Homeopathy in India – In the service of many

 Homeopathy in India – In the service of many

Not only because it has withstood the critics and survived the sceptics, has Homeopathy spread throughout the world and has become one of the major CAM practices sought and used by an estimate of 300 to 500 Million people world wide [1]. The prime reason, without doubt, is its efficacy experienced daily by patients. Nonetheless, there is yet another important factor that speaks for this holistic treatment approach.

Homeopathy has a huge economic advantage over conventional medicine. It is cheap in production, and therefore cheap in its sale! Due to its minuteness in substance needed to produce a homeopathic remedy, hence low production costs, and its minimal dosage necessary to treat a patient, that is, its tiny prescription volume for each patient, homeopathy can be made available to patients that have very little money at their disposal to provide for their healthcare needs. As such homeopathy can be, and is, available to masses of people!

The lack of need of machinery and equipment in diagnosis and practice, and the small amount of medicines required, permits the distribution of homeopathy to far places, and to persons that cannot readily access other medical assistance, due to travel costs, health care expenses or a generally low monetary budget. For those individuals at a distance from conventional centres of healthcare, hospitals, clinics, specialist doctors etc., homeopathy initially offered a cheap, and efficacious means of managing their health. This probably explains why the use of homeopathy could spread so vastly, and until today has maintained and expanded its application as an efficacious healthcare system in India.

Homeopathy came to India via a French doctor and former student of Hahnemann named Honigberger [2]. His successful treatment of patients, and the fact that homeopathic philosophy reflects parallels to Hindu beliefs and culture, made Homeopathic medicine flourish in the country [2].

Mahatma Gandhi (1869 – 1948), the distinguished leader of the liberation movement in India, during the British reign, became one of India’s most ardent believers of the homeopathic treatment approach. He has been quoted as saying that:

“Homeopathy is the latest and refined method of treating patients economically and nonviolently. Governments must encourage and patronize it in our country. Late Dr. Hahnemann was a man of superior intellectual power and means of saving human life, having a unique medical nerve. I bow before his skill and the Herculean and humanitarian labour he did. His memory wakes us again and you are to follow him, but the opponents hate the existence of the principles and practice of homeopathy, which in reality cures a larger percentage of cases than any other method of treatment, and it is beyond all doubt safer and more economical and the most complete medical science…” (as quoted in [3]).

In India there are today some 162 colleges teaching homeopathy at degree level, about 200 000 practitioners treat their patients homeopathically, and approximately 100 million people use or have used homeopathy [4]. This makes India, by far, the country in the world with the most extensive use of homeopathy.

Homeopathy has advanced to become the second most used system of medicine in the world, according to a WHO report of 2005 [5]. It has withstood the oppositional campaigns and torments of its sceptics, and has achieved and maintained the standard of a successful and efficacious treatment, that is holistic in its approach, devoid of side-effects, and available and applicable for all and many.

References:

[1] Canadian Consumers Centre for Homeopathy (2011) Homeopathy Worldwide [online] available at http://www.homeocentre.ca/homeopathy-worldwide/

[2] Dilli Homoeopathic Anusandhan Parishad (2000) ORIGIN & GROWTH OF HOMEOPATHY IN INDIA, [online] available at http://www.homeoint.org/site/delhihomeo/historyindia.htm

[3] Ullman, D. (2007) The Homeopathic Revolution: Why famous people and cultural heroes choose homeopathy. North Atlantic Books, U.S.A.:Berkeley as quoted on http://aurumproject.org.au/343/

[4] ISIS Report (2014) Homeopathy for the Masses, Institute of Science in Society Report 3/12/2014 [online] available at http: http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Homeopathy_for_the_Masses.php

[5] Malik, N. (2011) Worldwide Status and Growth of Homeopathy [online] available at https://drnancymalik.wordpress.com/article/status-of-homeopathy/

About the author:

Uta Mittelstadt, BSc & MSc in homeopathic medicine: I am a homeopath, an artist, a writer and a vegegan, a traveller, and adventurer. I’m a crab born in June. I am passionate about homeopathy. I have a BSc and MSc in homeopathic medicine. I love to investigate and write about my findings, and I blog at Clever Homeopathy