Covid-19 in India, Disease, Health and Culture (Routledge Contemporary South Asia Series)

269 Pages·2022·5.147 MB·English

by  Anindita Chatterjee (editor), Nilanjana Chatterjee (editor)

Covid-19 in India, Disease,
Health and Culture
This book is a cultural exploration of health and wellness, with a focus on im-
pacts of Covid-19 on the population of India.
The chapters in this book present original research, systematic reviews, the-
oretical and conceptual frameworks, encompassing multidisciplinary, inter- and
intra-disciplinary felds of study, in the context of how culture and disease suff-
ciently unpack and inform each other. The book includes contributions from the
social sciences and the humanities, and analyses issues that range from smallpox
to the history of vaccine, indigenous healing practices, the Macbeth paradigm,
Zizekian encounters, mental asylum, and marginalised genders. Using the theme
of intellectual interconnectedness in the times of self-isolation and social distanc-
ing, the book is a collaboration of critical thinkers who identify and visibilise the
hidden global issues related to ‘disease’ and ‘health’ that have divided the world
into narrow binaries – individual/society, poor/rich, proletariat/bourgeoisie,
margin/centre, colonised/coloniser, servitude/liberty, and powerless/powerful.
By doing so, the book emphasises the potential of holistic wellness to improve
human life and humanity across the globe.
A novel contribution on the cultural factors that played an important role in
contemporary times of Covid-19, this book will be of interest to researchers in the
felds of Cultural Studies, Health and Society, and South Asian Studies.
Anindita Chatterjee (Phd) is an Associate Professor and the Head of the
Department of English, Durgapur Government College, India. Her research in-
terests centre on British Literature of the Romantic and the Victorian Period,
Indian Writing in English, Films, Gender Studies, and Popular Culture, and she
has published on Socialist Ecofeminism. She has also co-edited Re-theorising the
Indian Subcontinental Diaspora: Old and New Directions.
Nilanjana Chatterjee (Phd) is Assistant Professor of English at Durgapur
Government College, India. She is the author of Reading Jhumpa Lahiri: Women,
Domesticity and the Indian American Diaspora (Routledge, forthcoming). Some of
her ongoing projects include work on Angami Kire’s formation of digital ethnic
i dentity and on women and natural resource management in Naga folktales and
stories. She has co-edited Re-theorising the Indian Subcontinental Diaspora: Old and
New Directions.

Covid-19 in India, Disease,
Health and Culture
Can Wellness be Far Behind?
Edited by
Anindita Chatterjee
Nilanjana Chatterjee
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Anindita Chatterjee and
Nilanjana Chatterjee; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Anindita Chatterjee and Nilanjana Chatterjee to be
identified as the author[/s] of the editorial material, and of the authors
for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
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or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Chatterjee, Nilanjana, editor. | Chatterjee, Anindita, editor.
Title: Covid-19 in India, disease, health and culture : can wellness be far
behind? / edited by Nilanjana Chatterjee, and Anindita Chatterjee.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. |
Series: Routledge contemporary South Asia series; 154 | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022020397 (print) | LCCN 2022020398 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781032292687 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032292700 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003300762 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Public health—India—History. | Medical care. |
COVID-19 (Disease)—Social aspects—India. | COVID-19 (Disease)—
Social aspects—South Asia.
Classification: LCC RA394.6 C68 2023 (print) | LCC RA394.6 (ebook) |
DDC 306.4/613—dc23/eng/20220610
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022020397
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022020398
ISBN: 978-1-032-29268-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-29270-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-30076-2 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003300762
Typeset in Baskerville
by codeMantra

“To all the passings that deserved a better goodbye.”

Contents
Acknowledgements xi
List of illustrations xiii
List of contributors xv
1 Can Wellness Be Far Behind?: Disease, Health,
and Culture 1
ANINDITA CHATTERJEE AND NILANJANA CHATTERJEE
SECTION I
Social Science Perspective 21
2 Colonialism and Disease: Smallpox in the Aboriginal
Population 23
BILL ASHCROFT
3 Vaccine Nation and Its Miserables: Bodies and Bio-
citizenship in the Empire 36
MANDIRA CHAKRABORTY
4 Spaces of Cure or Confnement? Inside the Walls of the
Mental Asylums of the 19th Century 50
ANINDITA CHATTERJEE
5 Žižek’s Pandemic!, the ‘New Normal’ Dilemma and
Some Indian Perspectives 62
ANASUYA BHAR
6 Livelihood of Internal Migrants of India during
Covid-19 Pandemic: Concerns and Measures 72
DEBASIS CHAKRABORTY