Making medicine indigenous: Homeopathy in South India

Abstract

Historical studies of homeopathy in Europe and the USA have focused on practitioners' attempts to emphasize 'modern' and 'scientific' approaches. Studies of homeopathy in India have focused on a process of Indianization. Arguing against such unilineal trajectories, this paper situates homeopathy in South India within the context of shifting relations between 'scientific' and 'indigenous' systems of medicine. Three time periods are considered. From 1924 through 1934, homeopathy was singled out by Government of Madras officials as 'scientific', as contrasted with the 'indigenous' Ayurvedic, Siddha, and Unani systems of medicine. From 1947 through 1960, both 'indigenous' and 'scientific' interpretations of homeopathy were put forward by different factions. An honorary director of homeopathy proposed the Indianization of homeopathy, and its reconciliation with Ayurveda; this view conflicted with the Madras government's policy of expanding the 'scientific' medical curriculum of the Government College of Indigenous Medicine. It was not until the early 1970s that homeopathy was officially recognized in Tamilnadu State. By then, both homeopathy and Ayurveda had become conceptualized as non-Tamil, in contrast with promotion of the Tamil Siddha system of 'indigenous' medicine. Thus, constructs of 'indigenous' and 'scientific' systems of medicine are quite malleable with respect to homeopathy in South India. © 2002 The Society for the Social History of Medicine.