CommentaryFrom schizophrenia to sainthood – Tajuddin Fakir
Introduction
Psychiatric asylums were introduced in India during the colonial era, possibly to cater to the needs of European soldiers and Indian ‘sepoys’ employed by the East India Company. The focus was custodial rather than curative (Nizamie and Goyal, 2010). In the consequent decades, the asylum gates were opened up to the native poor. Asylums held a precarious position between the judicial and medical branches of the colonial government and clinical practices were ‘permeable’ to indigenous ideas and local practices. Although, the responsibility for governance was increasingly given to doctors, psychiatric practice held competing and complementary ideas about the definition of “insanity” and its treatment (Bhattacharyya, 2013). Edward Mapother during his early 20th century visit to the hospitals in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and India, recorded stark disparities, poor care and high patient mortality across these institutes (Mills and Jain, 2009).
Section snippets
The Nagpur lunatic asylum
The Nagpur Lunatic Asylum was one of two such institutions within the Central Provinces of India, an area that is covered by the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh today. Documentary evidence recently unearthed as part of a large-scale reform project dates the establishment of this asylum to 4th July 1864 (Survey of Institutional Facilities for care of mental defectives in mental hospital, 1948).The Asylum, in line with then practice in UK and other parts of India, diagnosed
Who was Tajuddin?
Syed Mohammad Tajuddin is thought to have been of Arab lineage, and his ancestors had migrated to India and settled in Madras. Tajuddin’s father, Syed Badruddin, was a lieutenant in the British army, and he was transferred from Madras (now Chennai) to Kamptee, near Nagpur. Tajuddin was born to Syed Badruddin and his wife, Mariam Bi, on 27 January 1861. Syed Badruddin died when Tajuddin was a year old. Tajuddin attended a local primary school when he turned six. He was thought to have been a
The British perception of Tajuddin
While we have not been able to locate Tajuddin’s original hospital records, but some information about his stay at the hospital is available from other sources. He was admitted into the Nagpur Lunatic Asylum on 26 August 1892. On admission, he was noted to have “a vacant wandering expression of face”, along with “incoherent talk” and “filthy habits”. The asylum register, as mentioned in Indian Hemp Drug Commission Report of 1894, recorded Tajuddin’ s weight as 113 lbs at admission. The same
Contemporary medical reassessment of Tajuddin
We speculate that Tajuddin’s physical state, with emaciation and thickening of skin indicates malnutrition and neglect, as was common among the destitute. The clinical diagnosis is probably a chronic psychosis: gradual withdrawal, muttering to himself, unmindful of appearance, periods of excitement and withdrawal, and incoherent speech. Although he used cannabis, his symptoms persisted even after admission, so while cannabis may have triggered his psychosis, the clinical presentation is one of
Tajuddin Fakir and his special powers
Like many other ‘Fakir saints of his time, Tajuddin was associated with many miracles. One of those was his power to outwit colonial regulations and control, also described as his power of ‘teleporting’. Tajuddin was often spotted in the streets of Nagpur, despite the fact that he was locked up in an asylum (Green, 2007). He may actually have left the asylum at times, since there are other recorded instances of patients escaping unnoticed; e.g. as is the case of “Goorab’ from the Jabalpur
Sainthood and insanity
The ‘sainthood’ of Tajuddin is similar to the ‘afflictions’ of Joan of Arc from France (Ratnasuriya, 1986), Meerabai and Akka Mahadevi in India, to Taqī al-Dīn Ibn Taymiyya in the 14th century who was considered to have a “screw loose” according to Ibn-Batuta (Böttcher, 2013). These examples elucidating the prophetic nature of madness were seen all across Europe and Asia, and whether their religious experiences were a form of madness has often been debated. It was with the secularization of the
Conclusion
From Roy Porter and Umberto Eco (Eco, 1998; Porter, 1987) to the various anti-psychiatric movements, the attempts of psychiatry to secularise and universalise the diagnosis of irrational behaviour as “insane” are well-catalogued. These behaviours were understood through symbols and located within the context of the religious and cultural histories of the respective societies. The ‘secularization’ of the mind in the last millennium essentially robbed insanity of its semiotic value and converted
Author contributions
Amruta Huddar worked on archiving the old hospital records, review of literature and writing the primary draft of the manuscript
Tasneem Raja- Is the Principal Investigator of Udaan. She supported the design of archiving old hospital records and writing the manuscript.
Sanjeev Jain- supported the writing and editing of the manuscript
Swaran Singh- supported the writing and editing of the manuscript
Funding statement
Archiving of the hospital records of the Regional Mental Hospital of Nagpur is being done under the Udaan Program. This work is supported by Tata Education and Development Trust (TEDT) (DI Regional mental hospital Nagpur, circular number 130) and R G Manudhane Foundation for Excellence (MoU with TEDT dated 10th Aug 2016).
Declaration of Competing Interest
No conflict of interest.
Acknowledgement
Archiving of the hospital records of the Regional Mental Hospital of Nagpur is being done under the Udaan Program. This work is supported by Tata Education and Development Trust (TEDT) (DI Regional mental hospital Nagpur, circular number 130) and R G Manudhane Foundation for Excellence (MoU with TEDT dated 10th Aug 2016).
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