The history of Homoeopathy can be traced as far back as the year 1835
when a Romanian man Dr. John Martin Honigberger visited India. He was
called in by the Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Lahore who was suffering from
paralysis of the vocal cords with swelling of the feet. He treated the
Maharaja dispensing “Dulcamara” in wine, in low potency. This medicine
cured him. The Maharaja was also impressed when he treated his favourate
horse of his ulcer of the leg. Dr. Honigberger became the chief
physician of his court.
Later on after the Maharaja’s death Dr.
Honigberger shifted to Calcutta. In Calcutta, he was known as the
“Cholera Doctor”. He wrote many books among which were “Thirty five
years in The East, Adventures, Discoveries, Experiments and Historical
sketches of Punjab and Kashmir”. He practised in Calcutta up to 1860.
Dr. Honigberger happened to go to Vienna and caught Cholera. He saved
himself by taking Ipecac, every half an hour. This incident greatly
impressed him and he started dispensing Homeopathic medicines both for
himself and for others.
In 1836 in Tanjoor, Dr.
Samuel Brookling, a retired surgical officer, dispensed homoeopathic
medicines to his civilians and army officers stationed at Madras.
In 1836-1867
Dr. Mahendra Lal Sircar, learned about Homoeopathy from a layman,
Rajendralal Dutta, popularly known as Babu Rajen Dutta. He had a number
of cases to his credit. He cured Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar of asthma and
also cured gangrene of the foot of Maharani of Shorapur, and greatly
impressed Raja Sir Radhakanta Deb Bahadur of Shorapur.
On 16th February 1867,
Dr. Sircar wrote an article condemning allopathy titled “On the
Supposed Uncertainity in Medical Science and the Relationship between
Diseases and Medicine”. He was the first man to start a journal on
homoeopathy – “India Medical Review” and to attend the first
Homoeopathic National Congress conference under the chairmanship of Dr.
C. Hering.
In 1867 Dr. Salzar of Vienna was the
founder of Homoeopathic education in India. He influenced two persons
towards homoeopathy namely Dr. P. C. Majumdar and Dr. B. L. Bhaduri. Dr.
Majumdar along with Dr. Roy, Dr. B. N. Banerjee and Dr. Younan
established the first Homoeopathic college in India in the year 1878
under the name of “Calcutta Homoeopathic Medical College”.
Dr. S.
C. Ghosh proved many drugs from the Indian herbs and gave them to his
patients in low potency with great results. He compiled a book named
“Drugs of Hindustan”. Unfortunately, nobody noticed this book, until 1970-1971,
when the “Central Council for Research in Indian Medicine and
Homoeopathy” (CCRIM & H) unearthed the book and a number of drugs
were proved.
In August 1869, a Bengali named Babu
Priyanath Bose started a hospital with an OPD (Out Patient Department)
in Allahabad. It was at this centre that Mr. Motilal Nehru took
treatment during his struggle for freedom.
In 1880
Father Augustus Mueller, a priest and teacher of a school founded by
the Society of Jesus in Kankanady in Manglore, started dispensing free
homoeopathic drugs.
In 1902 there was an epidemic
of pneumonic plague and Father Augustus Muller treated most of the
people successfully. He established a plague and leprosy clinic. Seeing
this, the British presented him with the “Kaiser-e-Hind” award. He also
wrote a book entitled “Twelve Tissue Remedies”.
In 1937
the British government had not recognised this system of medicine and
it was for the first time that M.L.A. Miyan Ghias-ud-idin passed a
regulation in the Bengal Assembly to allow recognition and patronage to
homoeopathy. Thus, homoeopathy was introduced in Bengal for the first
time in the pre-independence years.
After independence, the Government was more sympathetic and on 17th Feburary 1948,
Sir Satis Chandra Samanta, M.P from West-Bengal, piloted a move in the
constituent assembly to establish a Central Agitation Body i.e. Central
Council of Homoeopathy. This was passed after a modification by Mr.
Mohan Lal Saxena M.P (U.P). It was supported by Dr. Pattabhi
Sitaramayya, the President of India. Some of the important items in the
draft proposal given by the representative of the All India Institute of
Homoeopathy to the Government of India was of great help to put the
education of homoeopathy on a firm base.
In 1944,
the Government of India set up a five member committee with the Late
Dr. L. D. Dhawale being one of its members. He requested the Government
to recognise and allow Homoeopathic practice and teaching. He wrote a
book in Marathi called the “Homoeopathic Chikitsa”. He was the spearhead
in starting the “Government Homoeopathic Hospital”.
In 1946 the “Council of Homoeopathy” of West Bengal was established with homoeopathy being recognised.
Dr.
B. K. Sarkar, (M. D.), was a renowned teacher in Homoeopathic
Philosophy at Calcutta Homoeopathic Medical College. His contribution to
homoeopathy was enormous. His commentaries on the 5th edition of The
Organon were well known. Dr. S. P. Dey compiled one of his collections
into “Essay on Homoeopathy”.
Dr. B. K Bose the “Grand Teacher of
Homoeopathy” passed his M.D. from Chicago and was a direct student of
Dr. Kent. He was an excellent teacher in Materia Medica.
