Butto Krishna Paul & Co - An Enterprise for Localization of Foreign Medicines in Colonial Calcutta

In the year 1855, a Bengali enterprise of colonial Calcutta, Butto Krishna Paul & Co at Khangrapatti, Burabazar area, began to sell foreign medicines, but in course of time it became well known for its famous indigenous medicinal product. Edward's Tonic, the wonderful remedy for Malaria in the then colonial environment. The present paper aims to highlight the development of indigenous pharmaceutical companies within the milieu of hegemony or counter-hegemony of western scientific influence versus our national scientific endeavour. The objectives of the present attempt are- 1) what kind of historical consciousness and socio-political interconnectivity lead to the development of indigenous pharmaceuticals in colonial Calcutta, 2) how the advent of western medicine inspired our nationalist entrepreneurs for the development of indigenous pharmaceuticals in colonial Calcutta and finally 3) the beginning and development of oldest indigenous pharmaceutical Butto Krishna Paul & Co. under the shadow of the colonial empire. The results show that the development of the indigenous pharmaceutical companies in colonial Bengal can be seen as a specific wave of cultural response to modern science which was to pave the national scientific spirit in colonial India.