Studying Responses to Disability in South Asian Histories: Approaches personal, prakrital and pragmatical

Abstract

Approaches and pitfalls are described in the nascent field of Asian disability historiography, focusing on mental retardation (learning difficulties) and blindness (visual impairments) in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. More substantial evidence has surfaced for study of responses to disability and disabled persons than for understanding historical concepts of disability. Critiques are considered of Orientalist information-gathering, of over-dependence on institutional sources, and of methodologies crossing disciplinary boundaries. With due attention to the range of hermeneutic variations, some recognition and understanding is possible of social and individual responses to disability and disabled people in South Asian history.

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