ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses bacillary exchanges, imagined or otherwise, which functioned as cautionary metaphors for concerns about the dangers of commerce, understood in the broadest sense, between the East and West. In searching for M. leprae, the commissioners found it impossible to escape a confrontation with India in all its complexity. Public debate on leprosy consisted of a complex of medical, political, missionary, colonial and imperial discourses, with all parties at pains to represent themselves as humane and responsible. The British edition is distinguished by a prefatory 'Memorandum on the Report of the Leprosy Commission' issued by the National Leprosy Fund, which frames the conclusions of the report and distances itself from some of the most significant. The Government of India was publicly challenged to involve itself in measures against leprosy. The medical domain, the popular domain, and issues of governance were interrelated; more specifically, debate about the governance of India was not confined to India.
