“Why do they -- how can they -- apply allopathic standards to Ayurveda in terms of research? For thousands of years, Ayurveda has served the humanity so well, so efficiently, and with so much of precision in diagnosis and treatment. The detailed understanding of various body processes, the fine comprehension of how each medicine acts on a particular type of body, the pin-pointed emphasis on three pillars of health -- diet, sleep and good conduct -- all these are far beyond the understanding of allopathic system. Yet, most unfortunately, these so called modern people expect Ayurveda to adhere to modern standards of medicine and declare that old scientific observations so painstakingly noted in ayurveda are all wrong ! It is time we freed Ayurveda from the clutches of colonial influence !” - From the speech of an Ayurveda expert from Kerala.

 

IN SIMPLER terms, this expert is talking about decolonising Ayurveda. In other words, he insists upon freeing the ancient Indian science of wellness to be understood in its own terms and not in a language borrowed from a non-Indian mindset. A similar appeal has often sprang up from India’s intellectual mind-space time and again about understanding of history as well. The Sanskrit -- or Indian -- word for history is itihasa -- which is formed with junction of three expressions -- iti ha asa (so was it). And the expected impact of study of itihasa on human mind is that right lessons from the past are needed to be learned in the present so that the humanity of the future benefits from it. The alien rulers understood the power of the learning of itihasa by Indian standards, and decided to debunk that science -- most craftily, falsely.

 

Out of that ugly political strategy came the narrative that India was a backward place full of unlettered people who had no exposure to science or literature or anything fine or sublime. So, they crafted and scripted an entirely wrong story of India and presented it to the unsuspecting Indians for at least 4-5 generations -- by which time the larger Indian society started forgetting the real and great story of their own tremendous past and started believing that they were the people discarded by the divine. Thus, they were kept away from learning the glorious reality of ancient India and its history -- itihasa ! Similar is the story of how the alien rulers presented a gloomy picture of sciences in ancient India. They made careful and successful efforts to conceal from Indian people’s knowledge the truth of India’s mastery of mathematics or physics or cosmology or oceanography or astrology or astronomy or philosophy or literature. So, Shakespeare was the greatest -- and Kalidasa (or anybody else of his league) was just a poet. That narrative stuck and the Indians started falling prey to the dirty and cruel process of colonisation.

 

Thanks to the conscious and intelligent efforts of a few awakened minds among Indian people, the last few years have seen a spirited movement to combat colonisation coming up with increased force. This leaders of movement insist that the process of decolonisation of the Indian mind has to be fully comprehensive and away from any non-Indian influence. This is, of course, easier said than achieved. For, the expanse and the depth of the colonial influence is far beyond the imagination of the common Indian comprehension. This task, therefore, is taking a hell of Indian energy and engagement. In the past few decades, many Indian stalwarts have established the correctness of the original, decolonised standards as against those of the western model. Many visionary persons have established the correctness and even superiority of Ayurveda (for example) over the allopathic system judged even by western standards.

 

Factually, there is no need to subject Ayurveda to western scrutiny. Yet, that also has been done with only one goal in mind -- to silence the politically-driven colonial critics. Such efforts may have proved their worth, all right. But the process of decolonising of the Indian mind actually should not entertain any such demand on the glorious reality of India and its history and its sciences and its arts and its spirituality. The demand to test and prove correctness of things and thoughts Indian should not be allowed to dominate our current thought-process. The need of the process of decolonising of the Indian mind is the demonstration of innate confidence of the Indian people in correctness of their own and ancient story. This is not obstinacy -- one must insist.

 

This is, at best, an expression of complete and unshakable confidence and faith of the Indian people in their own story. Of course, there is no need to turn the back to such a demand. Instead, the Indian people should stop worrying about what the world says and start expressing a complete faith in what they have got in legacy. In other words, the process of decolonising of the Indian society has to take place first in the mind of individual Indian persons. That should be the core issue that we must address while talking about decolonising of the Indian mind. This is another sort of freedom earning which will give Indian people a true sense of what they actually are.