Power, culture and medicine: Ayurvedic pharmaceuticals in the modern market

Abstract

This article seeks to understand the encounter between Ayurveda and the modern market through an analysis of decisions regarding the product profiling, positioning and packaging of Ayurvedic medicines by its leading manufacturer, Dabur. These seemingly mundane, economic decisions are seen here as expressions of a deep operation of power, mediated through culture. The analysis takes us beyond the simplified picture of the rise of modern biomedicine as the inevitable and onward march of rationality, or that of Ayurveda as the helpless victim of modernity. It argues that the multiple strategies adopted by the Ayurvedic pharmaceutical companies, in response to the changing conditions of the market, can be viewed in larger terms as its response to the changing nature of the field of power. This identifies the 'moment of confrontation', the 'moment of withdrawal' and the 'moment of diversion' as some of the strategic responses. While these strategies did succeed in creating and retaining a foothold for Ayurvedic medicines in the modern market, this success came at a heavy cost: Ayurvedic medicine had to be cast in the mould of modern medicine and disconnected from its relationship to the knowledge system. The analysis brings out some of the ironies and dilemmas of this encounter.