027 Part 3 AyurvEda - Gandhiji of 1927 gave full support to Ayurvedic Research

Gandhiji gave full support to Ayurveda in 1927, as per his following letter to the Hony. Secy., AyurvEdic Conference.

Source: Collected Works/Volume 38/Letter To Honorary Secretary Ayurvedic (7th May 1927)
LETTER TO HONORARY SECRETARY, AYURVEDIC CONFERENCE[1]
[Before May 7, 1927]
DEAR FRIEND,
Owing to my sudden illness, I have not been able to reply earlier to your letter of the 17th ultimo. The remarks quoted by you and ascribed to me in the Minority Report[2], which of course I have not seen, are substantially correct but they have been torn from their context. In the speech, the report of which I have not read, from which I suppose the remarks quoted by you have been taken, I was drawing a distinction between Ayurveda and Ayurvedic physicians of today and I do hold the opinion that they do not do justice to the profession they seek to represent. But these remarks should not be used in support of any proposition designed to prevent Government’s assistance being given for Ayurveda research. I believe that Ayurveda is a field for much research work. For want of research scholars, unlike Western medicine, it has practically come to a standstill. Therefore, I should not discountenance aid being given to Ayurveda research under given circumstances and to honest and industrious men who love research work and who have the necessary qualifications. I should add that the remarks attributed to me were made at the ceremony of laying the foundation of an Ayurvedic College. Had I been averse to any aid being given to Ayurvedic work, I should certainly have declined to lay the foundation of an Ayurvedic College at Calcutta, to open the Tibbia College in Delhi and very recently, to open an Ayurvedic Hospital at Ahmednagar.

ybrems
Pl. see part 2 Ayurveda post (previous post) which gave the 1942-46 position.-- Gandhiji thought that he took poison by excess consumption of ayurvEdic medicines. He wanted to try the allopathy for his hookworms and amoebe. He wanted vallabram vaidya to find ayurvedic physicians like himself and train them. He wanted vallabhram to discuss the matter with his personal physician Dr. Sushila Nayyar.

But the 1927 letter to the Secretary of Ayurvedic Conference indicates that he had supported Govt. funds for Ayurvedic Research fully. Alternatively, did he want to assuage the feelings of the Secretary of the AyurvEdic Conference?

One problem with Gandhiji was, he was too busy in freedom movement, and promotion of khAdi. Some Ayurvedic practitioners and the Ayurvedic Conference were apparently pressing him to try Government funds. At that time, or probably even today there were/are two sections of AyurvEdic doctors. Section 1: Those who oppose reforms. Section 2: Those who support reforms.

Gandhiji apparently wanted reforms and research, with the help of volunteers. He didn't apparently believe in Governmental promotional efforts, while the AyurvEdic profession and industry wanted Government support.

One problem which appeared in the Gandhi-vallabhrAm question answer session I quoted in Part 2 Ayurveda post made by me earlier, was about the modern doctors telling Gandhi that the tridOsha system of vAta pitta kafa was a fraud.

I (ybrao) want to highlight here, that the tridOsha system existed even in Euro-American medicine. They were called humours. In addition to the wind-fire-water (vAta-pitta-kafa), the Euro-American System had blood as another humour. Probably, the Indian AyurvEdic system too might have had blood as a dOsha in ancient times. The dOsha (humours) system of India and Europe appear to be inheritances from Indo-European ancestry or the Assyrian/Babylonian/Mesopotamian/Sumarian import. Whatever it be, the modern medical system in Euro-America got rid of the belief in humours, while the Indian native medical system is persisting on it.

tridOshas or humours were examined and experimented with by Indian AyurvEdic physicians over a period of nearly 3000 years. AyurvEda had evolved from the experiences of the Ayurvedic physicians examining the patients from generation to generation, though formal clinical records are maintained. We cannot, therefore, get it ridden of by brushing it aside with brooms. Research is to be conducted with the help of modern equipment and techniques, on how solids, liquids and fluids move in human bodies. Diabetic studies, endocrinology, gastro-enterology, pulmonology, and other anatomical sciences have made great strides in the study of fluids along the digestive system, respiratory system, blood-circulatory system. But the modern studies have not taken into account the Indian experiences of tridOshas. Combined researches are necessary.

