ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the history of the lunatic asylum at Cuttack. The purpose of the asylum was not to treat patients but merely to confine the ‘lunatics’ and make life secure for those outside. This case study also serves to reiterate the importance of caste, class and patriarchal practices, particularly the role of the Oriya middle class in legitimizing colonialism. Many of the problems faced by those who were considered to be ‘mad’ were in reality conditioned by the presence and expansion of colonialism and its internal collaborators over the nineteenth century. Although one ought not to generalize too much on the basis of conditions in the Cuttack Lunatic Asylum, it demonstrates many characteristic features of colonial policy including criminalization of the insane and the manner in which the poor were located in the health programmes and agendas of the colonial government. Sadly, nothing seems to have been learnt from these experiences, for the prejudices and self-interest of the colonial ruling class lives on in contemporary policies regarding the sick and infirm.
