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A World of Resistance

India and the Global Antibiotic Crisis
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Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2026

About this book

A sweeping analysis uncovers the causes of—and solutions to—one of the most daunting public health challenges facing the world today: antibiotic resistance exploding in India.

The discovery of antibiotics was one of the most significant medical breakthroughs of the twentieth century, dramatically increasing human lifespans. Yet today, with antibiotic-resistant superbugs implicated in as many deaths as HIV/AIDS and malaria combined, the limits of these miracle drugs have become alarmingly clear.

At ground zero of the growing crisis is India, one of the world’s largest consumers of antibiotics and a powerhouse in pharmaceutical manufacturing. In A World of Resistance, Assa Doron and Alex Broom draw on years of fieldwork in hospitals, in pharmacies, and on factory farms to examine the enormous social and environmental costs of overreliance on antibiotics. They show how an overtaxed healthcare system with limited oversight, widespread use of antibiotics in industrial agriculture, and the incessant dumping of pharmaceutical waste into waterways have created the ideal conditions for antibiotic-resistant microbes to grow.

As resistance spreads across India and beyond, Doron and Broom argue that the solution isn’t to restrict access to antibiotics but to embrace forms of health education, indigenous practices, and policies grounded in social solidarity. Only then, the authors contend, is it possible to turn the page on India’s precarious relationship with antibiotics and to address resistance globally—before it is too late.

Reviews

The development of antibiotics in the mid-twentieth century seemed like a medical ‘magic bullet’ that would kill off harmful bacteria without hurting humans. A World of Resistance shows us how and why that magic bullet is now aimed dangerously back at us. This book is not only a dire warning about the consequences of ignoring the domino effects of decades of growing global socioeconomic inequalities, but also a call to collective action.
-- Theresa MacPhail, author of Allergic

Doron and Broom weave a compelling tale of medical scholarship, indigenous knowledge, and cultural storytelling, laying bare the myriad ways in which ordinary men and women have managed health miracles. Undeniably urgent, the narrative warns that the antibiotic epoch is crumbling: efficacy is falling, and the consequences will touch everyone.
-- Shashi Tharoor, member of Indian Parliament

As antibiotics infiltrate and erode our food and health in unsuspected ways, understanding the social origins of superbugs is a vital and urgent public project. A World of Resistance makes a hugely valuable and timely contribution to this endeavor. Doron and Broom’s meticulous analysis and engaging narrative make a complex subject easy to grasp. As a scholar of the environment and well-being, and as a person who lives in India and relies on its healthcare systems, I want everyone to read this book.
-- Amita Baviskar, author of Uncivil City

The incisive and comparative insights that Doron and Broom offer through their meticulous ethnography of the use and misuse of antibiotics in India make this book a groundbreaking intervention in political and cultural studies of our changing relations with the microbial world we inhabit. A must-read for anyone interested in the planetary environmental predicament that humanity finds itself facing today.
-- Dipesh Chakrabarty, author of One Planet, Many Worlds

Doron and Broom present a compelling vista of the ongoing race between antibiotic regimes to improve human health in India and the growth of microbes resistant to these antibiotics. Based on intensive ethnography, a wide range of interviews, and a remarkable array of secondary sources, the authors offer a cautiously optimistic reading of the futures of microbial modernity in large and unequal societies like India.
-- Arjun Appadurai, author of Banking on Words

Topics

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    Frontmatter

    i
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    Contents

    vii
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    Map of India

    viii
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    Preface

    ix
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    Introduction

    1
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  • Part 1 THE ANTIBIOTIC FRONTIER
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    1 Early Days. A Brief History of Antibiotics in India

    15
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    2 An Empire of Pills. India, Pharmacy to the World

    32
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  • Part 2 PRESCRIBING RESISTANCE
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    3 Counter Culture. Community Use of Antibiotics

    59
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    4 Clinical Dependencies. Hospital Use of Antibiotics

    89
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  • Part 3 FARMING SUPERBUGS
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    5 Rise of the Chickens. Developing a Taste for Poultry

    117
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    6 Milking Antibiotics. Dairy, Shrimp, and Pharmaceutical Currents in Indian Farming

    154
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    Conclusion

    175
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    Epilogue

    189
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    Appendix

    193
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    Glossary

    199
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    Acronyms and Abbreviations

    205
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    Notes

    209
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    Acknowledgments

    239
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    Index

    241
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
March 10, 2026
eBook ISBN:
9780674304024
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
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https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674304024
eBook ISBN: 9780674304024
Keywords for this book
stewardship; generic; broad-spectrum; poverty; inequality; migration; regulation; sustainability; amr; covid; one health; aquaculture; fish farming; contamination; microbiome; runoff; pollution; dairy; meat; chicken; shrimp; egg; blue revolution; drugstores; colonial; private healthcare; hyderabad; telangana; kerala; tamil nadu
Downloaded on 15.4.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.4159/9780674304024/html
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