important a parenting duty as any other
Culture & Life · History India South Asia · Recommended movies, books etc.

Why reading is as important a parenting duty as any other

Kiran KumbharLeave a comment

We are almost never introduced properly to one of the most important skills one needs in a complex, and now increasingly lies-filled, social world: critical thinking. What follows is excerpted from a post I wrote on Quora in answer to a general question What is it that Indian parents are collectively doing wrong? This answer… Continue reading Why reading is as important a parenting duty as any other

Lady Hardinge Medical College and Hospital, 1921, Women students in a laboratory [Wellcome Collection] A short history of Delhi’s Lady Hardinge Medical College, with pictures
History India South Asia · History of Medicine · Medicine & Doctors

A short history of Delhi’s Lady Hardinge Medical College, with pictures

Kiran Kumbhar1 Comment

Lady Hardinge Medical College, located in the heart of New Delhi, is one of the premier medical institutions in the country. Established in 1916, it recently celebrated a centenary of existence. The seeds of its foundation, however, lie in the late 1800s, when the British colonial government began to take some reluctant interest in providing… Continue reading A short history of Delhi’s Lady Hardinge Medical College, with pictures

Some historical nuggets about India’s premier medical institute: AIIMS, Delhi
History India South Asia · History of Medicine · Medicine & Doctors

Some historical nuggets about India’s premier medical institute: AIIMS, Delhi

Kiran Kumbhar1 Comment

AIIMS Delhi has a fascinating history. Most of what follows is indebted to the PhD thesis of Anna Ruddock, formerly at King’s College London. The thesis is titled ‘Special Medicine: Producing Doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)’. The genesis of the idea of AIIMS lies not in independent India, but in… Continue reading Some historical nuggets about India’s premier medical institute: AIIMS, Delhi

History India South Asia · History of Medicine · Medicine & Doctors

How did George Washington, the first US President, die? (Hint: much blood was spilled)

Kiran KumbharLeave a comment

I am reproducing this from the Medium website where I published it on Dec 28, 2020. Here is the link to that platform.   “George Washington at Mount Vernon at the end of his life, 1799,” by Howard Pyle. Accessed through Digital Commonwealth One of the most important concepts one learns during training as a… Continue reading How did George Washington, the first US President, die? (Hint: much blood was spilled)

Why Indian historians do not write about the West as frequently as Euro-American historians write about India
History India South Asia · Politics

Why Indian historians do not write about the West as frequently as Euro-American historians write about India

Kiran Kumbhar2 Comments

This is an understandable discrepancy.. until one realizes that that history of colonial India and of what we know as India’s ‘struggle’ for independence is as much a history of the West and Western actors as of India! I wrote this as an answer to a Quora question (here). I copy most parts of that… Continue reading Why Indian historians do not write about the West as frequently as Euro-American historians write about India

History India South Asia · History of Medicine · Medicine & Doctors

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

Kiran Kumbhar1 Comment

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 India South Asia · Recommended movies, books etc.

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

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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 60 to 65 thousand years ago to reach India via land. Countless waves of migration happened later, and all of us Indians today are a healthy and… Continue reading Dravidians, Aryans, and the question of how India/South Asia got its people