The state of Kerala has a long history in Ayurveda. For centuries, Ayurveda students from across the country used to go to Kerala to learn Ayurveda. Given Kerala’s unique geography, the Jadi-buties (herbs), which are essential for Ayurveda, are found in abundance in the state, which makes the state an even more important hub for the practice of Ayurveda.
Even today, Ayurveda tourism is extremely popular in Kerala, with lakhs of foreign and domestic tourists visiting the state every year to benefit from Ayurveda. However, this rich legacy is weakening slowly due to various types of new viruses that have emerged in the last few decades like – Communism, Islamism, beef-eating, and so on.
At present when Covid is no longer a big issue in the rest of the country, Maharashtra alone accounts for more than half of the country’s total Covid cases, due to administrative inefficiency, but the state of Kerala has more structural issues.
Of these, first, of course, is Communism. The Communists, who turn a blind eye to culture and civilization, are not ready to include Ayurveda among the list of prescribed remedies to built immunity against Coronavirus, while the rest of the country is using it.
The Ayurveda Medical Association of India (AMAI) has urged the government to include Ayurveda experts too in the state COVID task force, but the Communist government is yet to take any decision on that.
“A higher percentage of Category A patients who took the medicines did not develop any serious complications. Even after accepting that Ayurveda medicines have been of effect, the government has not included Ayurveda doctors in the expert committee for COVID,” said AMAI state president Dr Raju Thomas.
“Countries like China, Vietnam, and Madagascar have set examples that traditional medicines have an important role. As Kerala is still reporting high number of daily COVID cases than other states, Ayurveda should be included in the fight against the pandemic,” Dr Thomas added.
Despite having such a rich legacy in Ayurveda, the state of Kerala is not being able to utilize this expertise, thanks to the Communist government’s attitude towards anything remotely related to Hindu legacy and civilization.
The second issue is the high number of beef (and other meat) eaters in the state. The impact of high consumption of meat, especially beef, on immunity is known to everyone. The cases in Kerala are highest in Muslim-dominated Northern Kerala, where meat consumption is very high.
A few other factors that contribute to the fact that Muslim-dominated Northern Kerala has a higher number of cases the ghettoized living among the Muslim community – especially in low-income areas – and inbreeding (marriage among the closely blood-linked family members). The impact of inbreeding on human growth is widely acknowledged with proper scientific studies and the Muslim community is yet to forbid the practice.
Moreover, a good number of people in the Christian community, which constitutes around 18 per cent of the population of the state, also eat beef. The combined population of Muslims and Christians in the state in 2021 would be around 50 per cent, and some of the cultural practices among these communities are the reason behind the higher number of cases in the state, especially in the areas where Muslims are in higher numbers.
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The state government is not ready to capitalize on the rich legacy of the Ayurveda, because it reeks of Communalism to their Muslims and Christain voters. Thus, the state that has been the leader in the medical practice in India and has a very high life expectancy thanks to these practices, is now suffering most from Coronavirus diseases.