Taking Traditional Knowledge to the Market: The Modern Image of the Ayurvedic and Unani Industry 1980-2000 (New Perspectives in South Asian History)

Taking Traditional Knowledge to the Market explores the paradox at the heart of the ayurvedic and unani medicine manufacturing industry to present itself as modern and traditional, common and professional at the same time. On the one hand, the natural, wholesome and authentic nature of these medicines is juxtaposed with the synthetic , violent and iatrogenic character of western medicines, which dominate the Indian market. They are linked to Indian popular culture, the heyday of Indian civilisation, and a humane approach to medicine. At the same time, large ayurvedic and unani manufacturers use modern science and technology to create a competitive edge and distance themselves from the image of backwardness, that also sticks to Indian medical traditions. Based on an ethnographic fieldwork, from 1996 to 2002, Maarten Bode studies five Indian ayurvedic and unani medicine firms Hamdard, Zandu, Dabur, Himalaya and Arya Vaidya Sala. The narrative follows the perspective of these manufacturers and hence provides an insight into the categorisations and the characteristics of the consumer. Bode also reveals that researches conducted by large ayurvedic and unani manufacturers on their best-selling brands follow logic-positivistic and biomedical lines, often ignoring humoral concepts and classical pharmacological notions.



Contents: List of illustrations Preface List of abbreviations 1. The Anatomy of the Study: Object, Method and Process 1 2. The Kitchen, the Government and the Market: The Commoditisation of Indian Medicines 25 3. Manufacturers, Products and Markets: Popular Culture Medicine, Biomedical Enclaving, and Humoral Clinical Medicine 74 4. Reworking Ayurvedic and Unani Medicines through Modern Science and Technology: The Gap between Humoral and Modern Pharmacology 131 5. Indian Medicine, Authenticity and Identity: The Construction of an Indian Modernity 174 6. The Representation of Indian Indigenous Medical Products in Advertising: Tradition, Modernity and Nature 198 Conclusion 222 Glossary Bibliography Index