The role and contribution of philanthropy to the institutionalization and professionalization of modern medicine and public health in Western societies has been well documented. Modern institutionalized medical philanthropy in India was introduced and shaped by the British colonial state as a part of its colonizing process. The consolidation of colonial rule involved the transfer and transplanting of British political, economic, and social institutions, ideas, and practices. This included the emerging notions of institutionalized and utilitarian philanthropy and associational culture. Even in precolonial India, there was charity that involved individual and religious alms giving or constructing places of worship (Ranganathan, 2012; Sundar, 2000). The British colonial government, however, viewed this traditional mode of charity as superstitious, irrational, ostentatious, ritualistic, and wasteful and believed it encouraged sloth and idleness among Indians. They introduced a new ethic...
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Kavadi, S.N. (2016). Philanthropy, Medicine, and Health in Colonial India. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7747-7_10087
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