Medicine gets political in India as Ayurveda booms under Modi
Doctors have raised concerns about the legitimization of untested products, creating a deep rift in the medical community.
Massage chairs and natural hair growth supplements. Ointment for scorpion bites that smells like garlic. A product called Kan Killer that promises to eliminate cancer without chemotherapy — all for about $65 a bottle.
For several days in December, hundreds of medical practitioners — and a few canny opportunists — gathered in southern India to sell their wares at a global convention dedicated to Ayurveda. Though the alternative medicine system has endured on the subcontinent for centuries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is promoting a resurgence, spending hundreds of millions on research, touting Ayurvedic practices to a foreign audience and supporting conventions like this one in the state of Kerala.
There's a fortune at stake. Within the next five years, the market for Indian Ayurvedic products is projected to top $20 billion, tripling its 2022 size. Celebrity yogis like Baba Ramdev and Sadhguru are driving up demand. Globally, the wellness industry is now worth more than $5 trillion. Consumers in Western markets are eager to snatch up products branded as Ayurvedic — a broad category that can include everything from herbal medicines to yoga and meditation.
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Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurved is closely held. But one portion of his empire, Patanjali Foods Ltd., has more than tripled in price since Patanjali took over an edible oil company to form the unit in 2019 — outpacing the broad Nifty 50 Index, which doubled in the same period.
"It took so long for global consensus and acceptance regarding Ayurveda because evidence is considered as the basis in modern science," Modi said in a speech, calling the wider adoption of traditional medicine a key part of his plan to grow India's economy.
Yet the backdrop in India is acutely political, carving a deep rift in the medical community. Ayurveda — which traces its roots to Hindu texts and translates to "science of life" — has found favor with Modi as another expression of his government's Hindu-focused nationalism and his ambitions to take a more visible place on the global stage.
Doctors warn that reviving ancient forms of medicine under the banner of nationalism is a slippery slope. Though products promising quick cures to serious diseases lie on the fringes of Ayurveda, many health professionals argue that the system's benefits are still imprecisely understood. Global institutions offer courses on Ayurvedic principles, but there's no formal licensing regime in many countries to practice them. The US Food and Drug Administration doesn't regulate the practice of Ayurvedic medicine, noting that some products don't disclose the presence of lead or arsenic and items that profess to be curative can be illegally marketed.
Increasingly, Indian officials and Ayurvedic companies have forcefully countered critics, applying pressure in some cases through lawsuits. Ramdev, who is perceived to be an ally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, has called Western medicine a "stupid and bankrupt science." Patanjali's chairman accused Ayurveda skeptics of being "part of the conspiracy to convert the entire country into Christianity."
Dr Sabba Mehmood, the co-founder of FirstCheck, an India-based site that debunks medical misinformation, said these messages are seeping into the public consciousness and creating a dangerous public safety risk. Last year, several people died in western India after consuming an over-the-counter Ayurvedic cough syrup contaminated with methyl alcohol, according to local news reports.
On Tuesday, India's Supreme Court temporarily banned Patanjali from marketing its medical products, calling the company's advertisements "misleading."
"Doctors know there is a problem," said Dr. Mehmood, who's practiced medicine in India for around two decades. In more extreme cases, cancer patients have relied entirely on Ayurvedic remedies for treatment, she said. "They come after a year or so on herbal treatments and maybe their lifespan has decreased by that time."
Patanjali didn't reply to requests for comment.
Ayurveda's history stretches back thousands of years, making it one of the oldest forms of healthcare. Adherents focus on balanced lifestyles, energy alignment, disease prevention and herbal cures — in other words, a panoramic approach to physical and mental wellbeing.
Ayurveda has similarities to traditional Chinese medicine, which often sees diseases as manifestations of a patient's disrupted internal balance. TCM also takes a holistic approach, though critics have long argued that many cures and medicines lack rigorous and robust clinical evidence to prove their safety and efficacy.
Today, the term Ayurveda encompasses a tangled and often contradictory array of healing practices: home remedies and highly commercialized packaged goods; holistic lifestyle changes and quick-fix supplements; plant-based ingredients and heavy metals; hospitals staffed by trained professionals and spas that cater to foreign tourists seeking stress relief.
Ayurveda has international appeal — the same kind that brought ashtanga yoga from Mysore to Manhattan's Equinox gyms. Videos about a medicinal herb called ashwagandha — similar to ginseng — are proliferating on TikTok, where users insist it helps them reduce anxiety and sleep better. A celebrity touch is pulling once-fringe treatments into the mainstream. Kourtney Kardashian said she gave up caffeine and sex on a Panchakarma cleanse, and the actress Gwyneth Paltrow's wellness company Goop touts an Ayurvedic spa in Santa Monica.
Modi's government has capitalized on the surge in interest, doing more to promote Ayurveda than perhaps any previous administration. Soon after taking office, the prime minister created Ayush, a ministry dedicated to reviving "the profound knowledge of our ancient systems of medicine." Last year, the government increased spending on the Ayush ministry by 20% and created a special medical tourist visa for Ayurvedic clinics.
India also committed $250 million to a global institute for traditional medicine with the World Health Organization.
"The progression is there," said Dr. Karanam Nalini, an Ayurvedic doctor with over two decades of experience. "It will dominate allopathy in certain fields," she added, using a term that refers to methods of diagnosis and treatment typically associated with Western medicine.
