The Indian civilization is among the most ancient in the world, and has long been home to hugely diverse populations and consequently, knowledge systems. Till the advent of British colonization, Indian agriculture, education, medicine, politics and science thrived, sustained and was in turn sustained by these diverse people. However, even 50 years after British colonization of India, complex and brilliant knowledge systems, agricultural paradigms, science and technology, that had evolved with and sustained this land over ten thousand years, were almost fully gone, heavily undermined and ravaged under the ruthless rule of an alien power that had no interest in understanding or learning, but only in plundering.
This talk will attempt to revisit aspects of traditional Indian knowledge and wisdom, with specific reference to medicine, and examine their foundations in an understanding of the fine webs that sustain life and their inter-relationships, and how a sense of identity and community formed around this understanding in ancient India.