page_title: The India Papers
section_title: Lock hospitals
hierarchical_section_title: The India Papers / The Medical History of British India collection / Institutions / Lock hospitals
caption_attribution_description: English: Men treading ganja in Ahmednagar, India
context_page_description: The India Papers collection is an archive containing roughly 4,200 bound volumes dated from the post-Mutiny reorganisation of the Indian government up until Indian Independence in 1947 and is essentially a collection of almost all things relating to British India. There are large sections devoted to the state's medical history, human rights, military history, education, industry and trade, travel, politics, religion, arts, and various other subjects. Notable documents in the archive include important documentation concerning eye-witness accounts of the Partition riots and the police reports on Gandhi's political meetings. The rare collection is held at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland. Only one other collection of similar size and content can be found in the UK, the India Office Records, which are held at the British Library in London. The India Papers are complemented further by more the substantial collections in India and in the United States.
context_section_description: This section is made up of five reports describing the treatment snd control of venereal disease applied to soldiers and prostitutes from 1873 to 1891. There are tables in the reports which list instances of different venereal diseases, such as syphilis and gonorrhoea, in patients. Of particular note in these reports are the comments made by staff appraising the lock hospital system, as well as various statements exposing imperial attitudes towards women and sex workers. In the context of the period, the government needed to maintain the health of British soldiers as effectively as possible, while also ensuring their basic needs were met. To meet these needs, they provided Indian women as prostitutes, most of whom were forced into it by poverty. to be as healthy as possible, while also ensuring men as healthy. They were seen as a commodity for the army, as valuable as blankets or food, and as such they were regularly checked for disease.
caption: Men treading ganja in Ahmednagar, 1893
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