Making India a Global health Care Destination

Objectives

Modern health tourism is taking an increasingly prominent position in academic discourse. The main reason is the recent emergence of this form of tourism as an important player in the global health economy and in the transformation of the national health landscape in the host countries. In India, economists predict that over the next decade health tourism will grow to become one of the major drivers of the country’s economy. However, very little research has been done on the social and cultural encounters which prevail in such situations. This workshop will attempt to understand the forms and meanings of health tourism, from both historical and anthropological viewpoints.

The Indian therapeutic landscape is produced both within and increasingly beyond the national boundaries of the country. The global circulation of therapeutic techniques and practices, medical knowledge and procedures, patients and therapists, all fashion healthcare in India. These multiple flows also have an impact on the way healthcare is thought, practiced and experienced in Europe. Specialized health and wellness institutions incorporate ‘Indian therapies’ in their menu, together with fragments of the subcontinent cultures.

The participants to this workshop will explores these issues along three main, interrelated axes : transnationalisms, cultural encounters and the transformations of therapeutic practices, labour migration and the health tourism industry, and the global construction of India.

See the detailed programme schedule.

Organisers

• French Institute of Pondicherry (UMIFRE 21 CNRS-MAEE)
• Cluster of Excellence ‘Asia & Europe’, University of Heidelberg

Coordinator

Dr. Laurent Pordié (IFP / Heidelberg)

Venue

Conference room 212 and room 112, Karl Jasper Center, University of Heidelberg, Voßstr. 2 - Gebaüde 4400, D-69115 Heidelberg, Germany

Participants

• Guy Attewell (Wellcome Trust, University College, London)
• Julie Baujard (IRSEA, Marseille / FIP)
• Burton Cleetus (University of Calicut / FIP)
• Christoph Cyranski (Heildeberg)
• Projit Bihari Mukharji (McMaster University, Canada)
• Harish Naraindas (JNU, Delhi)
• Mark Nichter (University of Arizona)
• David Picherit (Université de Paris X / FIP)
• Laurent Pordié (IFP / Heidelberg)
• Johannes Quack (Heidelberg)
• Sheela Saravanan (Pune)
• William Sax (Heidelberg)
• Anuradha Varma (VLCC International, Dubai)
• Caroline Wilson (University of Sussex)