My book The Homeopathic Conversation has been republished in India and I am most honoured to be invited to give a lecture tour of India in August.

While homeopathy has been vituperatively insulted, attacked and demonised by various groups in the UK (which thankfully do not include this Government, the last one or the head of State) it has always had a prominent and respected place in the medicine of the world’s biggest democracy – India. On doing a little research into Indian homeopathy I was absolutely flabbergasted by the sheer scale of homeopathy in India.

I am most grateful to my colleague, Dr Manish Bhatia for much of the following information about Indian homeopathy:

Number of homeopaths in India:

Official Government figure: 350 000 (sic) homeopaths

Unofficial figure (includes unregistered, registration expired and lay homeopaths)

500 000 (that’s half a million!)

Indian Government attitude to Homeopathy:

  • Indian Government ‘VERY supportive’ (Dr Bhatia) to homeopathy.
  • Government even runs TV commercials to promote homeopathy!
  • There are 1000s of Government homeopathic dispensaries and OPDs (outpatient departments) in India
  • There are 176 Homeopathic Colleges in India of which 35 are Government run.
  • There is a government ministry (AYUSH) dedicated to alternative medicine (including homeopathy) in India.

Regulation:

Homeopathy is fully regulated in India by the Central Council of Homeopathy (CCH)  and Central Council for Research in Homeopathy (CCRH).

Conclusions: It seems clear that homeopathy is there to stay in India. So next time you see or read some condescending and patronising rubbish about homeopathy in the media, know that in India, a country with a population of 1.2 billion people (that’s more than 20x the population of the UK) homeopathy is an integral part of the healthcare system and deeply respected by the people of that country.

The word on the street is that India and China will be important parts of the emerging new world order so watch this space for an article on the place of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in China, a country with a mere 1.3 billion people.