Delhi artists uncover ‘historic racism’ in provision of mental health care during first world war
Indian troops marching through France in 1914. Photograph: Bettmann
A group of leading Indian artists, in Britain to help commemorate the end of the first world war, says it has uncovered evidence of historic racism involving the care of soldiers traumatised by their experiences.
Combatants from the Indian subcontinent, along with many of those from what were then described as “lower social orders”, were not officially recognised as suffering from shell shock – a syndrome that is now covered by the term post-traumatic stress disorder, they say.
The artists, from Delhi and known as Raqs Media Collective, said that original documents uncovered in the British Library revealed that the armed forces systematically neglected to treat psychological problems among Indian soldiers.
Shuddhabrata Sengupta of Raqs, who are creating an artwork in Colchester commissioned by the arts body 14-18 Now for the Essex town’s Firstsite arts venue, said that British commanding officers appeared to use both class and race to ration mental health care during recuperation periods. “The condition of shell shock was first diagnosed in 1915 by the English doctor Charles Meyers,” said Sengupta. “But documents we found in the British Library show Meyers quickly dropped the term because it was feared ordinary soldiers would find it easy to understand and so would ask to be seen by medics.
“Instead Meyers suggested a more opaque diagnosis of NYD, or Not Yet Diagnosed – Nervous, which ordinary soldiers would find harder to use.”
“British army ‘failed to treat Indian soldiers for shell shock’” için 1 yorum
What a racist article. It is very well known that the British military was reluctant to accept that battle field conditions could lead to psychological impairment and suffering because they felt that such acceptance would open the door to many conscripted soldiers being withdrawn from the front line to escape the hellish conditions, without anyone being certain of the veracity of such claims.
It is also very well known that many British soldiers who were suffering from what we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder were shot for desertion or cowardice, although ‘shell shock’ was officially recognised as a condition later in WWI, leading to the establishment of sanitariums for the treatment of the condition.
The charge of racism can only be made if there was persistent evidence that Indian soldiers were singled out for punishment or inferior treatment compared to their white counterparts. There is absolutely no such evidence.
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What a racist article. It is very well known that the British military was reluctant to accept that battle field conditions could lead to psychological impairment and suffering because they felt that such acceptance would open the door to many conscripted soldiers being withdrawn from the front line to escape the hellish conditions, without anyone being certain of the veracity of such claims.
It is also very well known that many British soldiers who were suffering from what we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder were shot for desertion or cowardice, although ‘shell shock’ was officially recognised as a condition later in WWI, leading to the establishment of sanitariums for the treatment of the condition.
The charge of racism can only be made if there was persistent evidence that Indian soldiers were singled out for punishment or inferior treatment compared to their white counterparts. There is absolutely no such evidence.