Of Continuities and Discontinuities

This edited volume of ten chapters is an output of a national seminar ‘Colonial and Post-Colonial Experience’ organized by the Department of History, Kolkata University and the Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata with support from the Indian Council of Social Science Research. The contributors are scholars of eminence in the fields of public health and history and this linkage is relevant for the understanding of public health issues and plan for appropriate action. Certain strands of contemporary public health are increasingly divesting themselves of historicity and are looking for quick-fix solutions that are often not in consonance with the contextual situation of the particular problem. This volume not only puts back the strong bonds of history and public health on the forefront but bridges the ‘Continuities and Discontinuities’ (to borrow the title of Qadeer’s chapter) of the colonial and postcolonial era at a time when public health education in India is set for radical changes. The volume is dedicated to Sahib Singh Sokhey. Major General Sahib Singh Sokhey is a shining example of continuity across colonial and postcolonial periods. He headed the Sub-Committee on National Health (popularly, Sokhey Committee) of the National Planning Committee that was constituted with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru as its Chairman in 1938.