HOMOEOPATHY IN INDIA

       HOMOEOPATHY IN INDIA

India is one of the biggest countries in whole world to have qualified practitioners and followers of Homoeopathy. In India it has become a household name due the safety of its pills and gentleness of its cure.  A rough study states that about 10% of the Indian population solely depend Homoeopathy for their Health care needs and is considered as the Second most popular system of medicine in the Country.There are numerous Homoeopathic associations, practitioners and followers who work in collaboration with each other for the benefit of Homoeopathy. Although Homoeopathy is not indigenous to India, it is the second most acceptable medical system after Allopathy in a majority of Indian states. Homoeopathy in India has been fully integrated in the public health and its practice is legal. India is a dreamland for those who wish to learn and undertake research in homoeopathy.

HISTORY

Homoeopathy came to India as early as 1810 when a Romanian traveler Dr. Honigberger who studied Homoeopathy under Dr. Samuel Hahnemann visited this country and began treating people with Homoeopathic medicine. Babu Rajendra Dutt is considered to be the father of Indian Homoeopathy and there are letters he wrote to his Homeopathic doctor friend asking for some clarifications to be made by Hahnemann himself, indicating that this was happening in the life of the Master. However the first recorded treatment of which historical details are available was of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1839 in Lahore by Johann Martin Honiberger of Romania of which he has chronicled in his book " Thirty five years in The East ".

Dr. John Martin Honigberger visited India. He was called in by the Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Lahore who was suffering from paralysis of the vocal cords with swelling of the feet. He treated the Maharaja dispensing “Dulcamara” in wine, in low potency. This medicine cured him. The Maharaja was also impressed when he treated his favourate horse of his ulcer of the leg. Dr. Honigberger became the chief physician of his court. Later on after the Maharaja’s death Dr. Honigberger shifted to Calcutta. In Calcutta, he was known as the “Cholera Doctor”.  He practised in Calcutta up to 1860.

In 1836 in Tanjoor, Dr. Samuel Brookling, a retired surgical officer, dispensed homoeopathic medicines to his civilians and army officers stationed at Madras.

In 1836-1867 Dr. Mahendra Lal Sircar, learned about Homoeopathy from a layman, Babu Rajen Dutta. The first qualified doctor to practice Homeopathy was Dr. Mahindra Lal Sarkar who was one of the first three Indian doctors to qualify for the post graduate degree of M.D. in medicine in the nineteenth century. Dr. Sircar wrote an article condemning allopathy titled “On the Supposed Uncertainity in Medical Science and the Relationship between Diseases and Medicine”. He was the first man to start a journal on homoeopathy – “India Medical Review” and to attend the first Homoeopathic National Congress conference under the chairmanship of Dr. C. Hering.Before the end of the last century, two Indian doctors studied in the erstwhile Homeopathic Institutions in the USA and one of them, Dr. B.K. Bose, was a direct disciple of the renowned Dr. James Tyler Kent.

In 1867 Dr. Salzar of Vienna was the founder of Homoeopathic education in India. He influenced two persons towards homoeopathy namely Dr. P. C. Majumdar and Dr. B. L. Bhaduri. Dr. Majumdar along with Dr. Roy, Dr. B. N. Banerjee and Dr. Younan established the first Homoeopathic college in India in the year 1878 under the name of “Calcutta Homoeopathic Medical College”.

In 1880 Father Augustus Mueller, a priest and teacher of a school founded by the Society of Jesus in Kankanady in Manglore, started dispensing free homoeopathic drugs.

In 1902 there was an epidemic of pneumonic plague and Father Augustus Muller treated most of the people successfully. He established a plague and leprosy clinic. Seeing this, the British presented him with the “Kaiser-e-Hind” award. He also wrote a book entitled “Twelve Tissue Remedies”.

Homoeopathy is even more popular in India as it received the support of Mahatma Gandhi who was reported to have said that “it cures a greater number of people than any other method of treatment”.

There was a progressively increasing public demand for homeopathic treatment that motivated the government to pass a resolution to form a Homeopathic Enquiry Committee in 1938. The most prominent doctors of both Allopathic constituted these Committee and Homeopathic disciples and luminous names such as Dr. J.N. Majumdar, Col. Amir Chand FRCP, Dr. M. Gururaju, Dr. L.D. Dhawale, Dr. P.N. Chopra and Dr. Diwan Jai Chand are mentioned in the list of members.

