Abstract
Tajen Dabi, Medicine and Integration of Frontier Tribes: The British and After in Arunachal Pradesh (Delhi: Primus Books), 2023, xvii + 219 pp., ₹1150.
This work is unique not only in terms of medical history but also in terms of the terrain that it covers. It deals with a remote region that is Arunachal, inhabited by tribes that have seen little outside intervention. Tajen Dabi has explored meaningfully the medical aspects of colonial intervention in what he calls a ‘Virgin Frontier’. He counters James Scott’s argument that hill societies purposefully evade states. The Monpas of Arunachal rather accepted unarmed, peaceful interventions. In frontier areas, a monolithic view of colonialism or the nation may not work; similarly, an indigenous vs. Western medicine may turn out to be wrong. As the author puts it, the book shifts the focus from the ‘centre’ to the ‘periphery’, from the metros to the hinterland and from the plains to the hills. This is where the real significance of the book lies.
The book is organised around five symmetrical chapters. The first chapter gives an idea of the topography and how the North East Frontier was conceived. Dabi rightly situates Arunachal outside the cultural and social matrix of the Indic civilisation as well as beyond the missionary and direct colonial administration. Chapter 2 deals with doctors and hospitals during the first half of the twentieth century. The first hospital was built in 1914 at Sadiya on the confluence of the Siang, Dibang and Lohit rivers. It was a small beginning, yet it gradually attracted patients from distant hills, even Tibet. Later, Darrang got a civil hospital. Medical tours under military escort were organised on different occasions. Chapter 3 takes the story beyond 1950, and discusses the expansion of healthcare facilities. Public health gets importance, and now one finds ‘magic lanterns’, and mobile health units. BCG vaccines were started in 1957. More emphasis was put on preventive medicine. There were major problems relating to water, road connectivity and so on. With a low standard of living and scarce medical facilities, mortality among children was very high. Military posts were looked upon favourably because they supplied certain necessary medicines. Thanks to persistent efforts, a Virgin Frontier was gradually integrated.
Chapter 4 is more anthropological and discusses the indigenous perceptions on ailments and diseases. This chapter is based on local, oral and literary sources. In epidemic situation, one village would undertake raids on another village as retribution. Different tribes had their own fear of ‘alien spirits’. These raids affected the settlement and migration patterns, and also strained relations with the administrative authorities. As in any tribal or rural society, healing is synonymous with traditional priests. Diseases were the results of a breach of balance between men and the supernatural forces, and the shaman was the vital link and the negotiator between the material and the spiritual worlds of the people. The author refers also to the different works on ethno-medicine, cites examples and then moves on to ethno-botany. Along with propitiatory rituals, herbs were also applied, and here the author alludes to the Buddhist healing system. He seems to have undertaken relevant field study, and this enriches his account. This chapter should be a delight for medical anthropologists. It ends with a useful and comparative note on medical pluralism, which goes beyond the Indian frontiers.
The fifth and final chapter is a kind of concluding chapter wherein the author tries to recapitulate his arguments with some more explanations and data. The focus here is on the post-independence period. He talks about the Nehru–Elwin’s policy of ‘Panchsheel’ with the due emphasis on autonomy and protectionism. I wish he had given a little more information on Varrier Elwin. But he rightly argues that the credit for the absence of insurgency in NEFA (North-East Frontier Agency, the older designation of the territory) goes to the role of medicine as the medium of government–tribal relations.
This book has a comprehensive bibliography; the author has scoured all relevant archival and published sources. Most significant is his use of tables and illustrations. It fills a void in our understanding of a beautiful region with an equally beautiful name, Arunachal. In addition, it has the quality production and an attractive look, which is a hallmark of the Primus Books.