Skeleton Merchants as Agents of Socio-Scientific Advancements: Exploring the History of Bone Trade in Colonial and Postcolonial India, 1858-1985

My research was inspired by the tumultuous 1908 Burra Bazaar incident recorded in The Statesman, wherein a 'Dom' named Paltoo, displayed unprofessionally dissected head and limbs, while walking the streets of Burra Bazar, in Kolkata. The reaction of this British colonial newspaper towards reports of cadavers for sale is crucial in highlighting the core concerns of my dissertation proposal. Since my dissertation largely concerns human remains with its overarching ethical and economic concerns, I shall primarily adopt an ethnographical approach, relying mainly on oral histories embedded in the cremation ghats, in addition to consulting medical, official and archival records. In doing so, my research attempts to show how the wide South Asian trading network impacts forensic and medical studies and shapes the broader understanding of the 'Red Market' which I argue has played a pivotal role in the perpetuation of imperial capitalism right from the inception of the British Raj.