Health, Knowledge, Politics: Understanding the Triad

Join via Zoom us for a Global Health Politics Workshop with Madhulika Banerjee Professor of Political Science, University of Delhi. Banerjee has taught mainstream Political Science and researched on the politics of knowledge in medical and other knowledge systems at the University of Delhi for the last four decades. Her work has been published in a number of international journals, an academic book 'Power, Knowledge, Medicine: Ayurvedic Pharmaceuticals at Home and in the World' (2009), and a popular book, 'Herbal Sutra: Indian Wisdom and Wellness Through A Hundred Herbs' (2023).

An important dimension of the practice of health is the layers of knowledge systems that underlie it. The hegemony of biomedicine renders invisible other medical knowledge systems in the narratives of policy and politics, but they exist and are important to a significant percentage of people world-wide. While the legitimacy of these knowledge systems has hinged on 'evidence-base',  the terms of reference on evidence itself have shifted over time. These terms have moved, from differently constructed trials that have actually generated evidence of efficacy, to debates on differentiated natures of evidence itself. Banerjee explains and explores the potential of this restructuring in her talk.

Co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Asia.