The ayurvedic practitioners and the allopathic practitioners are allergic to one another because the ayurvedic physicians are surviving for their survival- pinned to the wall, while the allopathy doctors are building huge nursing homes. The allopaths consider the AyurvEdic vaidyas as fools. The ayurvedic physicians consider allopaths as Euro-American invaders into their territory.

026 Where is the progress in Ayurveda since 1942?

026 Where is the progress in Ayurveda since 1942?
026 ఆయుర్వేదంలో ౧౯౪౨ నుండి అభివృధ్ధి ఎక్కడ ?
०२६ आयुर्वेद में १९४२ से विकास कहाँ है ?

Gandhiji wrote to an Ayurvedic physician, Vallabhram Vaidya, on 28th June 1942. From the context of the letter, we get an impression that the doctor was seeking Gandhiji's help for getting Government's monetary support to promote AyurvEda.

Source of the letter: Vol. 83 of Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi:

BHAI VALLABHRAM,
I have already told you that Ayurveda cannot be saved either by money or by State help. Would the State be able to revive Ayurveda even if it gave thousands of rupees every month to the purveyers of indigenous tonics? Hundreds of people have laid down their lives to spread allopathy. Allopathy by itself is not expensive but the doctors and the chemists have made it so. You have not seen their books giving the formula and cost of each important medicine. The cost price of Bayer’s Sarsaparilla is one and a half pice but its market price today is ten rupees. The same is true of the doctors’ fees. Ayurvedacharya Gananath Sen charges one thousand rupees for a day when he goes out of station. Without yajna there can be no achievement. Yajna implies ceaseless intelligent labour to the extent that it makes a person sweat and all that, again, dedicated to the Lord. Ayurveda has not yet become a science. In a science there is always scope for progress. Where is any progress here? Come when you feel like it.
Shankerlal Banker has again gone there. He has again fallen ill. Go and see him. Treat him if you can.

ybrems
1. Gandhiji's observation about high drug prices, giving example of Bayer selling a paise worth sarsapilla for Rupees 10/- is very important. It holds good even after 70 years i.e. 2012. The Multi Nationals are sucking the patients.

2. Gandhiji's observation about Rs. 1,000 per day fee charged by the AyurvEdAcArya GannAthSen is very important. Rs. 1,000 in the prices transcribes to a million Rupees at 2012 prices. There are no AyurvEdic physicians who charge such astronomical sums. We may have allopathic specialists and consultants in Mumbai and Delhi charging Rs. 1 million a day (open fees and disguised charges). The practice of Doctors fixing their prices on demand and supply is Centuries old.

3. There was a questions and answers session between Gandhiji and Vallabhram Vaidya about development of Ayurveda, held in 1946. It is available in Vol. 92 of Collected Works. Date: October 14, 1946. I reproduce the text as it is very relevant:

Q. Wouldn’t it be better to set up a public institution at Bordi for conducting research in the Ayurvedic system of medicine?
A. It would be good to make Bordi a public institution.
Q. The Government Ayurvedic Colleges teach seventy per cent allopathy. Ayurveda should be taught as a separate science. When this question was first discussed you had said that you would arrange for me to meet Dr. Gilder.
A . The Ayurvedic education is something I have been long interested in. The work can certainly be pursued if there are vaidyas you know who think like you and who are selfless. Only then would it be useful for you to go to Dr. Gilder.
Q. It is difficult to find vaidyas who fully share my views. There are some who are too orthodox to allow any changes or innovations in the Ayurvedic system while others want to turn it into allopathy. In fact Ayurveda is based on theory of tridosha[2] and its cure is based on five basic substances.
A. What do you think of Joshi of Poona? If there is no one else, what can you do by yourself? Many doctors have told me that the treatment based on tridosha is a fraud. It is for you to prove that it is not so. It is also for you to train vaidyas like you.
What Dr. Gilder has passed has also been prepared by vaidyas. Bhadkamkar, Lagu, Gananath Sen and Vishwanath are from among you, are they not?
Q. The doctors do not know anything about the treatment based on tridosha . Bhadkamkar and other vaidyas are more of doctors than vaidyas, and that is why they have approved the scheme.
A. I can arrange a meeting with Dr. Gilder. But I would advise you to see Bhadkamkar and Joshi. Have a little talk with Sushila Nayyar, with Satis Babu, too. He is here at present.
Q. I have gone through the book Prakritik Chikitsa which you gave me. It is full of tall talk and is not based on the author’s personal experience. He has described properties of medicines without citing authority.
A. I have noted the tall talk in it. Only you can write authoritatively on medicines.
Q. I will prepare the students. But it is obvious that my syllabus will be different from that prescribed by the Government Board. So what shall we do about its registration?
A. Prepare something. Do not worry about registration. First of all train the volunteers. It is not necessary for them to have degrees. If they are good I will accommodate them. I do not care for degrees.

