Medicine and the Cultural Politics of National Belongings in Contemporary India

Abstract

The Government of India claims to promote plural medical traditions, currently institutionalized under the acronym AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy). Yet, one medical system—Ayurveda—receives most social and ideological support: Ayurveda is routinely constructed as the only truly Indian, homegrown, and national medicine, while the national belonging of other AYUSH traditions is challenged. This essay explores discourses surrounding the promotion of AYUSH and the privileged position of Ayurveda, situating them within two competing nationalist ideologies: the ideology of inclusive secularism anchored in the principle of India’s cultural diversity and the ideology of Hindu nationalism, which promotes a distinctive image of India as a country with a culturally monolithic foundation. By doing so, I show how a nation can be differently imagined through one medical tradition or through medical plurality. Furthermore, by analyzing media reports, official statements, and the narratives of AYUSH practitioners, I outline factors that contribute to Ayurvedic hegemony. In particular, I argue that the exceptionalism of Ayurveda rests on the fact that, unlike other alternative medical systems in India, it has been promoted as both cultural (“Indian”) and universal medicine—that is, medicine with global appeal.

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