The Ayurveda of Baba Ramdev: Biomoral Consumerism, National Duty and the Biopolitics of ‘Homegrown’ Medicine in India

Reshaping the future of ethnobiology research after the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Ayurved works with a particular framework of bio-elements and diagnostic tools and, as such, anything, even excrement, can be rendered medicinal, depending on the patient's conditions. Thus, its cosmology interacts awkwardly with the secular need to scientifically prove its 'validity' , which faces backlash from a section of society that labels it pseudoscientific quackery 20 , and it suffers from its association with right-wing nationalism 21 . Consumerism and politicization simultaneously promote and endanger this heritage.…”

“…20 Universidade Estadual da Paraíba, João Pessoa, Brazil. 21 Published online: 22 June 2020 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-020-0691-6…”

The “Good Life”: Third Age, Brand Modi and the cultural demise of old age in urban India

“…However, Twigg (2007) argues that in recent years this condemnation has given way to the emergence of new masculine subjectivities such as the 'metrosexual man'. Significantly, the image of a 'metrosexual man' is invariably a younger man suggesting that Modi's clothes, choice of color and style are rupturing the age-ordering (Lurie, 1992: cited in Twigg, 2007 (Khalikova, 2017) vii ) where his "manly" style (both personal and political) is routinely recognized as 'efficient, dynamic, potent and capable of overcoming the "policy-paralysis" that had putatively afflicted the previous regime' (Srivastava, 2015, 334). Scholars have noted that this construction of "Brand Modi"-a prime agency that promises to bring good times to common man (Kaur, 2015)-is rooted in the political economies of neoliberalism where the selfregulating, individualized subject is encouraged to embrace the "ideologies of youthfulness-symbolised by the consumerist quartet of virtues-choice, autonomy, self-expression and pleasure" (Gilleard & Higgs, 2007, 26) .…”

“…Recently, he has been known to launch a cartoon video (demonstrating himself) on his official YouTube page (Yoga with Modi: Indian PM stars in cartoon video of poses, The Guardian, March 29, 2018. Accessed at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/29/indian-pm-narendra-modi-releasesyoutube-video-of-yoga-poses) Khalikova, 2017 where the author explicates the nexus between biomoral consumerism and neoliberal politics with the rhetoric of a popular Indian guru, Baba Ramdev. The author shows how the discourses of yoga and the expansion of the Ayurvedic market, although symbolically foregrounds a brand of 'homegrown' nationalism, but ultimately are political tokens of a neoliberal quest in consumerist desires.…”

Nature Cure and Non-Communicable Diseases: Ecological Therapy as Health Care in India

“…Since 2014, all non-biomedical systems of health care are organized within the Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) [35]. Politics, education and economics are important to consider in understanding the history of India’s policy on AYUSH pluralism [36,37,38]. Similarly, the changing landscape of global health has shaped and will continue to reshape various systems of medicine in their local articulation.…”