ybrems
We find from the above, Gandhiji advised vaidya to train volunteers. It is not clear whether Vaidya trained any volunteers. Gandhiji's life during Nov. 1946 - 30th Jan. 1948 was filled with strife owing to communal riots between Hindus and Muslims, partition of India. He was in Bengal for some time.

From Gandhiji's letters of 1945 to Gulazarilal Nanda, and Devdas, quoted by me in my previous post, Gandhiji considered that he consumed poison by an excess intake of AyurvEdic drugs. For his hookworm and amoebae, he preferred to have an allopath.

Many Ayurvedic Drug Companies today make money by making and fast selling viagra substitutes. Making aphrodisiacs and pushing them on very rich parents, in the name of vAjIkaraNam is a very old business in India.

Kerala State made some progress in Ayurvedic Medical Tourism, by pouring oils on patients' heads.

Middle and rich classes are purchasing mediclaim insurance policies paying heavy amounts. Some State Governments like Andhra Pradesh are offering Health Insurance Schemes like ArOgya Sri and have become chief patrons of Corporate Hospitals.

So called "positive homoeopathy" has become another money-spinner.

Gandhiji was busy with freedom struggle in 1940s. What are we busy with today? Boozing?

Smoking-generated diseases, alcoholism-generated diseases, adulterated unclean food generated diseases, air-water-and sound pollution generated diseases are driving people into bankruptcy.

Gandhiji had Dr. Sushila Nayyar as his personal physician, and always after him in attendance. Am Admi (common man) today cannot and does not have such luxuries.

Craze for super-speciality hospital treatment and inability to get it owing to financial weakness, are making people more sick, than the real illness.

ybrems
Unbranded herbal powders, I find as a solution for our present predicament. This has to be discussed in depth.

025 Did Gandhiji suffer in the hands of AyurvEdic physicians?

Gandhiji wrote to his son dEvadas Gandhi, on Jan. 1, 1945.
Source: Vol.85 of Collected Works of MahatmA Gandhi.

CHI. DEVDAS,
Having written my first letter to Rajaji I now write this to you. Do not at all worry on my account. I am paying for my sins. I had too much of Ayurveda and I suffered. And now I am slowly throwing off the poison. I have therefore grown very weak but I am watching the developments. Hook-worm and amoeba, my old enemies, won’t leave me.
All this is but flushing out the poison that I had taken. I do not know what other suffering is in store for me. I shall go on doing as God dictates. You should not worry. Ramdas[1] has come. And now Nimu[2] too.

ybrems
1. Gandhiji and Swami Vivekananda has one thing in common. 'I am paying for my sins." Vivekananda called this "my karma".

2. Gandhiji: "I shall go on doing as God dictates."
Vivekananda had a habit of going by the dictates of "Mother".

3. Did somebody tell Gandhiji about the mercury, sulphur, lead, and other heavy metals used in Ayurvedic medicines? At least 75% of the AyurvEdic medicines are 'rasa' aushadhas i.e. mercury mixtures.

4. Gandhiji had come to a near conclusion that he had taken poison. Flushing out the poison!

5. Since Gandhiji wrote this letter in 1945, i.e. at the fag end of his life, I believe that he had not changed his opinion between 1945 and 1948.

What the Ayurvedic physicians have to say about this?