Psychology, Management and Politics Behind AYUSH – the Scientifically Proven Faith Based Medical Science

The extinction of Dodo in Mauritius and gigantic Dinoceros once ruled the planet conveys nothing but the importance change, adaptation, and evolution. It means, every life form and even all inanimate objects in the world must change with changing time and only then they could remain relevant. The success and failure of several automobile industries, mobile phones companies etc., also tells only the same scientific truth.

The above scientific fact can be seen in every sphere of life. In education, the curriculum contents are often upgraded and changed to the context. In drug development, newer and newer drugs are developed and the cumulative and long-term effects of pre-existing drugs are studied in detail to understand whether they need any change or modification or have to be removed from use.

Why AYUSH alone defy the above global truth and could still win the heart and mind of some people in our society and how it could continuously achieve the patronage and sponsorship of the Government since independence?

To unravel the mystery, instead of turning the pages of history, we must analyze the origin and evolution of AYUSH and how it encompasses the highest management principles to catapult human psychology and attract political class.

The question is why most AYUSH pundits and proponents always download 2000 to 5000 years old data of AYUSH whenever we pose some question? Instead of giving any meaningful, logical and scientific explanations, they love to say AYUSH is time-tested, ancient, tradition linked etc.

Perhaps only in recent days the psychology and management have become two separate branches but during the prehistoric period, no such separation would have existed. Therefore the early proponents and pundits of AYUSH chose psychology and management route for promoting AYUSH than the path of science as AYUSH neither has any science nor can it understand science.

When the world undergoes rapid change, modernization, and modification, AYUSH pundits would have understood the painful truth that AYUSH cannot be modified or modernized. However, AYUSH also cannot refuse to admit the global truth as well. So the pundits and proponents of AYUSH would have adopted two-game strategies viz.,

1. Play with human mind & emotion and invoke God etc.,
2. Apply the management law i.e., ‘remain changeless’ to prove it is different / unique

Imagine when everything undergoes rapid change, upgrade, and update, AYUSH chose to chant the same old mantra of ancient tradition, his holiness, time tested legacy etc., to highlight its merit.

The trans-different generation ( the generation that lived during colonial to post-independence period) would have naturally found the rapid change uglier than no change. Perhaps this trans-different generation would have started to preach the glory of AYUSH to resist and oppose change.

Both change and no change (changeless state) would certainly cause some change. But the changes due to ‘intentional change’ will look more obvious than the changes created by that chose to remain changeless. Unfortunately, some of the changes due to changing time had also brought some ill effects as well. This was mainly because of in concordance with the changes, for example, sudden changes in food habits and anatomy or biology of people. In due course system will either get balanced or the cause will get isolated and rejected. Without understanding such science properly, many early pundits and guardians of ‘morality’ and ‘religious values’ have used such odd examples to promote own agenda i.e., AYUSH as time-tested, divine, holistic etc. They brought God and karma of previous birth to substantiate and or justify their failures or answerless state. This is all about the psychological game plan and strategy of AYUSH to over power and resists change.

The AYUSH pundits and proponents also employed very sophisticated management approach i.e. be different and look unique by not changing. In management, one can carve success by rapidly changing in tune with time and be relevant or remain changeless and create own niche however small or big it may be and be different and unique. AYUSH would have adopted the above management strategy and played the trick of ticking the mind and emotion of man.

This is all about its early development. But how AYUSH could exist even today although we may call it as the sixth finger that does no purpose and meaning?

In every population at all times, the small population would always refuse and oppose to any change and would prefer to remain changeless. Always such population would look for a group/team to join due to psychological insecurity. The natural choice of such population will be AYUSH because it preaches time-tested ness, ancient tradition, holistic-ness, God, divinity etc. Thanks to such definite population, the faith could migrate to science and could remain as ‘scientifically proven faith-based system of medicine’.

The basic instinct of all life form is procreation, before death. This is at the biological level. Even at a psychological level also the above law or instinct had worked well. Every believer of some system or ideology or school always group together and try to look for soft targets to convert to own group. The industry also played its card well by over playing the time-tested ness of AYUSH to maximize the profit. This fixed population in the society with unshakable faith in AYUSH, however, small or big it may be political, the political parties tries to ‘use’ such faithful followers of AYUSH for own political gains.

Everyone did everything they could to promote AYUSH for own advantage, profit, benefit, and satisfaction than for people or society. But the faithful believers remain unaware of anything and remain loyal, faithful and obedient to AYUSH principles and recipes.

The irony is that even the faithful followers of AYUSH appear to give more importance to their belief system than to their real health problems otherwise they would have questioned and analyzed the merit of AYUSH. That is why AYUSH is faith based and not science based health care practice.

The question is can we afford to give legal, regulatory and scientific sanctity to such faith-based AYUSH as a system of medicine?

Look at the value of all those metals and radioactive elements that are highly stable or resist rapid change. Gold is very costly not just because it is ductile and malleable but it does not undergo any chemical change so easily and hence retains same sheen and shine. It means all those substances that could remain unchanged during the course changing time become valuable and costly. Such substances have not only earned great management importance but also affected human psychology irrespective of any great use they serve or not.

Today more than any wonderful woodworks of recent times, antics hold great value and economic importance.

Perhaps AYUSH has used all such mind game strategies for its success.

The big question that poses our nation is can we promote AYUSH as medical science for treating human diseases? Should we not promote the science-based medical system to address our health care needs than faith-based hogwash however antic value it may hold? Should we not juxtapose the health care needs of innocent people than own vote bank politics and recognition of faith-based occultism?

All those trans-different generations must ask such question. Merit should triumph and merit-less should disappear. We should allow glorious and or ignominious exit and retirement to everything that burdens our nation. The expenditure Government incurs for AYUSH as medical science is quite substantial with reference to peanut benefit humanity receives from it. If AYUSH is promoted as paramedical practice, it may do wonders to humanity. We should not produce AYUSH graduates as a doctor to engage in cross pathy and quackery and cause medication health fraud in rural India.

S Ranganathan