India’s herbal diplomacy, which gained momentum under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has effectively used Ayurveda as a soft power tool to secure enduring relations with countries overseas. India is the largest producer of global Ayurvedic products and is emerging as an export hub for international markets.
The country’s ancient medicinal wisdom, unparalleled in the history of age-old knowledge systems, has become the new therapeutic model, augmenting the scope for alternative medicines in the global healthcare system. The Charaka Samhita, a Sanskrit text of Indian medicine that was translated into Arabic in the eighth century, has resurfaced as ‘Rising Ayurveda’ in the medicinal space of the Gulf countries as a holistic wellness and sustained therapy to overcome the impending healthcare challenges. Moreover, a significant presence of Ayurvedic companies and burgeoning demand for such products in the UAE entails India’s robust herbal diplomacy with the Emirates.
The word Ayurveda etymologically means ‘knowledge of life’. This compound Sanskrit word is composed of two words, ‘Ayur’ meaning ‘life’ and ‘Veda’ denoting ‘knowledge’. This medicinal tradition, mainly based on herbal compounds, is a gift of Bharat to the world. It gives a comprehensive cure with non-chemical intervention. Its healing involves physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. The great Indian antiquity enjoyed a special status in Asia, Africa, and Europe for exploring remedies to human pathology in the world of nature. Its historicity began at least three thousand years ago or way above the projected temporality.
The continuity of this chemical-free, organic, and sacred medicinal tradition experienced neglect during the colonial introduction of modern medicine. Allopathic medicine and its chemical content have indubitably made significant progress as modern medicine but carry no permanent cure and is clueless for several diseases. The lifestyle change, high consumption of junk and other unhealthy food without any regulative restriction, and sedentary culture in the workspace have given rise to strange ailments that find no effective cure in the chemically reliant medicinal system.
This has shifted the global attention to the alternative modes of cure. They include Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy (AYUSH). This shift in attention does not mean the end of chemically reliant modern medicine. It means relying on other modes of cure and remaining healthy. In this context, the UAE has made significant efforts to attract alternative modes of cure. It has issued a professional licence to give clearances to Traditional, Complementary, and Alternative Medicine (TCAM). India’s traditional medicinal practices of Ayurveda have greatly interested the Emiratis. Its effectiveness in curing diseases has enhanced its popularity.
India organised the ninth World Ayurveda Congress and Arogya Expo in Goa on December 8, 2022, and several countries participated in observing the therapeutics of Ayurveda by Indian healthcare professionals. The critical aspect of this exercise was to give Ayurveda a global outreach and secure for India the prestige of maintaining the continuity of its ancient healing heritage against challenges of all kinds, especially colonial modernity.
Prime Minister Modi’s herbal diplomacy has seen definite success as the sale of Ayurvedic products, especially Indian AYUSH, and other herbal products, made a quantum jump by 2023. This is India’s achievement in projecting Ayurveda as a comprehensive, enduring, and effective curative. This has also given India a diplomatic heft on the global stage. Politics apart, the urgency of revamping the international healthcare order seems more crucial in this connection. Pathology is not a comprehensive response to a health disorder. A holistic healing that includes equitable attention to the physical, mental, spiritual, and measured lifestyle and avoiding stress and indulgences is the perfect recipe for happy and healthy living.
Ayurveda, as a natural curative procedure, aims at delivering it. Keeping this in mind, the Government of India has developed a New Health Policy 2017, embodying the vision of a healthy and happy India. This can be the best blueprint for other nations to seek inspiration from. In this direction, the Government of India has signed an agreement with WHO in 2022 to set up the Global Centre for Traditional Medicine (GCTM) at Jamnagar, Gujarat.
This collaborative exercise aims to provide low-cost and effective traditional medicine to the United Nations member states to ensure global health. This also conjoins with initiatives such as “Heal in India” and “Heal by India”. The “Heal in India” exercise invites people worldwide to get cured in India through Ayurveda and its herbal and spiritual modalities. The “Heal by India” entails exporting Ayurvedic medicine, herbal products, and Indian medicinal knowledge to the world through its qualified professionals. This explains India’s concern and care for global health and a happy earth. This is India’s herbal diplomacy. Through non-chemical herbal cures, India gives the world Ayurveda and wins global confidence as a bankable partner.
The UAE has made definitive efforts to ensure the circulation of Ayurveda products and their purchase, usage, and extension of its treatment modalities in its Emirates to obtain a healthy life. The clearances given to TCAM indicate the Emirati openness and acceptance of this chemical-free treatment modality with the most negligible side effects.
The number of clinics and centres that follow the Ayurvedic treatment modes using herbal and non-chemical materials is phenomenal. They are Ayurmana Ayurveda & Panchakarma (Dubai), Swasthya Ayurveda (Dubai), Kottakkal Ayurvedic Treatment Centre (Dubai), Santhigiri Holistic Health Centre (Dubai), Pearl Ayurveda (Ras al Khaimah), Meznah Ayurveda, (Sharjah), Kottakkal Treatment Centre (Ajman), Mantra Ayurveda (Dubai), Dr Jasna’s Ayurveda Clinic & Treatment Centre (Dubai), 22 Ayur (Dubai), Ayurcare Ayurvedic Wellness Centre (Dubai), Herbal Park Ayurvedic Health Centre (Abu Dhabi), etc.
Several of them are based in Dubai and provide nature-based holistic treatment. This shows the importance Ayurveda had received across the UAE. It has also generated employment space for many Indians who have studied and practised Ayurveda as an effective way of treating human ailments. The robust bilateralism that has been witnessed between India and the UAE since 2014 and Prime Minister Modi’s determination to globalise Ayurveda like Yoga to ensure global health, happiness, peace, and well-being constitute India’s herbal diplomacy and Ayurveda as a soft power modality in renewing India’s international image as a caregiver and curing nation that believes in its perennial wisdom of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.
The UAE also sees rising demand for Indian herbal products, from cosmetics to capsules. The made-in-India herbal products, which include Hamdard, Baidyanath, Dabur, Kama Ayurveda, Vicco, Biosync, Charak, Just Herbs, Patanjali, Vee, Forest Essentials, Hope Ayurveda, Himalaya Wellness, Navayur, Arlak, Swastik, Surya Herbal, etc, dominate the global wellness and cosmetic market space and the UAE is no exception to this market appetite.
The global demand for herbal products and the supply in India build a solid international profile for India as a land of herbal medicine. It cures through time-tested, nature-based traditional practices. This constitutes India’s herbal diplomacy which embodies, on one hand, health, happiness, and effective cure and also, on the other, gives India political dividends to prove its strength and genuineness of concern for global wellbeing along the line of its ancient wisdom: Om Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah, Sarve Santu Nir-Aamayaah/ Sarve Bhadraanni Pashyantu, Maa Kashcid Duhkha-Bhaag-Bhavet/ Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih (May all beings be at peace, may no one suffer from illness, May all see what is auspicious, may no one suffer. Om! Peace Peace Peace).
Dr Jajati K Pattnaik is an Associate Professor at the Centre for West Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Dr Chandan K Panda is an Assistant Professor at Rajiv Gandhi University, Itanagar. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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