“TRADITIONAL MEDICINE” IN INDIA * DECLINE AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

From the time of colonial rule in India and the beginnings of Westernization and modernization processes, other-than-modern medical practices have been forced into retreat. The new, internationally professed aspiration of comprehensive health care (PHC) under the global target of “Health for all by 2000 A.D.” has revived interest also in the traditional medical practices, which is a confession of the failure of the modern model of health care in 3(rd) world contexts. The new role assigned to traditional medicine is questionable in view of unchanged development patterns. The need is for a new type of health care research, in which people themselves participate in and direct research, planning and action towards an improvement of their living and health care conditions.