Dr Bhushan Patwardhan
National Research Professor – Ayush
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For many years, Ayurveda and Yoga were seen as symbols of the past, spoken of with pride in festivals and speeches but often dismissed in classrooms and clinics. Colonial education played its part in this neglect, making us believe that only what came from the West counted as science. Yet, the tide is slowly turning. What was once ignored is now entering laboratories, journals, and even the agendas of global health agencies.
Ayurveda is not just a collection of age-old remedies. It is a sophisticated framework of medicine that always places the individual at the centre. The idea of prakriti that each of us has a unique constitution resonates with the modern quest for personalized medicine. Today, this is being studied under the banner of Ayurvedic biology. Fields like Ayurgenomics are showing how classical descriptions align with genomic and metabolic profiles. Reverse Pharmacology, a method born in India, uses the traditional experience of safe herbal use as a starting point for drug discovery. These efforts show that Ayurveda is not about nostalgia but about future innovation.
Yoga tells a similar story. Once dismissed as mysticism, it is now part of mainstream healthcare. Trials at AIIMS, Harvard, and Stanford confirm what practitioners have always known: Yoga reduces stress, prevents diabetes, improves heart health, and enhances mental balance. The World Health Organization has recognized Yoga as a tool against non-communicable diseases and has established its Global Traditional Medicine Centre at Jamnagar. Now, its relevance continues to grow from classrooms to corporate offices.
For these traditions to truly flourish, it is necessary that Bharatiya Jnana becomes part of mainstream education in science, humanities, and social sciences. This is not about replacing modern knowledge but about restoring balance and regaining the confidence that Macaulay’s design of colonial education tried to destroy. When students learn that their own civilization has given the world concepts like zero, surgery, linguistics, and holistic health, they grow up not as imitators but as innovators. The recently published Ayurveda for Kids on the 10th National Ayurveda Day, and the forthcoming Yoga for Kids, are steps in this direction, helping the next generation engage with these traditions in ways that are simple, joyful, and contemporary.
What excites me is not only the validation of these traditions but the new questions they invite us to ask. How do body and mind interact in healing? How can low-cost, community-based practices transform public health? Can a science rooted in balance and ethics guide us towards humane technology and sustainable living? Ayurveda and Yoga are not relics of a bygone age. They are living systems, evolving with science, and carrying lessons for the future of health. They remind us that true innovation does not come from rejecting our roots but from nurturing them and giving them wings.
