British colonial power decisively established itself on the Indian subcontinent between 1770and 1830. This period and the century following it have become the subjects of muchcreative and insightful research on medical history: the use of medical institutions andpersonnel as tools for political leverage and power; Anglicist/Orientalist debatessurrounding medical education in Calcutta; the birth of so-called Tropical Medicine. Despitemuch propaganda to the contrary, European medicine did not offer its services in a vacuum.Long-established and sophisticated medical systems already existed in India, developing innew and interesting ways in the period just before the mid-eighteenth century
