Systems of medicine and nationalist discourse in India: Towards ‘new horizons’ in medical anthropology and history

This article from Social Science & Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal, uses the lens of medicine to understand India’s social history. The author examines how different systems of medicine – biomedicine (based on biochemical principles), Ayurveda, Unani, among others – were perceived in mainstream Indian national politics in the first half of the 20th century. Not only did the British colonial state give biomedicine “cultural authority” over indigenous medical systems, but nationalist leaders and later governments did too. This has greatly shaped the contemporary view of medical practices. The article discusses the three main positions (listed in the Factoids) of policy-makers and the influential Indian elite on national healthcare, including the opposing views of former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi. The author uses as his source material the proceedings of the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh) Legislative Assembly and the published views of national leaders. He concludes that the bias of both the colonial and national governments is the major reason for the “deterioration and decline” of Indian indigenous medical systems.