The committee finally presented its report in post independence India in 1949 which contributed to the recognition of this system of medicine by the by the Indian government.
The government of India had progressively increased its patronage of Homeopathy and given it a practical shape. Successive Presidents of the Indian Republic have had Homeopaths on their panel of Honorary Physicians. The Central Council of Homeopathy was established in 1973 to oversee the standards for homeopathic education and practice. The Government of India in 1978 set up the Central Council of Research in Homeopathy and its activities include clinical confirmation of proving, drug research, drug proving and literary research through its 51 centers in different parts of the country. A Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia was established in 1962 and the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia Laboratory established in 1975 is recognized under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. There are 132 Colleges in the country imparting Homeopathic education and there are 183,210 registered practitioners in Homeopathy attending to over 1 million illness episodes through 287 hospitals and private clinics. There are about 700 licensed Homeopathic Pharmacies in the country. In 1995, a separate Directorate for Homeopathy was established within the Ministry for Health and Family Welfare.

Three Congresses of the International Homeopathic Medical League have been held in India in the years 1967, 1977 and 1995. Dr. Diwan Harish Chand of New Delhi is the only Asian to have been honoured with the responsibility of the Presidency of the International League, a post which he held from 1979 to 1982 and he has subsequently been elected as the President of Honor of this organization.

HOMOEOPATHIC EDUCATION

The Homoeopathy Central Council Act that was passed by the Parliament of India in 1973 granted formal recognition of homoeopathic education and allowed the legalised registration of homoeopathic physicians at the Central as well as the State levels. In accordance with the provisions of this Act, the Government constituted the Central Council of Homoeopathy (www.cchindia.com) in the year 1974 to maintain the Central Register of Homoeopaths and to regulate Homoeopathic education in India.

With the approval of the Government of India, the Central Council formulated the Homoeopathy (Degree Course) Regulations, 1983 of 5 ½ years duration including one year compulsory internship; Homoeopathy (Post Graduate Degree Course) Regulations, 1989 and Homoeopathy (Minimum Standards of Education) Regulation, 1983 for setting up norms and standards of homoeopathic education. At present there are 186 homoeopathic colleges (including 36 also providing Post-Graduation) with an intake capacity of about 13,425 students every year. These institutions are affiliated to different Universities and provide uniform homoeopathic education according to these regulations.

Prior to the Central legislation and concurrently, some of the Indian states made their own contribution to homoeopathy by the enactment of State legislations for the registration of homoeopathic doctors and regulation of education. At present there are about 30 State legislations and State Boards/Councils for the control of clinical practice and to address any issue related to homoeopathy.

In the Indian society, the traditional systems- collectively recognized as AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy), are well established and widely accepted due to their historical and cultural significance. The Indian health care delivery system has a unique feature of medical pluralism wherein AYUSH systems are being given equal status with the Allopathic system of medicine. They also enjoy government patronage. A separate policy has been formulated to encourage these systems vertically in the field of education and research. A large number of hospitals, dispensaries, teaching institutions and registered practitioners are under the AYUSH system. In 2007, there were 3360 hospitals, with 68155 beds, 21765 dispensaries, 485 colleges and 725568 practitioners under AYUSH in the entire country, with considerable regional variations (AYUSH report 2007). Independent research councils and institutions of these systems have been established as autonomous organisations. The clinical practice is being integrated following a cafeteria approach in the Health sector, wherein the patient has an option of choosing a health system according to his conviction. Inter-system referrals are encouraged and adequate knowledge of these systems is provided to allopathic doctors and vice versa for proper co-ordination. It is expected that AYUSH will play a more significant role in the coming years.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

In India, the private as well as public sectors are striving hard to undertake organized research in homoeopathy. The Government of India has established an autonomous research council- The Central for Research in Homoeopathy (CCRH), for undertaking this task. At present various researches are being undertaken in India which can have a great impact on the prospects of Homoeopathy all over the world. Please visit CCRH official site at www.ccrhindia.org to know more about research activities in India in Homoeopathy.

According to the WHO, homoeopathy is the SECOND largest system of medicine in the world and is experiencing an annual growth of around 20 - 25%. It is estimated that by the year 2017, the world homoeopathy market would be equivalent to the current alternative health care market which is Rs 50 - 2000 cr. The homoeopathy market in India today is worth around Rs 630 cr, growing at roughly 20% per annum. In a certain survey, 82% of homoeopathy users would not switch to conventional treatments. Also if a person enrolls for homeopathic treatment in the early stages of his problem it is less likely that he would want to switch to conventional treatments.