MUMBAI – Imagine if there was a magic pill to prevent coronavirus infections. Or what if instead of controlling your diabetes with insulin drugs, you could cure it with vegetable juices and herbal pills. Or what if you could cure your asthma with just yoga and breathing exercises.
These are all claims made by Patanjali Ayurveda, one of India’s largest manufacturers of traditional Ayurvedic products, and reflect the beliefs of the 3,000-year-old tradition of Hindu healing practices. The word “Ayurveda” comes from the Sanskrit words “Ayur” (life) and “Veda” (science or knowledge). Its practitioners use herbs, animal extracts, and minerals that are processed according to centuries-old texts.
Many scientists have expressed concern about the lack of research on the safety and effectiveness of Ayurvedic products. For example, the United States classifies these products as dietary supplements and not as medicines that can treat or prevent disease.
Nevertheless, Ayurveda is widely accepted among Indians. And under India’s Hindu nationalist government, which came to power in 2014, Ayurveda and other alternative medical systems have received unprecedented government support. India’s Ministry of Alternative Medicine earns about $500 million a year. The government also promotes Ayurveda through international trade and diplomatic channels. All this caused Patanjali’s fortune to skyrocket.
Supreme Court considers
But now India’s Supreme Court has temporarily banned Patanjali, named after the Hindu mystic best known for his writings on yoga, from advertising some of its products. This is an interim order and Patanjali can challenge it, but so far he has not done so.
In fact, neither Patanjali nor the government has commented on the incident..
According to an article on livelaw.com, a news website covering Indian courts, Asanuddin Amanullah, one of the two judges who heard the case, said “the whole country has been fooled”, a lawyer representing the government. He is said to have told “Please close your eyes!”
The Indian Medical Association filed a lawsuit in August 2022, alleging that Patanjali and its brand ambassador Baba Ramdev have made a series of false claims against modern medicine and its practitioners, supported by evidence, and that It was alleged that he spread false information about vaccines. Their petition also cited an example of Ramdev deriding modern medicine as “stupid and bankrupt science” during a yoga session.
The impetus was a series of advertisements from Patanjali that appeared in Indian newspapers in July 2022, claiming that Ayurvedic products can treat chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and autoimmune diseases. The Indian Medical Association’s petition alleged that such claims are in violation of India’s Pharmaceutical and Magical Remedies (Offensive Advertisement) Act.
politics of medicine
There is also a political dimension to this story. The company’s public face, yoga guru Baba Ramdev, is a vocal supporter of India’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Prime Minister Modi also inaugurated the Patanjali Ayurvedic research facility in 2017.
The Supreme Court’s order, although temporary, is a blow to advocates of Ayurvedic medicine, including the prime minister and his Hindu nationalist party. Some scientists have accused the government of promoting these alternative medicines at the expense of modern medicine as one way to glorify India’s culture and history.
“One of the political tenets of this government is to glorify Hindu tradition,” said Dhrubajyoti Mukherjee, president of the Breakthrough Science Society, an organization that promotes scientific thinking. “But in the name of our glorious past, the government is promoting vague and unscientific ideas.”
Consider the relationship between the Modi government itself and Patanjali.
A 2017 investigation by Reuters found that the company received an estimated more than $46 million in discounts on land acquisitions in states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Millions in sales, billions in revenue
Months after the outbreak of the 2020 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, then Indian Health Minister Harsh Vardhan attended the company’s pill launch and yoga guru Ramdev claimed that its tablets showed “100 percent favorable results” during the period. Clinical trials involving patients.
In six months, the company sold 2.5 million kits consisting of a pill to protect against the coronavirus and a bottle of oil said to boost immunity, despite experts pointing to a lack of evidence. announced.
And the company is making huge profits. Revenue for the 2021-22 fiscal year was more than $1.3 billion, with pre-tax profit of $74 million.
A previous court order in November 2023 prohibited the company from publishing advertisements containing misleading claims. The next day, Ramdev held a press conference on treatments for high blood pressure and referred to “lies propagated by allopathy,” which refers to science-based medicine, according to a lawyer for the Indian Medical Association.
Critics have long argued that the company’s failure to comply with court orders is likely due to its close ties to India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The company has received multiple notices and warnings from regulators and advertising watchdogs in the past.
A spokesperson for Patanjali did not respond to an interview request from NPR.
Dr. Jaish Lele, Vice-President of the Indian Medical Association, said of the overall impact of misinformation about Ayurvedic treatments, “What worries us is that people are being misguided.” Some people have left our treatment saying their kidneys will be fine.” They will function properly. [using ayurvedic medicines] And then I developed kidney failure. A similar thing happened to patients suffering from hepatitis who ended up having more problems because they took the wrong medication. And even if we say every day that modern medicine is bad, that is unacceptable. ”
Government funding boosts traditional healing
The action against Patanjali comes at a time of cultural change in the government’s approach to health care. India has a severe shortage of qualified health workers and a lack of infrastructure. However, less than 3% of GDP (gross domestic product) is spent on health care.
After becoming prime minister in 2014, Mr. Modi ordered the creation of a separate ministry for traditional medicine. The department’s budget allocation has tripled from about $160 million to about $500 million, even though there are still questions about the effectiveness of such a system. In 2020, the Modi government also allowed Ayurvedic practitioners to perform some surgeries in public hospitals. Immediately afterward, the Indian Medical Association called for a nationwide strike, calling it a “regressive act of mixing up the system.”
Kishore Patwardhan, an Ayurveda professor at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, opposes such state aid. “Ayurveda can only be promoted using good evidence,” he says.
The Modi government has also been accused of diluting science education, cutting research and teaching myths as history. One of the ruling party politicians, former higher education minister Satyapal Singh, rejected Darwin’s theory of evolution. A Hindu nationalist scholar claimed that test tube babies originated in ancient India. In 2015, the Prime Minister cited Hindu scriptures as evidence that plastic surgery existed in ancient India.
“These ideas come from important politicians, sometimes even the prime minister,” says Mukherjee of the Breakthrough Science Society. “People trust their leaders. When something comes from them, it damages society.”
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