Conclusion

Abstract

The European soldier in India presents a curious figure — a contradiction at the core of empire. He was at once reviled for his supposed degeneracy (thought to be a natural extension of his class) and relied upon to give support to racial structures within the military, itself the beating heart of Crown and Company rule. As such a valuable, but potentially unstable asset, considerations regarding his health were central to Company (and later Crown) decisionmaking. The East India Company was first and foremost a commercial enterprise whose main concerns were profit-ability and security. It followed that the Company’s army was to be economically and carefully maintained; allowing the Company not just to remain afloat in a hostile sea of competitors, but aggressively to expand. However, the health problems of the troops, and more specifically, the European soldiery, persistently upset this ideal. Dysentery, cholera and fevers fatally struck down scores of men, while at any given time in the nineteenth century, venereal disease and intemperance claimed roughly one-quarter to one-third of hospital admissions. Given the Company’s anxieties about the stability of their position in India, the spectres of venereal disease and intemperance took on added significance.