Skip to content

Booksellers & Trade Customers: Sign up for online bulk buying at trade.atlanticbooks.com for wholesale discounts

Booksellers: Create Account on our B2B Portal for wholesale discounts

Ayurveda, Nation and Society: United Provinces, C. 1890-1950

by Saurav Kumar Rai
Save 30% Save 30%
Current price ₹980.00
Original price ₹1,400.00
Original price ₹1,400.00
Original price ₹1,400.00
(-30%)
₹980.00
Current price ₹980.00

Ships in 1-2 Days

Free Shipping in India on orders above Rs. 500

Request Bulk Quantity Quote
+91
Book cover type: Paperback
  • ISBN13: 9789354428517
  • Binding: Paperback
  • Subject: N/A
  • Publisher: Orient Blackswan Pvt Ltd
  • Publisher Imprint: Orient Blackswan Pvt Ltd
  • Publication Date:
  • Pages: 292
  • Original Price: INR 1400.0
  • Language: English
  • Edition: N/A
  • Item Weight: 342 grams
  • BISAC Subject(s): Alternative & Complementary Medicine

Ayurveda enjoys a growing global appeal, and is often touted as ‘true’ and ‘time-tested’ by contemporary political actors, governments, social groups, practitioners and NGOs in India. With ‘indigenous’ healing systems enjoying increasing state support today, an examination of the socio-political aspects of medicine, in particular Ayurveda, and its role in nation-building is critically important.

Ayurveda, Nation and Society, the latest in Orient BlackSwan’s ‘New Perspectives in South Asian History’ series, captures the late nineteenth and early twentieth century growth of ‘medical nationalism’ through the Ayurvedic revivalist movement in the United Provinces, and observes the ensuing change and continuity in the attitude towards ‘indigenous’ medicine in independent India. The volume critiques the casteist, communal, class- and gender-biased social culture inherent in Ayurvedic discourse of the period under discussion, and notes how the constant blaming of the ‘Other’ for spreading diseases detrimental to the ‘Hindu’ male reveals that proponents of Ayurveda were actively involved in both the ‘reconstruction of a tradition’ and of the society and ‘nation’.

The volume also examines the Ayurvedic print and drug market to study the commercialisation of the health discourse and healing practices, with the help of diverse sources such as hitherto untapped vernacular texts like Ayurvedic journals and pamphlets, literary interventions, along with field interviews of practising Ayurvedic healers and shopkeepers. The author also demonstrates how, despite co-opting several traits of Western medicine, Ayurvedic practitioners have often failed to imbibe one of its central tenets—the spirit of rigorous enquiry/experiment.

This volume will interest scholars of the social history of health and medicine in colonial India and South Asia, as well readers curious about Ayurveda’s evolution, leading to its present-day form.

Rai, Saurav Kumar: - Saurav Kumar Rai is Research Officer, at Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti, New Delhi.

Trusted for over 49 years

Family Owned Company

Secure Payment

All Major Credit Cards/Debit Cards/UPI & More Accepted

New & Authentic Products

India's Largest Distributor

Need Support?

Whatsapp Us