Re-imagining India’s National Health System (NHS)

Abstract

The article makes a case for recalibration of roles of bio-medical and Ayurveda health services in NHS based on inherent strengths of the indigenous health knowledge system, real-world clinical evidence, and critical review of the quality of evidence in bio-medicine. The article has been inspired by first-hand social interactions with many ordinary and a few extra-ordinary villagers, in several parts of rural India and with dozens of both the folk healers and physician-scholars who are living carriers of India’s health heritage. The article has also been influenced by PPST and Dharampalji. The article narrates the history of Ayurveda from the 5th century BCE to date. The insights from this history will be: firstly, the spread of Ayurveda to the West and East of the Indian subcontinent; secondly, the fact of its cultural integration, continuity and assimilation in the East till this date; and thirdly and most importantly, the epistemic and ontological roots of Ayurveda that have kept it contemporary to this day. The entry of western medicine in India and its sociological 334 impact is outlined in the article. The article critically analyses the contemporary performance of, both Ayurveda and biomedicine in India, and proposes a roadmap for reimagining and recalibrating the country’s health system.