By Monique Lerpinière,
Monique is a PhD student at the University of Strathclyde working with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow on a research project, from 2024-2027, entitled: ‘A Hidden Migration History: South Asian Medical Professionals in Scotland, 1872-Present’
Stereotypes, misconceptions and a fundamental lack of research have long distorted general perceptions of South Asian migration to Scotland. With South Asians constituting the largest minority ethnic group in Scotland, there is little excuse for this drought in information. My research project ‘A Hidden Migration History: South Asian Medical Professionals in Scotland 1872-Present’ aims to document and make accessible these histories that have yet to be told. Deriving from the findings of an internship conducted in 2022 at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Glasgow and funded by the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities, this project is a part of a gradual shift within the Scottish heritage sector to facilitate more accurate portrayals of the country’s history by confronting often uncomfortable subject matter such as colonialism, racism and migration.
RCPSG Single Licentiates Register with signatures of the College’s first South Asian licentiates
While the scope of the project only covers a subset of South Asian migration, medical students and professionals, their history reflects broader patterns of migration and allows insight into the South Asian communities who eventually settled in Scotland. The origins of the first South Asian migrant communities in Britain can be traced as far back as the 1600s, making their history an overlooked and longstanding part of the country’s social and cultural fabric. However, these early migrants were often sailors, nannies or servants to the British – not physicians or surgeons. Medical migration was more of a product of the late 1800s. The British colonial government tasked itself with the Westernisation of education in India through a series of mandates making it near impossible to practice medicine in India without a European degree. This meant that nineteenth century Scotland became the temporary home for hundreds of South Asian students seeking British degrees every year. Although these students often returned to British India following graduation, these flows of migration inevitably impacted Scotland, and the rest of Britain, in a way that is understated within existing written histories of British colonialism. Moreover, the project turns typical colonial studies on their head. Instead of focusing on the impact of the coloniser upon the colonised, it looks at how colonised people altered the homeland of the coloniser.
Single Licentiates Register
Like most, before I read about this project, I was unaware of how far back this history went. Discussions around migration are often situated within the modern context, ignoring historical policy shifts which encouraged globalisation for hotly contested and highly politicised conversations around current immigration policy. With rising anti-immigrant sentiment and its ties to bubbling far-right movements, accurate portrayals of migration history are more important than ever. While I’ve often been told of the limited power of a historian’s work this project goes beyond my thesis. The research I conduct over the next three years, although historical, will directly target present misinformation and will be a part of a much larger effort to engage the local community in these discussions.
The Royal College has already kickstarted this work. Just last month they celebrated their first female Fellow Jamini Sen, an Indian physician who passed the Fellowship examination in 1912, through an unveiling of a portrait produced by Grace Payne-Kumar, currently an Artist in Residence at Marlborough College. Sen is the only woman to be displayed amongst the College hall’s portraits and her status as a South Asian woman in Scotland during the height of colonial power is a particularly powerful statement. The College intends to honour the legacies of South Asian physicians and surgeons like Sen through a series of upcoming events. On September 21st the College took part in the Doors Open Days Festival which, fittingly, this year was themed: ‘We’re All Here’ to celebrate Glasgow’s multiculturalism and migrant communities. To build upon the relationships the College has built with South Asian communities in Glasgow an outreach programme is being launched within the next month and will become a part of the ‘South Asian Connections’ engagement event planned for Black History Month on October 26th.
The new portrait of Jamini Sen, 2024
I intend to be involved at every step. Having recently obtained my MSc in Health History from the University of Strathclyde as well as having experience working with migrant communities this project is dear to me. It does not only give me the opportunity to flex my muscles as a historian, trawling through untouched archival collections, but it is a chance to speak with the people that have played a significant role in the maintenance of Scotland’s healthcare profession. Through oral history interviews with currently practicing medical professionals, I hope to establish and share the relevance of this history today and give the South Asian community a voice in its telling.
For more information please see an earlier blog post on our first South Asian licentiates