This pioneering anthology brings together 19 fascinating short stories, translated into English from Indian languages—Assamese, Bengali, Hindi, Kashmiri, Marathi, Malayalam, Punjabi, Odia, and Urdu—demonstrating a spectrum of medical cultures in India. The thought-provoking and compelling stories address a wide array of themes and topics, including the individual and social crises during epidemics, medical pluralism, patient care, medical paternalism, disease-mongering, medicalization, and medical ethics, amongst others.
Delineating a range of diseases, healing, and allied concerns in India, the stories depict modern medical professionals such as doctors, nurses, surgeons, as well as traditional practitioners such as vaids, hakims, kavirajs, quacks, and folk healers. A few of the stories also engage with aspects of women’s mental and physical health, including pregnancy, childbirth, abortion, and depression.
Ranging from the early 20th century stories to contemporary ones, the compendium includes pieces by canonical authors such as Tagore, Premchand, and Manto, as well as by medical practitioners such as Rashid Jahan and Shirin Shrikant Valavade. The anthology garners refreshing insights and offers a new understanding of the interrelationship of literature and medicine.
Endorsements:
‘How to heal people? Tell them a beautiful story. This book is just that.’ - Prof. Shah Alam Khan, AIIMS, New Delhi
‘This collection of stories is compelling and profound. It deals with medical science not in its idealised form but as it filters to the layman … a collision of faith and perplexity, loss and triumph.’ - Dr Syed Saif Hasan, School of Medicine, University of Maryland, USA
‘Through these stories, deftly curated by Dr Qadeer, we learn about medicine in Indian literature as well as healthcare in Indian life. Here literary giants rub shoulders with physician-writers, and dais with surgeons. The patient is center-stage, and the doctor often vulnerable. The well-executed English translations help bring the lives and minds of these little-known actors to readers and scholars throughout India and across the globe.’- Dr Kiran Kumbhar, Harvard University, USA
Authors in the collection:
• Amar. •. Annie Zaidi. •. Ashok Vasishth. •. Basant Kumar Satpathy. • Bhabendranath Saikia. • Bhibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. • Jeelani Bano. • Kartar Singh Duggal. •. Master Bhagwandas. • Premchand •. Rabindranath Tagore •. Rajinder Singh Bedi • Rajshekhar Basu ‘Parshuram’ •. Rashid Jahan. •. Saadat Hasan Manto •. Shankar Raina. •. Sheeba E.K. •. Shirin Shashikant Valavade. •. Zakia Mashhadi
Translators:
• Abiral Kumar.•. Aditya Nayak.•. Amit Julka.•.Debayudh Chatterjee.•. Dhurjjati Sarma.•. Guntasha Tulsi.•. Haris Qadeer.•.Kanupriya Dhingra.•. •Keerti Ramachandra.•. Mohammed Afzal.•. Neerja Mattoo.•. Rajorshi Das.•. Swetha Antony.•. Zakia Mashhadi