IMA still nurturing its British roots

IMA’s recent accusations against Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan’s and AYUSH Ministry’s recommendations about the use of Ayurvedic methods in order to fight COVID 19 symptoms had made the potential of the ancient Indian science questionable. The institution claims Ayurveda to be an uncivil method of treatment and calls it a placebo. The picture which is camouflaged behind the chaos created by IMA is of the problems the institution has against the use of traditional methods. And these problems are not in favor of the people but in favor of the medical profession which is totally dependent on the prescribed use of Allopathy. In a condition, when the world is desperate for a vaccine or any medical way to deal with the pandemic, it is disgraceful of the organization to raise such serious questions regarding the authenticity of Ayurveda and make this a debate of ‘Modern medical sciences vs Ayurveda’, only for their personal interests when it is not at all necessary.

Indians have been dependent on Ayurveda since centuries and that too quite unconsciously. The practices of Ayurveda have been passed on from generations in a subtle manner, which is why for Indian culture ‘Ayurveda is a Sanskar’ and not merely a method to tackle the spread of diseases. Therefore, before we question the authenticity of a science which we have been practicing since ages, let us understand what actually is the story of the Indian Medical Association? Certainly, even this will sufficiently explain why the institution would have made such provocative statements regarding Ayurveda.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) is a voluntary organization founded in 1928 as the most active city of British India in Calcutta. There are various aspects regarding the foundation of the organization. But to understand the nature of IMA’s work, we need to understand the ideology which leads to the establishment of the Association. When IMA tries to explain their legacy to the people, they start with the fact that the foundation of the institution was laid by great Indian revolutionaries and convince everyone how the institution has always been working only for the betterment of the society.

The cause that is explained to the people about the foundation of IMA is that it was established in order to strengthen the condition of medical treatment around the country. British India experienced poor medical services around the country. According to the liberals, the backwardness of Indian sciences was the reason behind this. But was it really so or the root cause of this was introduction of western methods in Indian society which would pave way for the economy instigated out of the medical and pharmaceutical industry, back to Britain, instead of being circulated in the Indian land itself.

In order to make this happen considering the revolutionary and Anti-British milieu, it was necessary for the British to form an institution whereby they’d mainly include Indian intellectuals and improvise that the British role in the matter would only have to be as a coordinator of the Indian effort to establish the fundamentals of modern India. The British have a longtime account of executing such plans in India. The establishment of the Indian National Congress too was an outcome of the same British approach.

Now before labeling this activity as anti-India in nature, let us understand that may it be the foundation of IMA or INC, at the time of their establishment it wouldn’t have been a total waste. Both of them have contributed to Indian society in a positive manner as well. In fact, the intellectuals who are associated with IMA were smart enough to understand the British motives but they seemed to have tackled the situation in a fair and diplomatic manner.

Introduction of modern sciences in India cannot be totally labeled as an act of pure selfish intentions of the western world. The process involved considerable contribution of Indians as well and it was only initiated after certain positive results calculated regarding it. The main purpose of any medicine is to cure the patient. Therefore, there were two ideologies which were instrumental in the foundation of IMA; one was driven by the selfless motive of providing more medical facilities to Indians for dealing with health-related issues and the other one was to establish Western monopoly in medical and health services in India. The Indian Medical Association was thus established with not a single but multiple goals to be achieved. And unfortunately, the dominance of pro-western ideology in the institution resulted in the survival of only one single approach through time, which was only in favor of the western world, inconsiderate of the interests of the common man.

Today the way IMA functions, is absolutely contradictory to the narrative they present to the people. The objective of the institution aims at benefiting doctors, similar to what their tagline reads; “Protect the single and couple doctor setups”. The interest of common people has no place even among their objectives today. In such conditions, if the institution is opposing the use of Ayurveda which the government is recommending then not much is needed for even the laymen to understand the intentions of IMA regarding their recent move.