India's health and Ayush ministries didn't respond to requests for comment.
But Ayurveda's rising stock has raised concerns about the dark side of the business — including the legitimization of untested products and the close relationship between some traditional medicine practitioners and government officials.
One high-profile example is Ramdev, a yoga guru and bombastic television personality. Over the years, Ramdev cultivated a reputation as one of India's most colorful Ayurvedic proponents, lacing his appeals with religious rhetoric, praising the prime minister in speeches and captivating the imagination of a Western audience in search of its version of the exotic.
Baba Ramdev, center, with former Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, left, and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, right, at Patanjali's release of "Coronil" in Feb. 2021.Photographer: Sonu Mehta/Hindustan Times/Getty Images
His Patanjali received more than an estimated $46 million in discounts for land acquisitions in states controlled by Modi's BJP, a Reuters investigation found in 2017. The company now makes money selling items as diverse as cardamom crisps and fertility-enhancing capsules made from resin found in Himalayan rocks. Ramdev regularly touts products to his more than 10 million subscribers on YouTube.
Doctors and citizens have contested many of Patanjali's claims. In November, the Supreme Court ordered Patanjali to stop making false statements about the medical efficacy of its products, following a petition by the Indian Medical Association, the nation's largest organization for physicians. In 2020, the government told Patanjali to cease marketing its "Coronil" treatment as a cure for Covid-19.
These legal challenges intertwine with a battle over how medicine should be practiced and taught in India. Doctors have raised alarms about Ayurvedic proponents practicing allopathic medicine without degrees. The problem is pervasive enough now that the Indian Medical Association runs an "anti quackery wing" to track down such doctors. A few years ago, IMA doctors held a hunger strike over a government directive to allow graduates of certain streams of Ayurveda to perform general surgeries.
This year, the Delhi High Court is hearing a case seeking to amend medical curricula in India. Petitioners want to replace a "colonial segregated way" of teaching medicine with an "Indian holistic integrated" approach that combines them. Ramdev's Patanjali Research Institute is a party in the suit.
Jisha Krishnan, an editor at FirstCheck, the site that debunks false health claims, said social media has only added to confusion in India over which treatments are safe and which are untested.
"With any kind of misinformation, it's about who has the loudest voice," she said.
The IMA didn't respond to a request for comment.
Speaking out against Ayurveda can carry professional and political risks.
From his clinic in the southern city of Kochi, Dr Cyriac Abby Philips has styled himself as something of a whistle-blower and firebrand, amassing more than 200,000 followers on X by tweeting constantly about the dangers of traditional medicine.
On a recent day, his phone lit up with details about one of the more controversial items sold at December's Ayurveda convention in Kerala: Kan Killer, a herbal supplement marketed as capable of curing cancer within six months. Philips said treatments like this one advance his view that Ayurveda is junk science. The government promotes the products to appeal to a Hindu base, he said, even if public health hangs in the balance.
"It's an ancient practice that was borne out of culture, faith and religion," Philips said of Ayurveda. "From a central government perspective, it's all about nationalism."
For many doctors, the central issue isn't that Ayurvedic remedies are wholly ineffective. Some studies suggest that Ayurvedic treatments can reduce pain, according to the US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, though clinical trials are limited. C. Devidas Varier, the managing director of herbal remedy company Arya Vaidya Pharmacy, said Western medicine is anchored in an attitude of superiority that doesn't necessarily align with product effectiveness.
"I would humbly request the modern medical community to come and understand Ayurveda before dismissing it," he said.
But Philips echoed warnings from US health agencies and others that the products still aren't regulated like pharmaceutical drugs. He said he's treated patients who've taken supplements that include heavy metals in toxic amounts.
Last year, Philips's account on X was briefly suspended after he criticized a popular liver supplement made by the retailer Himalaya Wellness Corp., which sued him for making defamatory statements. The lawsuit is ongoing. Philips recently wrote that he's going to step back from social media to work on a book and may shift to having his updates "handled by a team."
These concerns took a back seat at the Ayurveda convention, which drew thousands of visitors to a vast cricket stadium in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala's capital.
Images of Modi and his deputies gazed out from conference ads. Hundreds of vendors jammed the corridors. Plant-based shawarma, Ayurvedic massage tables, steam bath chambers and a vast range of supplements promised to lengthen hair, clear lungs, increase sperm count and lower blood pressure.
Festival promotional materials trumpeted a "resurgent Ayurveda" theme. Speakers arrived from the US, the Netherlands, Latvia and Mauritius, with dozens more from all around India, including Jagdeep Dhankhar, the country's vice president. The Ayush ministry commanded some of the most generous floor space, complete with a stage for yoga and cheerful potted plants adorning its perimeter.
At the festival, it seemed practically everything could fall under the Ayurveda umbrella: a 14-day retreat, a sea coconut displayed in a decorative box and even a caricature artist — who presumably has little to do with Ayurveda's foundational Sanskrit texts. Visitors refueled on aloe vera juices and warm millet.
For anyone seeking slightly more indulgent fare, vendors also sold strawberry ice cream and fried snacks. They were there, too, a reminder that sometimes you can twist the meaning of alternative medicine into anything you want.
Disclaimer: This article first appeared on Bloomberg, and is published by special syndication arrangement.
