Indian medical indigeneity: from nationalist assertion to the global market

Abstract

2 SynopsisThe Indian system of healing known as Ayurveda is today popularly projected as a holistic form of healing that works on the mind, body and spirit. It is also said to be extremely ancient, with a knowledge rooted in successful practice that has continued largely unchanged for millennia. The article seeks to understand how a 'traditional' form of healing that is associated with Indian civilisation came to occupy such an epistemic space. The related practice of Unani Tibb (a practice that was associated with Islam in India) is compared. It is argued that the claims of Ayurveda and Unani Tibb are typical of many 'invented traditions' that sought to forge cultures that helped to bind disparate peoples within supposedly uniform nationalities. In the process, many cultural phenomena that did not fit into the created categories were either marginalised or excluded. The essay examines how claims to great antiquity were forged, the idea of a decline from a glorious past, with a corresponding need for present-day revival, attempts to create uniform 'systems' out of a range of eclectic practices, the politics of medical education for indigenous practitioners, and conflicting claims as to what 'Indian indigenous medicine ' entailed. 3 In recent years, the Indian system of healing known as Ayurveda has become increasingly popular in a new global market for complimentary medicine. It is projected as a holistic form of healing that works on the mind, body and spirit. It is also said to be extremely ancient, with a knowledge rooted in successful practice that has continued largely unchanged for millennia. In the words of one of its prominent advocates, Deepak Chopra:…the Indian tradition of Ayurveda, [is] the oldest system of health-related knowledge in the world. Ayurveda -which in Sanskrit means 'science of life' -is the most comprehensive system of mind/body medicine ever devised. It offers not only a great wealth of theoretical knowledge, but also practical techniques for achieving better health. 'traditions' were created in the nineteenth or early twentieth century as an intrinsic part of the construction of new nationalities and nation states. 5 The authors examine topics such as the creation of the Highland tartan, the Welsh eisteddfod, ceremonies surrounding the British monarchy, the colonial darbar in India, modes of colonial authority in Africa, and nationalistic rituals in Britain, France and Germany. The chapters describe both the process of creating conventions that reinforced hierarchical structures of authority within nation states and also the forging of cultures that helped bind disparate peoples within supposedly uniform nationalities. In the process, many cultural phenomena that did not fit into the created categories were either marginalised or excluded.Ayurveda appears to fit into the latter category, that of a medical culture that is seen to flow from and represent the spirit of India and its peoples. The postindependence governments of India and its constituent states acknowledged this, it s...

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