Contextualising the Contribution

This is an example of how archives assist historians

That Dr LM Sanghvi was interested in sharing his knowledge through teaching and publication of his research was widely known and recognised. And there was enough evidence of this in the family’s archives that had many of his published papers. But the historian in me wanted to contextualise his contribution to Indian medical research.

He began to publish research papers as early as in 1950. The first six of his research papers were published in Indian journals and because his specialisation at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine dealt with tropical diseases – typhoid, allergies and gastroenteritis.

After he returned from his training in the US for chest and heart diseases (cardiology was subsumed under that specialisation until then), Dr Sanghvi began to send his research papers for publication in medical journals published from the US. In 1956, the first of his papers was published in an international journal – the American Heart Journal (AHJ, 52: 908, 1956). In that year and the next, his papers were also published in Circulation and AMA Arch NeurPsych and AMA Arch Path – these latter journals were brought out by the American Medical Association.

Since the scenario for Indians to undertake research, as well publish it in international journals was very different from what prevails now, as a biographer, I wanted to find out how many Indians’ research had been published by AHJ before Dr Sanghvi’s in 1956. Unfortunately, I could not get any information from AHJ, despite repeated email requests.

In 1958, Dr Sanghvi published the first of many papers in the British Heart Journal (BHJ) My experience with BHJ about getting information on their earliest Indian contributors was different; and it brought out, once again, how much of a help archives are to historians. Though I did not receive any reply to my emails to them on the subject, the availability of online archives of BHJ enabled me to compile the information.

BHJ is the official journal of the British Cardiac Society and has been published since 1939. It has an online archive of all issues since inception. The page lists all the issues, by year. And when you click on the year, you can view the content pages of all the issues for that year. That online archive enabled me search the contents pages and find out how many Indians had published their papers in the journal before Dr Sanghvi.

The first Indian to have a paper published in the Journal was Dr JB Mehta but he was with the Lambeth Hospital in London. The two Indian doctors who preceded Dr Sanghvi in the publication of their research/case studies in the BHJ were: Dr Rustom Jal Vakil (of KEM Hospital, Bombay) in 1949 and Dr AN Sengupta (of Nilratan Sircar Medical College, Calcutta) in 1954. Both these institutions had a history of nearly half a century; SMS Medical College (Jaipur) was not even a decade old in 1958 when Dr Sanghvi’s paper was published in BHJ.

Researching Archival Objects

This is an example of creating a narrative through research on the basis of the content of an archival object.

Among the documents available in the Sanghvi family’s archival collection was a letter from the Assistant University Registrar dated 30th August 1932. The letter was an intimation to LM Sanghvi that he had been awarded the Dr Tribhovandas Motichand Shah Scholarship for pursuing his medical education. The value of the Scholarship was Rs285/- per year for a period of five years, payable half-yearly, commencing from the 1st of April in 1932.

The Scholarship was instituted at the University of Bombay to commemorate the contribution of Dr Tribhovandas Motichand Shah to Indian medical practice. It was clear that he must have been a path-breaking medical practitioner of his times to have a scholarship instituted in his name. 

The historian in me had to find out more about this doctor. And what I found was a fascinating story.

Dr Tribhovandas Motichand Shah was the Chief Medical Officer of Junagadh in 1889. He was a pioneer of plastic surgery in India. Apparently, he had documented over a hundred cases treated by him in four years. He gave minute details of the operations he performed and discussed the advantages of forehead rhinoplasty, a plastic surgery procedure for “correcting and reconstructing the form, restoring the functions and aesthetically enhancing the nose.” He was among the first surgeons in India to use anaesthesia. Until then, there was no mention of anaesthesia in reported Indian medical cases. Apparently, patients used to be given wine to drink before surgery! Dr Tribhovandas Shah was a legend; it was said that “Kalu cuts the nose and Tribhovan reconstructs it.” Kalu was a local dacoit of that time who had an unusual signature for his dacoities; he used to cut off people’s noses after he had looted them. And, obviously, those he looted were well-off enough to go in for plastic surgery by Dr Tribhovandas Shah! 

