Indian-born US system biologist Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai says western civilisation, including modern medicine are creation of war.
Dr. Ayyadurai said the big division in the world right now is those systems which were created for war and death and those which were created for life and creativity.
In an interview to Indian Science Journal recently, the system biologist, who courted several controversies, said yogis in ancient India were not simply religious people, but actually system scientists.
His research paper published in the International Journal of System of Systems Engineering in 2014 titled, "The control systems engineering foundation of traditional Indian medicine: the Rosetta Stone for Siddha and Ayurveda," says ancient Indian healthcare systems had its foundations on principles of systems and complexity theory.
"Though systems of Indian medicine have their origins in basic principles of systems and complexity theory, their ancient lingua franca has obfuscated the complete exposition of their foundations in modern control systems engineering. This obfuscation and the inability of modern practitioners to clearly convey those scientific principles have constrained their acceptance by modern science."
Here is an excerpt from the interview with Dr. Shiva Ayyagiri during his recent visit to New Delhi:
More From This Section
Q1. Dr. Ayyadurai, you are a scientist in modern science, but trying to validate Indian system of medicine. How would you establish the efficacy of ancient Indian healing systems with medical professionals rejecting it?
Ans.: "What is Vatha, Pitha, Kabha - Vatha, Pitha Kabha are actually the same primaries as in general system of the 1930s --Transport, Conversion, Storage. If you look at modern control system, they match one to one. Our yogis were not simply religious people - they were actually system scientists. They had a whole different way of looking at the body as a framework, the same way we look at large-scale engineering systems. That's what Ayurveda and Siddha are. Over the years, it became mugged up, people just repeated these items. They don't even know the principles behind it."
Q2. Why do you think ancient Indian healthcare systems failed to get acceptance in western world?
Ans.: "Vedic sciences were not created for war. They were created for life, for sustaining things. These technologies were in some way competitive to those technologies which profit after you become sick. Because, if you preserve life through doing basic practices every day, is that not competitive to those technologies which really profit from sickness."
Q3. You said, modern medicine is the creation of war. How would you back it up?
Ans: The big division in the world right now is those systems which were created for war and death and those systems which were created for life and creativity. If you look at western civilisation by and large, most of the innovations came from war and death. The modern healthcare system -- where did it come from? It came from a Crimean war. Soldiers were dying before they were taken to hospital to die. Florence Nightingale found the modern healthcare system. She said, we need to get soldier healed so they created hospitals. They created antibiotics, they created steroids. All these things. surgery the purpose of this was crisis management healthcare system, to get the soldier back on the field.
Q4. You mean to say, several modern technologies are also the product of war?
Ans. Yes. Most of the technologies of western civilisation was created for war. Then they re-purposed for civilian life. Now you look at the eastern civilisation - innovation done by ordinary people only for solving human suffering. The Haber process was designed for nitrogen fixation by trinitrotoluene, TNT to create weapons. After they built all weapons plants, they wanted to make more money, so they put the nitrogen fixation into fertilizers. Then they promoted the concept of Green Revolution, because the goal was to use fertilisers. If you look at some of the origins of genetic engineering, it came from biological warfare. There are many other examples.
Dr. Ayyadurai says reductionism now pervades all aspects of the modern healthcare system, including basic research, patient treatment and drug development.
"The systems requirements for wartime healthcare are different from the systems requirements for a healthcare that enables prevention of disease and delivery of solutions, which are aligned to the long-term benefit of the whole human. The failure of modern healthcare system can be traced to this mismatch of systems requirements."
Born in Mumbai, Dr. Ayyaduri migrated to the USA in 1976 at the age of six with his parents. In 1978, as a 14-year-old student, he created e-mail and secured an American patent in 1982.
However, many western scientists dispute his claim. He was also inducted by then Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh to revamp the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. But shaken by his recommendations, which questioned the very basic structure of CSIR and what he termed "feudal" functioning, Dr. Ayyadurai was shown the door.