The Religion of Medicine: How Healthcare Rebuilt an Old Structure in India
- Madhukar Dama
- 3 hours ago
- 9 min read
In India, religion has always been more than belief — it is a full structure shaping society, economy, politics, and daily life. Temples, priests, rituals, festivals, and sacred texts organized people’s fears, hopes, and duties for centuries.
When modern healthcare entered India, it did not land on empty soil. The ground was already fertile: people were trained to surrender authority, follow rituals, pay offerings, and fear divine punishment. Medicine simply replaced the gods with diseases, the priests with doctors, and temples with hospitals.
The structure remained the same. Only the names changed.
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1. Beliefs & Doctrines
Religion in India:
Texts: Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Gita.
Codes: Dharma Shastras, Manusmriti.
Framed as eternal truth (Sanatana Dharma = “eternal order”).
Healthcare in India:
Medical texts: Harrison’s Internal Medicine, ICD codes, DSM.
Protocols: ICMR guidelines, Ayushman Bharat health protocols, WHO recommendations.
Also framed as unquestionable science.
Example: Just as very few Hindus question the Gita or Manusmriti, very few patients question an oncologist’s insistence on multiple chemotherapy cycles — the authority of the text and “guidelines” silences debate.
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2. Authority & Hierarchy
Religion in India:
Hierarchy: Guru → Purohit (priest) → Temple staff → Devotee.
Authority signaled through saffron robes, tilaks, sacred threads.
Healthcare in India:
Hierarchy: Senior consultant → Specialist → Resident doctor → Nurse → Patient.
Authority signaled through white coats, stethoscopes, degrees.
Example: A village pujari once mediated between god and devotee. Today, the local doctor mediates between “medical truth” and the patient. Both claim exclusive access to hidden knowledge.
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3. Rituals & Practices
Religion in India:
Daily puja, vrats (fasts), yajnas, temple darshan.
Life-cycle rituals: namkaran (naming), upanayanam (thread ceremony), marriage, antyeshti (last rites).
Healthcare in India:
Routine blood tests, annual health check-ups, MRI/CT scans, vaccination drives.
Life-cycle rituals: institutional childbirth, fertility treatments, ICU deaths.
Example: A family once performed Satyanarayan puja for protection. Today, they go for “full body health check-ups” at Apollo or Fortis for reassurance. Both rituals calm fear, whether of gods or of disease.
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4. Psychological Control
Religion in India:
Fear: bad karma, doshas in horoscope, curses from gods.
Consolation: punya (merit), moksha (liberation), blessings from saints.
Healthcare in India:
Fear: diabetes, cancer, hypertension, “lifestyle diseases.”
Consolation: cure, remission, “early detection saves lives.”
Example: A pandit once warned, “If you don’t do this puja, you may suffer misfortune.” A doctor today warns, “If you don’t take these pills for life, you may suffer a stroke.” Both plant fear, then sell reassurance.
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5. Social Organization
Religion in India:
Jatis, sampradayas, sects (Shaivites, Vaishnavites, Lingayats).
Festivals: Ganesh Chaturthi, Diwali, Navratri binding communities.
Healthcare in India:
Patient clubs: “cancer survivors,” diabetic support groups.
Public health festivals: Polio Sunday, mass vaccination days, Yoga Day.
Example: Just as Ganesh mandals create community identity, cancer survivor meets at Tata Memorial Hospital do the same — binding identity through shared belief/condition.
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6. Economic Power
Religion in India:
Enormous temple wealth: Tirupati, Shirdi, Siddhivinayak, Padmanabhaswamy.
Pilgrimage economies: Kumbh Mela, Vaishno Devi, Amarnath.
Healthcare in India:
Hospital empires: Apollo, Fortis, Manipal, AIIMS network.
Medical tourism: Indians and foreigners traveling for treatment in Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore.
Example: Families once spent lakhs on a pilgrimage to Tirupati for blessings. Today they spend the same on a bypass surgery in a corporate hospital. Fear and hope both generate revenue.
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7. Political Power
Religion in India:
Kings and politicians gained legitimacy through blessings of priests, mathas, and temples.
Laws influenced by Manusmriti and Shastras.
Healthcare in India:
Governments legitimize policies through ICMR/AIIMS recommendations.
COVID lockdowns, vaccination drives, and Ayushman Bharat framed as “scientifically necessary.”
Example: A king once sought blessings from a Shankaracharya to prove legitimacy. A Prime Minister today stands with AIIMS doctors to prove legitimacy of health policies.
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8. Cultural Instruments
Religion in India:
Temples dominating skylines (Madurai Meenakshi, Jagannath Puri, Somnath).
Sacred symbols: tilak, rudraksha, saffron robes.
Festival calendars dictating life rhythms.
Healthcare in India:
Hospitals as modern temples (AIIMS Delhi, Apollo Chennai).
