SERVING THE HEATHEN Missionary women doctors in 19th century Delhi

THROUGHOUT THE 1860s a frail young European woman with a medicine chest was a conspicuous presence at the women’s ghats of the river Yamuna in Delhi. This was Priscilla Winter, an Anglican missionary who had absolutely no training in medicine. Missionaries like Winter were common in European colonies in the 19th century. Well before qualified doctors and nurses became familiar figures on the mission scene, many ordinary missionaries made attempts to relieve symptoms of sickness in communities surrounding their stations.

Priscilla Winter had arrived in Delhi in 1858 to join the Union Society for the Propagation of Gospel (USPG) order there. Her original duties were to spread the word of the Gospel among the women of the city. But the a quarterly newsletter of USPG’s Delhi mission, notes, that as soon as Winter got around with this task, “her quick eye at once saw the importance of medical women in India.” Winter herself wrote, “Women in India get no relief from suffering. The medicine man takes them in hand and his remedies are the

crudest.” So she started “distributing simple remedies to all classes of Hindu women whose sole respite from the confines of the purdah was in going down to the river to take their vows.” There were frequent epidemics of cholera and influenza in the city and women, impressed by the treatments offered by the missionary, often recommended her to others.

The work expanded. During a furlough in England, Winter sought support for her plan to establish a dispensary in Delhi. An association of supporters—White Ladies Association— was formed to provide funds and publicity for the scheme. In 1874, a house was rented in Chandni Chowk in the walled city and a woman worker engaged to manage the dispensary, to train nurses and visit sick women in their houses. The

IN 1874, A HOUSE WAS RENTED IN CHANDNI CHOWK AND A WOMAN WORKER ENGAGED TO MANAGE THE DISPENSARY, TO TRAIN NURSES AND VISIT SICK WOMEN IN THEIR HOUSES. THE RUDIMENTARY DISPENSARY FORMED THE MODEST ORIGIN OF WHAT LATER CAME TO BE KNOWN AS THE DELHI FEMALE MEDICAL MISSION

Punjab government donated `410 per year for medicines and the Delhi Municipality contributed `75 a month for scholarships for trainee women nurses. The rudimentary dispensary at Chandni Chowk formed the modest origins of what later came to be known as the Delhi Female Medical Mission.

Galvanising support was not difficult. To European supporters of missionaries long accustomed to reports of missionaries being hooted out, the impressive reception accorded to medical missionaries by indigenous people was a welcome contrast. Public imagination in England was stirred by the idea of heroic missionary doctors carrying the gift of Western medicine to lands where people “reeled under the of establishing the hegemony of Western medicine.” In 1883, C R Francis, the principal of Calcutta Medical College, reminded missionaries that the medical missionaries were supposed to “impress natives with their professional skills.”

The missionaries tried to stave off such criticism by pointing to the scale of death and disease in the colonies. The head of the Delhi mission G A Lefroy, for example, held that missionary ladies were far more equipped to deal with diseases than the “archaic and the barbers.” But increasingly, missionaries became apprehensive that their medical workers would lose all goodwill if they persisted with their halfbaked methods. In fact one missionary admitted, “Since I could not give them

its thorough order hygiene and discipline, was perceived as education for women. Inside it patients were encouraged to read from the scriptures and arrangements were designed to ensure the fair administration of the gospel before actual treatment.

The first qualified doctor, Jenny Muller, however, joined St Stephens only in 1891. And in 1906, foundation for a bigger premise were laid at Tis Hazari— the present site of the hospital. Lefroy thought this would put the Delhi Medical Mission on a firm footing. But not everyone was as confident. Muller in fact was apprehensive that the paucity of trained personnel might prevent the hospital from doing justice to its objectives. She noted, “I am sure we are wasting the money so generously donated.”

The Lahore Diocese—of which the Delhi Mission was a part—was alive to these concerns. At the 1893 Conference of Women Medical Missionaries it was decided that a medical school for women, attached to a women’s hospital, was needed in India. The North India School of Medicine for Christian Women opened in the following year, with four staff and four students. St Stephens Hospital also started a training school for nurses under Alice Wilkinson—the first trained British nurse who joined the hospital in 1908. Wilkinson became the hospital’s nursing superintendent and is credited with raising the standard of nursing not only in St Stephen’s but in rest of India as well. She founded the Trained Nurse’s Association of India and worked as its secretary until 1948. In 1913, the first

THE FIRST QUALIFIED DOCTOR, JENNY MULLER, JOINED ST STEPHENS HOSPITAL IN 1891. IN 1906, FOUNDATION FOR A BIGGER PREMISE WAS LAID AT TIS HAZARI—THE PRESENT SITE OF THE HOSPITAL. G A LEFROY, HEAD OF THE DELHI MEDICAL MISSION, THOUGHT THIS WOULD PUT THE MISSION ON A FIRM FOOTING

qualified surgeon, Helen Franklin, joined the hospital.

The missionaries had to make a number of concessions: the cook in the hospital was always a Brahmin. They had to also tolerate the entourage of relatives whom, given a choice, they would have banished from their wards.

All this along with professionalisation led to greater acceptance for missionary medical work. In the past, patients had often consulted missionaries after exhausting all avenues of indigenous treatment. By the second decade of the 20th century they were able to report that a large proportion of their patients were willing to consult them at a less desperate stage of illness.