ABSTRACT
In terms of British impact, mental health initiatives in Travancore were as limited as those in British-ruled areas, with an emphasis on provision being made available only in the capital. This chapter illustrates that caste precepts of social distance had a considerable impact on the social composition of hospital patients. In the Charity Hospital the majority of in-patients came from lower- and outcaste families, making higher-caste groups disinclined to stay on the same premises. The phenomenon of high death rates amongst mental hospital patients during periods of war is of course well documented. Medical and psychiatric provision along Western lines was hard to come by in both Princely and British India. Hence social control by means of institutionalization in Western-style facilities was equally limited. Travancore was not unusual if compared to most of the psychiatric facilities available in British India and in Britain itself. In some regions, such as the Orissan Princely states, no state-sponsored mental health provision existed.