In 1952-1954
the National Congress Government appointed a small committee –
Homoeopathic Reference Committee constituted by Rajkumari Amrit Kaur,
the Union Health Minister of India (1952). Dr. J. C. Mukerjee was
nominated as chairman of this committee comprising of six homoeopathic
practitioners and four allopaths.
In 1956, the
need for creating a post of Honorary Advisor in the committee was felt.
However, the Government approved of this post in 1960, and Dr. Krishna
Gopal Saxena was the first to be appointed.
The Government of
India constituted a Central Council of Health, which was a committee of
Health Ministers from all states and was headed by the Union Minister.
This committee used to meet once a year. It passed a resolution that
each state would give recognition to Homoeopathic colleges from 1960.
Another resolution passed was that the Government of India should
constitute a body to enforce regulations and promote research in
homoeopathy.
The Maharashtra Act was passed in 1960. It constituted two bodies :
1) Court of Examiners (concerned with education and new colleges).
2) Board of homoeopathy (concerned with the regulation of practice and licensing homoeopathic practitioners).
This
Act was known as the “Bombay Act”. Dr. Gilder was the Health Minister.
The court of examiners were looked after by Dr. M. N. Paranjpe and the
Board of homoeopathy by Late Dr. S. R. Wadia who was the president.
Dr.
M. V. Kulkarni followed in the footsteps of Dr. Bhattacharya in Bengal.
He started “Roy and Company” in Mumbai. They were the chief importers
of Mesers B & T (Boericke and Tafel) of America and Schwabe of
Germany. Boger’s Boenninghausen Repertory was first published by Roy and
Company in India. He also started manufacturing homoeopathic drugs in
Maharashtra. Mr. James Fergusson, Governor of Mumbai took treatment from
Dr. Kulkarni.
Dr. S. R. Phatak, an M. D. from Mumbai University, was influenced to practise homoeopathy. He wrote two books :
1) Phatak’s Alphabetical Repertory.
2) Phatak’s Materia Medica.
Dr.
P. Sankaran died at a very young age from cancer of the liver. He
acquired name and fame internationally. In a short span of time, he
wrote a number of booklets (30) on topics relevant and important to the
practice of homoeopathy. He proved the drugs Aqua Marina and Pituita.
Dr.
P. Sankaran popularised low priced editions of books on homoeopathy in
India (not exceeding Rs. 10). He wrote a small card repertory and
started a journal known as the “Indian Journal of Homoeopathy”.
Presently, it is published as the “Indian Journal of Homoeopathic
Medicine”which was formely edited by Dr. K. N. Kasad. Currently, it is
edited by Dr. Praful Barvalia.
Dr. Burjor Boman Behram was an M.B.B.S., who was practising homoeopathy. He died very recently.
Dr.
U. M. Menon, though not a qualified homoeopath, acquired a lot of
wealth of knowledge from homoeopathy. He was the spearhead for starting
the Bombay Homoeopathic Medical College.
The Planning Commission of India gave free aid to colleges from 1966
onwards. Soon, 20 colleges availed of this facility. They were given
aid to start libraries and laboratories. One of the colleges to benefit
from this was the Pune Homoeopathic College.
In 1966,
the Central Government, under the Ministry of Health passed a bill,
which was a joint bill for setting up a Central Council of the Indian
system of Medicine and Homoeopathy. This act was passed in 1969, when Ayurveda was recognised and the Central Council of Ayurveda was formed.
In 1970,
the Government proposed a separate bill on homoeopathy. It took one
year before this bill was submitted to the parliament as new health
ministers had been appointed. The Prime Minister gave consent to pass
this bill in 1971, but unfortunately, because of mid-term elections, it
was delayed.
On 3rd April 1972, it was introduced
in the Rajya Sabha. A Joint Select Committee under the chairmanship of
Smt. Purabi Mukhopadhayay (M.P. West Bengal) was formed. This committee
worked for all the colleges.
On 19th December 1973,
the President gave his consent to the bill and thus the “Homoeopathy
Central Council Act 1973″ was passed. The necessity of this bill was
felt long back because most of the states had recognised colleges but
the course was not established. Therefore, there was a lot of confusion
as doctors could not migrate to other states to practise. This Act
achieved the following :
(1) Standardisation of education.
(2) Standardisation of practice.
During
this time, the Government of India constituted a research organisation
called the Central Council for Research in Indian Medicine and
Homoeopathy (CCRIM & H).
In 1972, the Central
Research Institute at Calcutta was established by the Government of
India and three regional research institutes were set up at Delhi,
Kottayam and Orissa.
In this year, the research council was divided into three independent bodies :
1) Central Council for research in Ayurveda.
2) Central Council for research in Unani.
3) Central Council for research in Homoeopathy.
The
headquarters of the ‘Central Council for Homoeopath’ was at Ghaziabad
in Delhi. Presently, there are 200 units and 10 regional institutes.
The
Central Council of Homoeopathy along with other recommendations, formed
a uniform syllabus for diploma, degree and linked courses (diploma
holders of new course and diploma holders of old course). They were
called D.H.M.S., B.H.M.S. and B.H.M.S. (graded degree) respectively.
Taken By Hpathy.Com
No comments:
Post a Comment