Uniforms: white coats, scrubs, masks.
Health calendars: World TB Day, Polio Eradication Day, International Yoga Day.
Example: Just as lakhs gather for Kumbh Mela, lakhs queue for vaccination drives — mass gatherings for collective “purification.”
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9. Knowledge Monopoly
Religion in India:
Sanskrit kept scriptures away from ordinary people.
Priests alone interpreted mantras and rituals.
Healthcare in India:
Medical jargon: “myocardial infarction” instead of “heart attack.”
Doctors alone interpret blood reports, scans, and prescriptions.
Example: A villager once depended on a pujari to read a horoscope. Today, the same villager depends on a doctor to read a pathology report. The monopoly remains intact.
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10. Self-Perpetuation
Religion in India:
Apostates branded nastikas, punished socially.
Saints and martyrs glorified.
Healthcare in India:
Doubters branded “anti-science,” “quacks.”
“Miracle survivors” glorified in campaigns.
Example: A Charvaka philosopher rejecting Vedas was ostracized. Today, anyone promoting alternatives to biomedicine risks ridicule or legal punishment. Both systems defend themselves by silencing dissent.
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The Closed Loop
Religion: Karma → Priest → Ritual → Blessing → Repeat.
Healthcare: Disease → Doctor → Treatment → Relief → Recurrence → Repeat.
The loop is identical. Both thrive by keeping people inside the cycle.
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Conclusion
In India, the religious structure made people comfortable with authority, ritual, fear, and payment. Healthcare only slipped into this ready-made system. Temples became hospitals, priests became doctors, offerings became hospital bills.
The system of control survived intact. The labels changed. The saffron robe became the white coat. The mantra became the prescription. The darshan became the diagnosis.
The religion of medicine is nothing new. It is simply the old Indian religious structure, rebuilt in modern form.
The Religion of Medicine
A multi-session dialogue between Madhukar and a group of doctors
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Session 1: Fear — The Entry Gate
Madhukar:
Let us begin where every system begins: fear.
Religion began by holding man’s fear of death, drought, famine, sin.
Medicine holds man’s fear of disease, pain, relapse, mortality.
The temple said: “Without us, you are vulnerable to demons, curses, karma.”
The hospital says: “Without us, you are vulnerable to infections, cancers, complications.”
The villager once walked barefoot to the shrine when plague struck.
The urban citizen now rushes to the emergency room.
Fear opens the gate. Dependence walks in.
Doctor 1:
So you mean, without fear, neither temple nor hospital would stand?
Madhukar:
Exactly. Fear is the soil. Rituals, authority, economy — they are only branches.
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Session 2: Authority — The Pyramid
Madhukar:
Fear alone is unstable. People want someone to manage it. So comes authority.
In religion: God on top, priest beneath, devotee at the bottom.
In medicine: Science on top, doctor beneath, patient at the bottom.
Look at the robe and the coat. Both are uniforms of legitimacy.
Look at the altar and the operation theatre. Both are restricted zones, entered only by the initiated.
Doctor 2:
But priests claimed divine sanction. We claim scientific sanction. That’s different.
Madhukar:
On the surface, yes. But the pattern is the same:
A higher power that cannot be questioned (God/Science).
A mediator class (Priests/Doctors).
A lay population dependent on interpretation.
Both pyramids rest on the inability of the base to reach the top directly.
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Session 3: Rituals — The Repetition
Madhukar:
Now see the daily rhythm.
Religion had prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, confession.
Medicine has check-ups, scans, annual screenings, reviews.
Both are repeated, not for cure, but for reassurance.
Both demand regularity, not completion.
Doctor 3:
So every “yearly master health check-up” is like a yearly puja?
Madhukar (smiling):
Yes. The puja promised protection till next year. The check-up promises the same.
It is the repetition that keeps the faith alive.
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Session 4: Economics — The Offering
Madhukar:
Every ritual carried an offering.
Religion had dakshina, temple donations, yajna expenses.
Medicine has consultation fees, hospital bills, insurance premiums.
Both claim: “Without giving, you cannot receive.”
Both create industries around sacred centers — pilgrimage towns then, medical cities now.
Doctor 1:
So pharma is the new temple wealth?
Madhukar:
Yes. Gold once filled temple vaults. Patents now fill corporate vaults.
Both are justified as necessary to keep the system running.
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Session 5: Social Order — The Web
Madhukar:
Religion was not just about gods; it organized society.
Castes, festivals, marriages, mourning — all shaped by it.
Medicine does the same.
Birth is in the hospital, not at home.
Death is in the ICU, not with family.
Even marriage and family planning now pass through fertility clinics and genetic counseling.
Doctor 4:
So you mean medicine is writing our social script?
Madhukar:
Yes. Religion once told us what to eat, when to marry, when to abstain.
