Discussions on migration and leprosy in India, largely absent from historical enquiries, feature dominantly in epidemiological studies that frame the migrant with leprosy as a bacterium-carrying outsider, crossing interstate boundaries to spread infection and increase prevalence rates in urban spaces. The paper seeks to reframe the debate by analysing the migrant with leprosy not as a risk factor, but as a social identity that has historically animated public policy. By analysing leprosy policy in Delhi from 1920 to 1960, the paper explores how leprosy-affected beggars in Delhi were seen as an indolent class of outsiders burdening state finances, unworthy of adequate support.
BT - South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies DO - 10.1080/00856401.2024.2281082 LA - Eng N2 -Discussions on migration and leprosy in India, largely absent from historical enquiries, feature dominantly in epidemiological studies that frame the migrant with leprosy as a bacterium-carrying outsider, crossing interstate boundaries to spread infection and increase prevalence rates in urban spaces. The paper seeks to reframe the debate by analysing the migrant with leprosy not as a risk factor, but as a social identity that has historically animated public policy. By analysing leprosy policy in Delhi from 1920 to 1960, the paper explores how leprosy-affected beggars in Delhi were seen as an indolent class of outsiders burdening state finances, unworthy of adequate support.
PB - Informa UK Limited PY - 2024 SP - 1 EP - 17 T2 - South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies TI - The ‘Migrant-Leper’ as the Undeserving Outsider: Historicising Leprosy Policy in Delhi, 1920–60 SN - 0085-6401, 1479-0270 ER -