This project explores the emergence of nutrition as a governable category in postcolonial South Asia through an examination of the political, social, cultural and economic nexus of food production, distribution, preparation and consumption. A survey of the literature on health, agriculture, development studies and social and cultural trends in postcolonial South Asia reveals a paucity of scholarly attention to the emergent discourse of health, despite its importance as cornerstone of postcolonia l planning. In fact, the 'health' of the population was recast in the postcolonial period as a primary measure of national 'success' and 'progress', reflected in the Indian government's insistence on preventative healthcare, primarily through diet and everyday sanitation practices, as cornerstone's of state planning. I propose to undertake research at the British Library, the SOAS library, Senate House, the Wellcome Library for the History of Medicine and the National Archives related to my pr oject on Nutrition and Preventative medicine in mid-twentieth century India. Together, these collections contain primary documents of various kinds ranging from official government records to vernacular popular printed material that will help me to form a rich and balanced picture of the transition from colonial to postcolonial public health standards in India.