Now medicine tells us what diet, what timing for conception, what age to screen.
The script has changed language, not function.
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Session 6: Political Power — The Crown
Madhukar:
Do not forget politics.
Kings once bowed to priests for legitimacy.
Governments now bow to health experts for legitimacy.
Lockdowns, vaccination drives, health budgets — they are the new decrees.
And the public accepts them with the same unquestioning faith that once accepted royal edicts blessed by gods.
Doctor 2:
So when we doctors appear on TV panels, we are like court priests?
Madhukar:
Yes. You become the face of authority, translating the unseen — divine will then, medical data now — into orders for the masses.
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Session 7: Self-Perpetuation — The Loop
Madhukar:
The brilliance of both systems lies here:
Religion never eliminated sin.
Medicine never eliminates disease.
Both systems keep the problem alive just enough to keep the structure alive.
Not by conspiracy, but by design.
Sin was declared endless; so is disease.
Salvation was promised but postponed; cure is promised but never final.
Thus the devotee never leaves the temple, and the patient never leaves the hospital.
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Session 8: Awakening — The Doctor’s Choice
Madhukar (after a long pause):
Now, my friends, the question is not whether the structure is good or bad.
The question is: within this structure, who are you?
A priest could exploit fear or he could soothe it.
A doctor can exploit disease or he can truly heal.
You cannot dismantle the structure in one lifetime.
But you can practice within it without becoming its blind servant.
You can offer dialogue, not just prescriptions.
You can restore dignity, not just treatment.
You can loosen the chains, even if you cannot break them.
That is your choice. That is your freedom inside the structure.
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The doctors sit in silence. Some look disturbed. Some thoughtful. Some relieved. The forest wind moves through the trees. The dialogue has not ended their questions — it has only deepened them.
THE WHITE TEMPLE
(a long poem in movements)
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Movement I — Fear (the soil)
they began with fear,
they always begin with fear.
fear of plague,
fear of death,
fear of the body betraying itself.
religion said:
hell is waiting for the sinner.
medicine says:
cancer is waiting for the careless.
and people
always listen
when the message begins with fear.
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Movement II — Authority (the pyramid)
in the old world
a priest stood between man and god.
in the new world
a doctor stands between man and science.
both carry robes,
one saffron, one white.
both carry language,
one in shlokas, one in jargon.
both say:
you cannot understand this yourself.
trust me.
follow me.
the pyramid is always the same:
the unreachable top,
the mediator in the middle,
the powerless at the bottom.
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Movement III — Rituals (the repetition)
ritual is how memory becomes obedience.
temples had fasting,
prayers at dawn,
offerings at festival time.
hospitals have follow-ups,
blood tests at intervals,
screenings at age milestones.
it is not cure,
it is continuity.
not completion,
but return.
the devotee returned every year.
the patient returns every month.
faith is renewed by repetition.
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Movement IV — Economics (the offering)
the fire never burned without ghee.
the temple never lived without offerings.
gold filled the sanctum,
grain filled the priest’s house.
the hospital is no different.
your fee is the dakshina.
your insurance is the yajna.
your premium is the new gold.
and around the shrine,
around the ward,
an economy blossoms.
pilgrimage towns then,
medical cities now.
fear finances both.
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Movement V — Social Order (the web)
religion shaped how you lived.
what to eat,
when to marry,
when to mourn.
medicine now does the same.
diet charts,
family planning,
fertility clinics,
ICU funerals.
birth has moved to the hospital.
death has moved to the ICU.
the web is woven again,
same knots, different thread.
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Movement VI — Political Power (the crown)
kings once bowed to priests.
governments now bow to health experts.
the priest sanctioned coronations.
the doctor sanctions policies.
and the people obey.
in faith, in fear.
lockdowns became fasts.
vaccines became prasad.
announcements became edicts.
the ruler rules best
when the temple
and the hospital
stand behind him.
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Movement VII — The Loop (self-perpetuation)
the genius of both
is that the problem is never solved.
religion never destroyed sin.
it needed sin
to keep the shrine alive.
medicine never destroys disease.
it needs disease
to keep the system alive.
sin was endless,
disease is endless.
salvation postponed,
cure postponed.
always promised,
never final.
the devotee never leaves the temple.
the patient never leaves the hospital.
the wheel spins.
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Movement VIII — The Choice (awakening)
but listen.
this is not rage.
this is not mockery.
this is clarity.
because inside every structure
there is still a human being.
the priest could have been cruel,
or he could have soothed the trembling villager.
the doctor can exploit the frightened patient,
or he can hold a hand at midnight.
the system is bigger than you.
you cannot smash it in one life.
but you can walk clean inside it.
you can make space,
make dignity,
make some cracks for light to come through.
the white temple will remain,
long after you are gone.
but while you are here,
you can choose
whether you become the cage,
or the key.
