Medicine and Colonialism in India
Ancient India
The Indian subcontinent was well inhabited by the first millennium BCE. The inhabited territory extended west into areas that today are in Pakistan and Afghanistan. These ancient Indians had a well‐developed system of medicine termed Āyurveda (The Science of Life). Ayurvedic physicians practiced medicine and to a lesser extent, surgery. The system and its practitioners were held in high regard and Indian physicians are known to have been in the courts of the Muslim rulers. Some of the Ayurvedic texts were translated into Arabic early in the history of Islam.
The basic thrust of Colonialism is to exploit the colonized for the benefit of the colonizers. Usually after a long period of colonization the two groups come to a situation of better parity. Both these phenomena are well illustrated in the colonization of India.
Muslim Invasion
From the early eighth century, India was invaded by the Muslim kings ruling in the west across the Himalayas. Initially these Muslim pockets...
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