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Indigenous and Western Medicine in Colonial India delves deep into the social history of medicine and reflects on the multiplicity and complexity of social interaction and encounter between indigenous and western medicine. An important feature of this book is that it is prepared almost solely on the basis of sources such as tracts and pamphlets written by a wide variety of people, brochures and booklets of various medicine shops and drug manufacturing companies. This is a pioneer work which analyses the medical market and entrepreneurship in medicine. It deconstructs ‘advertisements' treating them both as a reflection on values and lifestyles and as a medium for the creation of medical consumers.

The book also explores the ambiguity of colonial modernity and its interactions with indigenous and colonial medical/sanitation; indigenous institutes associated with professionalization; the medical market associated with business networks, and the way these components together reinforced caste, patriarchy and communal identities. The book would be a useful read for graduate students of sociology and history, researchers and medical professionals.