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.