ABSTRACT
This conclusion chapter presents some closing thoughts covered in the preceding chapter of this book. It is indisputable that, as Rosemary Fitzgerald's work has highlighted, this was one of the most important legacies of Christian work in India. Nursing, which, given the nature of the work it required, was already liable to be viewed as too close to the work of sweeper castes, became identified with Christianity, poverty, desperation, and untouchability. However, the effects of mission monopoly were problematic. The missions often served the very poorest people, and created communities of formerly 'untouchable' converts to Christianity. Western mission nurses forged close working relationships with Indian nurses and often spent three or four decades of their lives training nurses and caring for local communities. In the context of persistent state neglect and contempt, it can be suggested that the story of nursing's low status, of its battle with moral disapprobation, of the notion of nurse work as polluting, is ultimately stale.
