In February and March 1953, a WHO Visiting Team of Medical Scientists worked in India, collaborating with local medical students and professionals. This article studies the complexities of early postcolonial international health work and the relations between the young WHO and the newly independent countries, from the position of the team’s vice chairman, Norwegian doctor Karl Evang. While the WHO aimed to create dialogue and interaction, also learning from the host country, the article finds that an equal exchange of views between visitors and hosts was not achieved. The topic pertains to discussions on power and influence in international organisations and governance, development and health work, within a South Asian setting. Studying intellectual exchanges between Evang and his Indian interlocutors sheds light on India’s role as both receptive and generative site of ideas and political practice, contributing to broader debates on the appropriation, refashioning and application of political ideas in independent India. Also, at a time of new directions in international health, and considering Evang’s social medicine conviction, an additional question concerns the role of social medicine. The article underlines the existence of multiple, parallel tracks in international health work, and argues the need to portray international health as a complex mosaic, rather than a step-by-step development. The case has relevance as historians endeavour to make international and global history more diverse, as through Evang we capture parts of a broader international involvement of people and nation states in the WHO and its work in the early post-war period.

中文翻译：

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后殖民国际卫生的复杂性：Karl Evang 于 1953 年在印度

1953 年 2 月和 3 月，世界卫生组织医学科学家访问小组在印度工作，与当地医学生和专业人士合作。本文以团队副主席、挪威医生卡尔·埃旺 (Karl Evang) 的身份，研究了早期后殖民国际卫生工作的复杂性以及年轻的世界卫生组织与新独立国家之间的关系。尽管世界卫生组织的目标是建立对话和互动，并向东道国学习，但文章发现，来访者和东道主之间并没有实现平等的意见交流。该主题涉及南亚背景下国际组织以及治理、发展和卫生工作中的权力和影响力的讨论。研究埃万和他的印度对话者之间的知识交流揭示了印度作为思想和政治实践的接受和生成场所的角色，有助于就独立印度政治思想的挪用、重塑和应用进行更广泛的辩论。此外，在国际卫生出现新方向的时代，考虑到埃万的社会医学信念，另一个问题涉及社会医学的作用。文章强调了国际卫生工作中存在多个平行轨道，并认为有必要将国际卫生描绘成一个复杂的马赛克，而不是一步一步的发展。这个案例具有重要意义，因为历史学家致力于使国际和全球历史更加多样化，因为通过埃万，我们捕捉到了战后早期人民和民族国家更广泛地参与世界卫生组织及其工作的部分内容。