Famous Ayurvedic Acharya: COVID era has sounded revival of Ayurveda

New Delhi: A renowned proponent of Ayurveda -Acharya Manish, who has been propagating India's 5000-year-old herb-based medicinal treatment protocol - Ayurveda since 1997, has called for amendment or scrapping of what he calls two archaic and anti-Ayurveda medical laws. The laws under his lens are - the 1897 Epidemic Act and the 1954 Magic Remedy Act. It is noteworthy that Acharya Manish is the founder of the Ayurveda label 'Shuddhi,' which has its main center at Zirakpur and over 150 branches across India.

Acharya Manish said, "The COVID era has shown all Indians the importance of Ayurveda with even the AYUSH ministry has promulgated an Ayurvedic protocol for boosting immunity as well as one for its treatment. So this is the right time to amend or even scrap these two archaic medical laws made by the Britishers to subjugate Ayurveda. Though there has been a resurgence of Ayurveda during the pandemic the government still has a mindset that is antagonistic to the promotion of Ayurveda and it is going slow in making Ayurveda a preferred treatment system."

 "Why is this step-motherly treatment being meted out to Ayurveda in the country where Ayurveda was born?" asked Acharya Manish.

Acharya Manish further said, "Unfortunately India is still living with a mindset that smacks of the British Colonial era. Even today, we are governed by laws like the 1897 Epidemic Act, which the British made to subjugate Ayurveda and its practitioners- the vaids. When the plague had affected the country in the 1890s, the vaids easily treated it through their concoctions, which the British couldn't digest as it was impacting allopathy and its spread in India. It is because of this that they imposed the epidemic act in India and started registering cases against the vaids & putting them behind bars."

Acharya Manish added, "The idea was to brand Ayurveda as an unscientific and backward medical method. Under the garb of this act, the British hatched a conspiracy to eliminate Ayurveda from India. The epidemic act still exists and only promotes the use of allopathy. This needs to change; the act should be reviewed or scrapped so that Ayurveda gets an equal footing to allopathy." 

Even the 1954 Magic Remedy Act has come under fire from Acharya Manish. "Despite having many effective treatments in Ayurveda that treat the root cause of an illness, the Magic Remedy Act does not allow us to talk about these protocols. An Ayurvedic practitioner can't speak freely on any disease, while on the other hand, allopathy undertakes huge endorsements of particular treatments and allopathic hospitals promote themselves in a big way. There are many differences between systems followed under allopathy and Ayurveda. While allopathy by and large works on symptomatic treatment, Ayurveda tries to remove the disease from its source."

Acharya Manish informed that while allopathy-based hospitals get patients due to the ease of passing medical bills through different insurance mechanisms, it's almost impossible to do so by Ayurveda-based hospitals and clinics.

Acharya Manish explained that while in allopathy, there are specialists for different parts of the body; the human body is looked at holistically in Ayurveda. Acharya Manish summed up, "Me and my team are planning to approach the judiciary for relief in this matter. We will call for amending or scrapping of the retrograde laws, which are acting as roadblocks in the growth of Ayurveda."