Making and unmaking the asylum : leprosy and modernity in Singapore and Malaysia

The book recounts the entangled histories of leprosy in colonial and postcolonial Malaya/Malaysia and Singapore—decades of heavy-handed biomedical policies and laws enacted in the name of modernity, science and development, interwoven with the personal accounts of those who were sent to the asylums. The leprosarium was a living hell for many. It is also no coincidence, the author argues, that the majority of patients were poor and working-class.