Page 58 - Science India August 2022

COLLECTOR’S EDITION 2.0
Swatantrata ka Amrut Mahotsava
nated aspects of both Ayurve-
da and Western medicine into Unani-Tibb. Madrasa-e-Tibbia
was established in Delhi by
Hakim Abdul Majid of the
Sharifi family. There was no
help by the government, but
nobles along with the affluent
classes did provide patron-
age. Vaidya Gangadhar Ray (1789–1885) and Gangaprasad
Sen (1824–1896) worked on de- veloping Ayurveda post-1835
by training students in the sys-
tem. Vaidyas established medi-
cine companies to prepare and
sell/ export Indian medicines.
The Pharmacopoeia of India
was published in 1868. West-
ern practitioners increasingly
used formulations with a single
‘active ingredient,’ thereby ne- glecting ISM ideology for the
whole herb/ mineral. Formal training of Hakims and Vaid-
yas in western medicine be-
gan at the Oriental College in
Lahore (1872). After severe criticism from Western practitioners, such train- ings were stopped within a few years.
The committee headed by Sir Joseph Bhore coined the words: ‘Modern Scien- tific Medicine’ in its report (1946), with the sole purpose to denounce the ISM upfront as non-scientific/ outdated. A segment of Bhore Committee’s opinion about ISM is stated verbatim, ‘In consid- ering the question of the place which the indigenous systems of medical treatment should occupy in any planned organisa- tion of medical relief and public health in the country, we are faced with certain difficulties. We are unfortunately not in a position to assess the real value of these systems of medical treatment as practiced today as we have been unable, with the time and opportunities at our disposal, to conduct such an investiga- tion into this problem as we would jus- tify clear-cut recommendations. We do not, therefore, propose to venture into any discussion in regard to the place of these systems in organized state medical relief in this country. We do however say
Madhusudan Gupta, a former Ayurveda teacher, led the first team of Indians that carried out a dissection in a western setting in 1836
quite definitely, that there are certain as- pects of health protection, which in our opinion, can be secured wholly or at any rate largely, only through the scientific system of medicine (modern medicine). Thus public health or preventive medi- cine, which must play an essential part in the future of medical organization, is not within the purview of the indig- enous systems of medical treatment as they obtain at present. This in no way reflects upon these systems.’ We feel that we need no justification in confining our proposal to the countrywide extension of a system of medicine (modern medi-
Formal training
of Hakims and Vaidyas in western medicine began at the Oriental College in Lahore in 1872
cine), which in our view, must be regarded neither as eastern or western but as a corpus of scientific knowledge and prac- tice belonging to the whole world’. The Bhore committee advocated de-recognition of the ISM.
First formal recognition of Ayurveda was given by Bom- bay Medical Practitioners Act 1938 by the provincial government establishing the first separate register of prac- titioners of ISM. Madras In- digenous (Usman) Committee (1923) was the first committee established for promoting and regulating ISM. Khan Baha- dur Sir Mohammad Usman (1884 –1960) was an Indian Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons politician and Hakim who also served as the first Indian acting Governor of Madras (May 1934 – August 1934), abreast Sir Joseph Bhore. The Usman Committee affirmed
the importance of Ayurveda in its re- port. Sir Joseph Bhore (chaired Health Survey and Development Committee, 1946), never paid attention to the Us- man Committee report. It seems un- likely that Bhore was unaware of the Usman Report. The Usman Report was ignored with the sole purpose of neglecting ISM. Disgracefully, Indian nationals who were the members of committees constituted after indepen- dence also followed Bhore. Only dif- ference was that they didn’t have the courage to ignore ISM. First Health Ministers’ conference (1946) passed a resolution for training and research in ISM. Thereafter came into existence committees like Mudaliar (1959), Bajaj (1983), etc., which advocated inclusion of Ayurveda in public health services thereby paving a way forward towards its inclusion and reprise.
*The writer is Founder of Pratha Ayurveda & ex-Research Fellow, Department of Neurology and NMR, AIIMS, New Delhi
58 SCIENCE INDIA AUGUST 2022