Disciplining Populations: British Admissions to ‘Native-Only’ Lunatic Asylums

Mills, James H.

doi:10.1057/9780230286047_4

Cited by 8 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…This sense of insecurity particularly aimed at wanderers and vagrants led the British to do anything from taking weapons away from them to actually removing potentially dangerous and unpredictable individuals from the community to the asylums. [ 18 ] The year 1858 witnessed the introduction of the Indian Lunatic Asylums Act which allowed the control and management of asylums by the British Government. Clauses 4 and 5 of the act empowered the British Government to herd the wanderers and vagrants presumed to be insane into the asylums with the approval of a magistrate to incarcerate there for life.…”

Section: Lunatic Asylums: Industries For Profitmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The 1857 uprisings made the British fearful of the Indian population as a whole, which led to swift social regulations. While admitting them in asylums, no objective evidence of insanity was recorded, the case notes of these inmates were more preoccupied with the vagrancy than with their state of mind,[ 18 ] with the sole aim of clearing Bengal streets of wanderers and vagrants.…”

Section: Lunatic Asylums: Industries For Profitmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lunatic asylums

Jiloha

2021

Indian Journal of Psychiatry

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The knowledge about “maladies of the mind” was in the early stages of development and far from being considered as medical conditions till the mid-19 th century. Around this period, the British began to establish “Native-Only” lunatic asylums in India, particularly in the Bengal Presidency of their colonial empire. These institutions were primarily meant to provide custodial care and to rehabilitate those creating nuisance, particularly the wanderers and vagrants. However, these facilities turned into forced labor houses producing goods for the British Empire in the name of treatment. As traders, the British amassed India's wealth in several ways, and the establishment of lunatic asylums for the natives was one of the profit-making businesses. Undercover of Victorian morality, the reports of medical treatment had evolved into profit margin data. This article explores some of the obscure facts of British colonial rule in regards to mental health.

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Section: Lunatic Asylums: Industries For Profitmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Lunatic Asylums: Industries For Profitmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lunatic asylums

Jiloha

2021

Indian Journal of Psychiatry

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“…While the hemp plant was available in temperate climates, and grown for the durable fiber produced, the Indian Hemp plant ( Cannabis indica ) was found to have a much wider range of medicinal and recreational uses. Historians have examined the history of hemp through several lenses: colonialism and power positioning between the British and the local Indian elite, missionary zeal and panic over toxic substances (Mikuriya, 1968; Kalant, 1972; Mills, 2000; Shamir and Hacker, 2001). In his book, Madness, Cannabis and Colonialism , Mills (2000) describes the construction of madness and the medico-administrative organization of Indian asylums run in different administrative regions.…”

Section: The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (Ihdc 1894a 1894b 1894c)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Historians have examined the history of hemp through several lenses: colonialism and power positioning between the British and the local Indian elite, missionary zeal and panic over toxic substances (Mikuriya, 1968; Kalant, 1972; Mills, 2000; Shamir and Hacker, 2001). In his book, Madness, Cannabis and Colonialism , Mills (2000) describes the construction of madness and the medico-administrative organization of Indian asylums run in different administrative regions. The revenue gains from the production, sale and levying of cannabis taxes conflicted with claims of adverse health effects and criminal behavior from cannabis use.…”

Section: The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (Ihdc 1894a 1894b 1894c)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cannabis and psychosis: revisiting a nineteenth century study of ‘Indian Hemp and Insanity’ in Colonial British India

Ayonrinde

2019

Psychol. Med.

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BackgroundIn nineteenth-century British India, concern regarding large numbers of asylum patients with ‘Indian Hemp Insanity’ led to establishment of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission. The exotic cannabis plant was widely used in pharmacopeia and a source of government revenue. The Commission was tasked with determining the public health risks of cannabis use, particularly mental illness. This analysis of the Commission report seeks to highlight the status of 1892 cannabis research and compare it with current evidence for medical and recreational cannabis use.MethodsDetailed historiographic review of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission Report (1892).ResultsIn 1892, heavy cannabis use was considered to have been associated with severe mental illness (7.3% of asylum patients; 12.6% of patients with diagnoses). About two-thirds were children and young adults with higher relapse rates. Risk increased with early cannabis use and a family history of mental illness. Cannabis psychosis was found to have a shorter trajectory and better prognosis than other mental illnesses in the asylums. Different cannabis potency and modes of consumption had different effects. Occasional cannabis use was felt to have medicinal benefits for some. Appendices provided symptoms and demographic characteristics of cannabis-induced mental illness.ConclusionThis important nineteenth-century study observed frequency and dose-related effects of cannabis on mental health, particularly psychotic symptoms in young people with a previous or hereditary risk of mental illness. Pathophysiological observations were consistent with current knowledge. As one of the most systematic and detailed studies of the effects of cannabis of the time it foreshadowed contemporary cannabis issues.

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“…Two studies have looked critically into the issue of cannabis use and the colonial power. Mills 21 has meticulously screened the colonial records of asylums for Indian patients in the nineteenth century, specifically focusing on the cannabis use. His analysis questioned the scientific hypothesis of ‘hemp insanity’ and showed how colonial power influenced this postulation.…”

Section: Recent Insights About Our Pastmentioning

confidence: 99%

Historicizing Indian psychiatry

Basu

2005

Indian J Psychiatry

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Our historical endeavour to map Indian psychiatry has largely remained linear, positivistic and evolutionary. Whether it starts from the ancient times or modern, it shows our past as a tale of victory for the western science, without questioning the borrowed paradigm. The use of historical methods for serious enquiry of psychiatry has been ignored. Emergence of a new genre of historicism that is critical of both colonialism and psychiatry as a universal science, has raised hopes to critically review the emergence of psychiatric knowledge.

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Disciplining Populations: British Admissions to ‘Native-Only’ Lunatic Asylums

Cited by 8 publications

References 5 publications

Lunatic asylums

Lunatic asylums

Cannabis and psychosis: revisiting a nineteenth century study of ‘Indian Hemp and Insanity’ in Colonial British India

Historicizing Indian psychiatry

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