After yoga, Modi’s next soft power push is traditional medicine

India is betting on traditional medicine to pull off its next big soft power coup, following the success of efforts to promote yoga around the world.

From allocating funds to organising summits and setting up research centres, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration is throwing its support behind Ayurveda – India’s traditional medicine system dating back 5,000 years. Although considered pseudoscience by some within the medical community, Ayurveda is popularly used in India to address ailments ranging from diabetes to cancer. The system of medicine, meaning “knowledge or science of life” in Sanskrit, largely focuses on prevention, with curative and therapeutic elements considered to play an auxiliary role.

As part of efforts to bring alternative medicine into the mainstream, Modi’s government created the Ministry of AYUSH soon after coming into power to support the growth of Ayurveda, yoga, Unani, Siddha and homeopathy.

Last year, Modi inaugurated the All India Institute for Ayurveda, which currently treats between 1,600 and 2,000 patients every day.

“It was a dedication to the nation,” said PN Ranjit Kumar, a senior official at the AYUSH Ministry. “The facility is functioning extremely well and is probably the best hospital in the country.” He said that other large-scale educational institutions for Ayurveda were in the pipeline.