Anglo-Indian Medical Theory and the Origins of Segregation in West Africa

Abstract

IN 1880 A BRITISH ARMY OFFICER IN INDIA argued strongly in favor of measures alone can secure that of the mind required for our own political welfare, but which cannot possibly be -maintained by a mere of the bodies.'. His use of the word segregation appears to be strikingly like the current definition in Webster's Third New International Dictionary-the separation or isolation of a race, class, or ethnic group by enforced or voluntary residence in a restricted area, barriers to social intercourse, divided educational facilities, or other discriminatory means-that is, the conscious manipulation of physical space on the part of a dominant group in order to achieve or maintain -a psychological gap between itself and a group it intends to keep in an inferior place. Actually, the officer was defending the autonomy of the Punjab (Irregular) Field Force, which he happened to command and which was then under threat, in the interest of improved military efficiency, of being consolidated into a unified Indian army under a single commander-in-chief. Harking back to the experience of the great Mutiny of 1857-58, the officer was discussing how best to keep apart Punjabis and Hindustanis, the so-called martial races of northern India, thus preventing them from combining in a race war against the white man. For him, was a means to promote the classic strategy of divide and rule, not a way to regulate relations between black (or rather brown) and white. Segregation was not a key word in the vocabulary of race relations among English-speaking peoples in the nineteenth century. The definition found in'the third edition of Webster's dictionary is not included in the S volume of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which was compiled between 1908 and 1914. (It is, of course, in the more recent supplement.) Most of the definitions in the earlier edition of the OED refer to religion, the natural sciences, and medicine: the of Calvinist from Catholic congregations, of elements in a chemical compound, of sick persons considered contagious (meaning that their bodies contained a poison, seed, or germ that could be passed directly to others). The history of words is primarily a clue to theory or consciousness, from which behavior must be distinguished. The practice of placing different races, classes, and ethnic groups in separate areas, either to restrict contact thought undesirable