(See http://www.bioline.org.br/request?jp02024)

Some sources say that the name of the dacoit was Kadu Makrani. To take revenge against the Junagadh State for punishing the informers of the state he used the popular method of punishment prevalent then; he used to cut the noses of these people. The nose in Indian society has been a symbol of dignity and respect throughout centuries. Naak-kata or nakata is one who has no self-respect or dignity. And it was common to hear someone say 'if I cannot deliver on my promise, I will cut off my nose!' (Main apni naak katwa doonga) In ancient times, amputation of nose was frequently done as a punishment for criminals, war prisoners or people who indulged in adultery. The practice of rhinoplasty began as a result of the need to reconstruct the external nose and later developed into a full-fledged specialisation. Dr Tribhovandas Shah is credited with the development of rhinoplasty as a modern science in India in the 19th century.

(See http://www.cutiscosmeticplasticsurgery.com/blog/history-of-rhinoplasty)

Institutional Archives

Robust Information Retrieval

I have experienced some instances of being able to reconstruct a narrative easily if the institutional archives are well organised. The most recent example that comes to mind has to do with the archives of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

When I was searching for information about Dr LM Sanghvi, I wrote to the School on 26 December 2012 querying them about an Indian student who was the recipient of the Duncan Medal in 1939. Obviously, the School was closed for the Christmas-New Year break that week. On the 3^rd of January, as soon as the School reopened after the break, I received an email from the School’s alumni association in-charge, telling me that the query had been forwarded to the archives department and that I would be hearing from them shortly. By the 11^th of January, the then archivist Matthew Chipping sent me an email with all the details about the student, including his residential address in London when he was with the School, his faculty, his detailed courses and, best of all, a group photograph of his class!

That facilitated my task of developing the entire section of Dr Sanghvi’s student days in London. This was in such a sharp contrast to my experience of getting any information about him from the Indian schools and colleges where Dr Sanghvi had studied.

The email reply received from the archives of London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is reproduced below to give an indication of how robust their archival search systems are that these details could be retrieved  with such speed and the prompt response of their archives department to a query from an unknown researcher.

Interpreting Archival Resources

Lord Mountbatten's Letter

The evidence for the selection and appointment of Cooverji Bhabha as the Chairman of the Delhi Emergency Committee (which supervised and coordinated all the tasks of maintaining law & order, crowd control and rehabilitation in the aftermath of the terrible riots that raged in Delhi after the country’s partition) was found as a letter written by Governor-General Mountbatten on September 9, 1947. This letter is a part of the Bhabha family’s archival collection.

As the biographer, one could have used only the information contained in the letter. I chose to reproduce the scanned images of that document in the book, for several reasons. One, the letter showed how meticulously correct the Governor-General was in not only communicating the decision in writing – even in those emergency circumstances, he writes the ‘orders’ down in his own hand without waiting for his personal staff to type it. Two, he has the words Viceroy’s House on his letterhead cancelled and substituted by Government House – using the old stationery and not wasting paper. Three, he uses both sides of the paper to write on (which shows through in the digital image). And, four, he follows correct administrative protocol by consulting the Prime Minister and obtaining his concurrence on Cooverji’s appointment.

These comments, as observations of the biographer, would have marred the narrative – which, in this instance, was the story on Cooverji Bhabha’s life and his work. But, for a social historian, these observations were important. By reproducing the image of the letter, the observations were conveyed – perhaps more effectively – since an image is more effective than a thousand words!

Enhancing Family Archives

This is an example of a historian building a narrative based on archival resources.

While working on the biography of Cooverji Bhabha, independent India’s first Commerce Minister, I had access to the the Bhabha family’s collection of archival materials. It had the degree certificates that Cooverji Bhabha had obtained from the Bombay University. There were three of them, namely, BA in History (Hons) (1930), BCom with Advanced Banking (1932) and MA History by thesis (1933).

These certificates were the archival resources on the basis of which I, as the biographer, built the narrative of the ease with which students of Bombay University were allowed to move from one discipline to another in the pre-Independence era – in this case, from history to commerce and back to history – a facility that has been discontinued since.

I was also able to enhance the family’s archival collection by getting the image of the cover page of Cooverji Bhabha’s thesis and the topic of his dissertation which none of the next generation of family members knew about.

Cooverji Bhabha’s MA dissertation on “Old Fort William and the Black Hole” has been preserved at the Heras Institute at St Xavier’s College.

An Introduction to this Blog

This blog is about sharing some of my experiences in using archival resources for building narratives while writing biographies or histories of organisations.

Sometimes, just the presence of an object – an artefact or a letter – can trigger a search that can add an entirely new dimension to the narrative. The archivist organises the information about the object, or the resource; the historian contextualises the resources and, through research, provides the narrative.