How holistic medicine was sidelined in India.

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To know how it happened you have to go through archives of medical history and documents that are not easily available. They simply stopped being published once thugs like Rockefeller took over medicine. But still a lot of references are available when one goes through literature that addressed the resistance between traditional systems of medicine and the modern system that was based upon a mechanical view and was called heroic because its basis was "cut, slash and burn".

It is common knowledge that ayurveda and other holistic systems of medicine including Unani were a thorn in the sides of the British rulers particularly when they tried to enforce practices like variolation and vaccination. These holistic systems based upon body constitution and environment were thoroughly against introduction of foreign matter of doubtful origin into the body as their basis was about detoxification and elimination of disease matter. No amount of persuasion was enough to convince the traditional healers on whom the public had great faith.

The first attempt was when the British planted a malicious article in a Madras publication that it was the Brahmins who had introduced vaccination in India in the past. But the name of the author who called himself a "mischievous devotee" was a dead giveaway. However even this did not work and ultimately such practices were enforced at gun point by using police and military might. The atrocities are recorded in the archives of the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics.

However there were ethical doctors among even the British fraternity who resisted the practice of vaccination as they watched the harm first hand and could comprehend why epidemics of cholera, tuberculosis, leprosy, and mental disorders were gripping the nation even as the small pox vaccine was mandatorily enforced on the people, causing disease epidemics that were ironically used as the pretext calling for more "heroic" interventions.

These ethical doctors were in favour of public health interventions like nutrition, better town planning, waste management, sanitation, and hygiene that were yielding tremendous results in the UK in the fight against small pox. They talked to Indian allopathic doctors and these doctors together formed a group and were known as "public health doctors".

As Gandhi was a naturopath and a great lover of herbal and homeopathic modalities he was first informed about the reasons why small pox was becoming uncontrollable in India despite mandatory vaccination and why epidemics of other diseases were taking place. Gandhi then started writing on these subjects that influenced leaders like Rajagopalachari, Patel, Lala Rajpat Rai and others who championed the cause of holistic systems and questioned allopathic practices.

In fact after Gandhi it was Rajagopalachari who led the public health movement in India and opposed the ineffective tuberculosis vaccine. There were also public luminaries like Justice Dewan Harish Chand and other eminent members of judicial and administrative services who organized themselves along with the public health doctors to oppose the British imposition and provide all support to the holistic systems.

Thus health consultations were arranged that called for holistic systems to be given top priority. In the early years of my campaign I owned a Yahoo group called alt_health_india that still exists and many very senior doctors were members of the group. They discussed these issues in the group. I later received further confirmation when I was made members of various medical and medical ethics groups.

This history is well known among seniors and those who closely study the history of medicine. These were not simply Indian incidents but have happened across the globe, even in Islamic countries. Unani which is extremely similar to ayurveda and a highly effective system never received the attention it deserved.

When the British ultimately left India they did not provide independence. They gave dominion status to India and Nehru and Jinnah who were perhaps half brothers became the British representatives. Nehru always acted in accordance with the instructions of his British masters. In his correspondence he addressed them also as such. He scuttled the move to make holistic systems the mainstream in India - like many other decisions he made in favour of the East India Company.

The large Dams and mammoth corporate industry structures he set up promoting them as "Temples of India" defying Gandhi and other socialist leader’s model of rural development were in reality essentials for the East India Company we are still fighting today. While he championed the cause of "scientific medicine" at their behest his own preference for homeopathy and yoga however never faltered, Dewan Harish Chand a pioneer homeopath being his personal physician and also of other eminent members of the Congress. His father Motilal Nehru too championed the cause of homeopathy.

Indira too depended exclusively on homeopathy and her personal physician was Dr Bholanath Chakroborty, the eminent homeopath of Bengal. Whenever she fell sick Indira's official Jet flew down to Calcutta to bring Dr Chakroborty. Even today our eminent politicians tend to use ayurveda and homeopathy themselves continuing the tradition of their predecessors and use allopathy only in emergencies.

Our Presidents and Governors are great champions of herbals and homeopathy. Sri Narendra Modi uses homeopathy as his first choice and also recommends it to others. Sri Naveen Pattnaik the Chief Minister of Odisha is a herbalist and has authored a wonderful book on the subject. The Governor House in Odisha has a herbal garden.

Many Bollywood celebrities too use holistic systems including Lata Mangeshkar and Sharukh Khan who have publicly confessed to their first choice. Ashok Kumar the versatile actor was a homeopath who attended to super stars like Pran, Dileep Kumar and Jeetendra as per a Filmfare article I had read many years ago.

But for the sake of the economy and bowing down to international pressure the common man faces disease epidemics and death in the hands of allopaths. Worldwide too the elite ranging from the Rockefellers, Rothschilds, to the Royal Family of England are fans of Naturopathy and homeopathy. They stay away from GM foods, electronic gadgets, and their progeny never receive vaccinations preferring organic food and a traditional lifestyle. Their slaves are however treated differently.