Vaccinating against Vasoori
Eradicating smallpox in the ‘model’ princely state of Travancore, 1804–1946
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8961769 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Aparna Nair (0000-0001-5039-5707, University of Oklahoma, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 361-386 |
| Publication date | 2019-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Indian Economic & Social History Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0019-4646 • E-ISSN: 0973-0893 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0019464619873798 |
| OpenAlex | W2989178893 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 25 |
The social and medical histories of vaccination are increasingly important in the twenty-first century, as anti-vaccination narratives threaten herd immunity across the world. Much of the historical scholarship on vaccination in India focusses on smallpox, largely in the context of the colonial or post-colonial state. This article explores the histories of this policy in the ‘model’ princely state of Travancore. The essay integrates medical and social history as it tracks the introduction and progress of vaccination into the princely state and examines the process as biomedical discourse about disease and public health, and as a set of corporeal practices. The article also examines the broader cultural meanings ascribed to biomedicine in this princely state and the efforts to construct a ‘modern’ corporeal consciousness through direct and indirect interventions. Finally, the article also engages with the question of what exactly the introduction of biomedicine entailed for the average resident of this region in terms of disease control and prevention
Colonialism · Context (archaeology · Political science · Psychological intervention · Public health · Scholarship · Smallpox · Sociology · State (computer science · Vaccination · History · Law · Medicine · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy · Virology
Bodily Matters
Inequality Reexamined
Pursuing Protection from Disease
Introduction
Sitala
Public health in British India
Variolation and vaccination in South Asia, c. 1700–1865
Indirect British Rule, State Formation, and Welfarism in Kerala, India, 1860–1957
Borrowing, Adapting, and Learning the Practices of Smallpox
Kerala Christian Sainthood
Situating Social History Orissa (1800 – 1997)
Edward Jenner's Cowpox Vaccine
The Travancore Tribes and Castes
Missionary Encounters
Care, welfare, and treason
Hindu Kingship and the Origin of Community
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2024 (4) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |