Biopower and the Contested Landscape of Colonial Epidemic Policy in Punjab (1866–1922)

• Salman Burki

  Author

This research paper investigates the nexus between public health and imperial control in colonial Punjab during the tumultuous period from 1866 to 1922. This study propose is that the British epidemic policies—specifically quarantine, sanitation drives, segregation orders, and mass vaccination campaigns—constituted a decisive instrument of biopower, effectively serving the dual objectives of securing imperial economic and military interests while simultaneously establishing complete governance over the native body and population. While these measures occasionally fostered interaction through necessity, they predominantly generated profound resistance, suspicion, and hostility between the governing and the governed. The imposition of Western medicine and public health protocols was a calculated move to assert epistemological dominance, displacing indigenous healing systems and thereby facilitating a comprehensive system of surveillance, discipline, and control. This analysis, grounded in primary administrative reports and contemporary vernacular accounts, illustrates how this colonial public health strategy was, at its core, an assertion of political authority that ultimately redefined the social, religious, and political life of the Punjabi populace. The ensuing conflict over the control of the human body highlights the critical role of medical intervention in the wider project of colonial hegemony.

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