World Homeopathy Day, as it is known in Southern Asian countries, honours the birthdate and memory of the ‘Father of Homeopathy’ Dr. Samuel Hahnemann who founded the ‘rapid, gentle and permanent’ healing art based on the Law of Similars.
To mark the day, a wide range of engaging and entertaining events are held at the colleges.
Students, mostly girls in their late teens and older, write up scripts and put together skits presenting remedy pictures to consolidate learning, or reenact short plays depicting the lives of important historical figures in homeopathy, highlighting their beliefs, practices and teachings.
Established practitioners hold workshops to demonstrate good case taking skills, alongside correct medical practices in treating pathologies in clinic.
Lecturers and teachers run quiz competitions with questions covering various aspects of disease and remedy pictures and methodologies to be applied in order to reinforce knowledge and help students memorise and retain it.
Medicinal substances are exhibited in their crude form, to elaborate on the doctrine of signatures wherever applicable.
If India is the capital of Homeopathy in the world, Pakistan is a close second. Indeed, Homeopathy is part of a rich and lasting legacy Pakistan carried over from India after the painful Partition of 1947.
Homeopathy was introduced to the Indian Subcontinent in 1810 when Dr. John Martin Honigberger, a French traveller and disciple of Dr. Hahnemann, visited Calcutta (Kolkata) and treated patients. In 1839, after successfully treating the then ruler of Punjab, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, for paralysis of the vocal cords with the homeopathic Dulcamara, Singh encouraged Honigberger to practice Homeopathy in India.
As British colonial rule took firm hold of India in the 1850s, foreign missionaries brought homeopathy to the local population. Reputed physicians of the time such as Dr. M. L. Sirkar of Calcutta incorporated homeopathy into their medical practice, as ordinary Indians could not afford treatment with western medicines.
Homeopathy’s philosophy and principles resonated with the beliefs and cultures of the people of the Subcontinent, mostly comprising ardent Hindus. Under the sacred shade of the Sanskrit Bhagwata Purana, homoeopathy took root and flourished.
From Calcutta, homeopathic medical practice spread to Bengal and beyond.
Today, with a mere 2% of the GDP allocated to health care, Pakistan is a developing country with a virtually non-existent publicly funded health care sector. If at all accessible, health care services managed by the government are not free of charge at the point of use. Almost 80% of Pakistan’s population pay for their health care management and needs themselves.
In such a scenario, many Pakistanis have expressed preference for homeopathy over conventional medicine, viewing homeopathy as natural, more affordable, less invasive and with fewer or short-lived side effects. Studies show over fifty percent of Pakistanis, mostly females, turn to homeopathy for chronic illnesses such as allergies, autoimmune disorders, gastro-intestinal and musculo-skeletal complaints, skin afflictions and mental health issues. Homeopathy offers cost effective, non-addictive and sustainable treatment solutions that do not cause dependency issues in the user.
In addition, many people who use orthodox drugs to manage long term chronic conditions opt to supplement their treatment with homeopathic remedies, tinctures and tissue salts to strengthen their constitutions, address miasmatic blocks, for organ support, and to deal with troublesome side effects of their allopathic medications.
Every homeopath, practitioner and user, has a story about how they first happened upon homeopathy.
With my father, uncle, grandfather, great grandfather, and later on my mother and brother all homeopathic practitioners, you can say I was born with a homeopathic spoon in my mouth.
Homeopathy has been first resort in my family and remains so today. It has pulled us through everything from injuries, migraines, flu, nose blocks or bleeds, tummy upsets, arthritic/rheumatic pains to managing (alongside conventional therapies) blood pressure, cancers, diabetes, anger, bad moods and irritability.
Taking homeopathic remedies felt as normal as brushing your teeth in the morning or combing your hair before heading out for the day.
Seemi Saify
Year 3 student at CHE, London
Material published in this section of the website does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Society of Homeopaths.
