Planters, estate health & malaria in British Malaya (1900-1940)

With the emphasis on the health of plantation workers, this article explores the contestations between planters and the state over the demarcation of public health responsibilities in rubber estates. Arguments over the provision of hospital beds and medical staff were complicated by new understanding of the epidemiology of malaria, which raised questions of anti-mosquito drainage works in common areas. The experience of British Malaya provides a critical appreciation of interactions between the developments in public health and diseases with that of the notions of property and governance in the context of colonial Malaya. It serves to reveal the dynamics of the state-civil society relationship in not just shouldering the burden of public health, but also negotiating the political contours between business interests and the colonial state in British Malaya.