Doctors for Democracy

An ethnography about the relationship between politics and medicine in Nepal.

This book examines the role of Nepali physicians in the revolutionary changes in 1990. It speaks more broadly to anyone interested in the relationship between science and politics. Can medical doctors safely politicize medical science without undermining their claims to democracy? Can doctors in the democratizing world afford not to?This book examines the role of the Nepali physicians in the revolutionary changes in 1990. These doctors are trained in the Western tradition, and participate in international scientific debates, yet they have always been concerned to develop a form of medical practice that was relevant to Nepali conditions, and which could speak to local conceptions about health, and so their medical practice was always politicized. Vincanne Adams argues that the commitment of these professionals to the values of science, and to public health, was crucial in their political activity, and that ideas and practices associated with the notions of 'democracy' and of 'science' supported each other. Describing her book as 'a story that explores how very fine the line is between politics and scientific medical truth claims', it therefore encompasses both the modern political history of Nepal and the role of medicine in a poor, largely rural, Hindu kingdom.