Faith healing has long been a part of the Indian cultural tradition. Where allopathic treatment has failed or had limited effect in curing mental or physical ailment, it is the indigenous system of medicine that people have turned to for a cure. However, the announcement by the Banaras Hindu University of a six-month course in 'bhoot vidya’ for those pursuing Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery, Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degrees from January 2020 has generated controversy. Bhoot Vidya is part of the eight basic branches of Ashtanga Ayurveda and helps in improved understanding of psychosomatic disorders, says Yamini Bhushan Tripathi, dean of the Ayurveda faculty at BHU.



Drawing parallels with modern medicine, Heart Care Foundation of India president Dr K.K. Aggarwal says, Mental health in Ayurveda is defined in terms of Tamas, Rajas and Sattva which are equivalent to various parasympathetic and sympathetic states of mind in modern medicine. According to the Vedas, the physical body is made up of three basic elementary functions called Vata, Pitta and Kapha which in modern medicine are equivalent to movement, metabolism and structure. Dr Aggarwal would not be so quick to deride or dismiss indigenous systems of medicine offhand as these have, he says, from time to time offered cures and remedies for various illnesses.

Others won’t hear anything of it. From time immemorial, says Dr. G. Prasad Rao, President, Asian Federation of Psychiatry, even before the evolution of psychiatry as a proper speciality, people have always believed mental illness is due to possession of demonic, evil or bad spirits or Satan. The belief is that an individual has lost control of his faculties not because of what he or she has done but because of somebody else’s influence. In psychological terms, it is called projection. Ruing the fact that some still try bhoot vidya first though it is completely ineffective before turning to treatment by modern medicine, he attributes it to social stigma attached to mental illness. Rao fears it will be reinforced, as pseudoscience is being made part of the curriculum at BHU.



Yet others, going by the experience of faith healing in the country, believe that it is a commendable move. There are vast sources of traditional knowledge in science and medicine in India, as practised in the past, which have not been established through accepted processes of scientific testing nor are they shared openly, says Prof. A. Anantharaman, Provost, Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, Bengaluru, who has taught at the Harvard Business School and the Sathya Institute of Higher Learning, Puttaparthi. He cautions that in the absence of sharing and academic critique, such knowledge tends to fade away. He believes the BHU initiative can possibly bring some of this knowledge into the formal learning process which will either prove that Bhoot Vidya cannot help mental illness or establish this as a scientifically acceptable process.



What everyone is unanimous about, though, is the dire need for expertise to treat mental illnesses, considering the growing incidence in the country, even if it involves using Ayurveda, tradition and mysticism with psychoanalysis. Psychiatrists and other mental health specialists say at least one in every 10 Indians is in need of psychiatric care to deal with issues ranging from anxiety disorders, phobia, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, learning disorders, bipolar disorder, autism, conduct disorders and dementia. But there is a dearth of trained psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric nurses and social workers. A 2016 study by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in Bengaluru revealed that 14 per cent Indians are mentally ill while a later 2017 estimate of the World Health Organization suggested that one in every five Indians might suffer from depression at some point in their lives. Unfortunately, there are barely 6,000 psychiatrists, 1,000 clinical psychologists and 300-odd psychiatric nurses and social workers to offer them treatment.



There is no doubt that mental health needs to be taken seriously and the treatment gap bridged. One cannot be sure if the BHU’s attempt to teach Bhoot Vidya is the answer. At the very least, it can expose godmen and other faith healers who lean on mumbo-jumbo to take advantage of innocent and desperate people.