Modernizing Ayurveda: Interactive Indigeneity and Medical Revivalism in Colonial India

The distinctive colonial context of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in India led to the creation of various ‘modernized traditions’ around this time. This unique combination of oxymoronic traits was peculiar to colonial set-up manifesting ‘the rule of colonial difference’. In the sphere of medical modernity, this peculiar phenomenon was substantially manifested through the emergence of ‘modern’ Ayurveda. In their revivalist quest the Ayurvedic practitioners and proponents of the time dramatically reshaped and redefined Ayurveda which was remarkably different from its pre-colonial version. It was very well reflected in Ayurvedic incorporation of the traits on the basis of which western medicine was claiming its superiority (such as scientificity, standardization, professionalization, institutionalization, etc.). Yet at the same time it attempted to contest the epistemological absolutism of western medicine as well in a very subtle way. The present essay tends to explore the aforesaid seemingly contradictory threads that went into the making of ‘modern’ Ayurveda as one of the ‘modernized traditions’ of India. In this regard, the present essay argues that even while the Ayurvedic revivalism was a product of (colonial) modernity, it does not necessarily symbolize the victory of modernism as the refurbished Ayurveda had been trying to derive its sanctity both from being ‘traditional’ as well as ‘modern’ at the same time.