Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute

Shastri News - September 2009

Shastri Alumnus receives SSHRC grant for research on Biomedicine and Ancient Healing

Dr. Robin Oakley, Shastri alumnus and professor at Dalhousie University, has received a $92,277 grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada to conduct a three-year research project examining ancient Tamil medicine. The Siddha system in South India is a form of humoral medicine that is thought to have preceded both the Ayruvedic and Greek systems. In the past decade, the Indian Government has put more funding toward promoting the Siddha system, causing a new proliferation in both awareness and practice. In Tamil Nadu, both science and medicine have been closely linked to approaches toward social and political economic development.

Dr. Oakley hopes to shed international light on the significant contribution that Ancient Tamils have made to science and medicine – a contribution she feels is still undervalued in North America.

“One of the reasons why biomedicine so often fails is that it strips the social dimension of disease away and only examines the affected organ,” explains Dr. Oakley. “A human being’s health is also greatly affected by the economic and resulting social context in which their lives are lived, and to ignore this dimension often amounts to a band aid over chronic problems rooted in social conditions.”

Of primary interest to Dr. Oakley’s research is the significant movement within the Siddha system as a form of “people’s science” that vigorously challenges both the biomedical mind/body dichotomy, and profit-oriented allopathy, with a scientifically sound and effective approach toward health and medicine grounded in common sense. “Science” is viewed by Tamil Siddha practitioners as a process of verification placing the human factor first. Siddha advocates a strong link between ancient values of Tamil culture, medical practice, and ones’ duty to serve people for free.

“Canada can learn much about the fact that Tamil Canadians come from a civilized society with an ancient complex scientific heritage, a large part of which focused on preserving social services to create a society fit for human beings to live in,” says Dr. Oakley.

The logic of the Siddha approach also has relevance to aboriginal peoples in North America whose immune systems were destroyed by the processes of colonialism and capital penetration of their traditional economies. “When human populations are stressed to their limit, the immune system is affected and a ripe context for illness is created. In the Siddha system it is often noted that food is medicine and medicine is food, and starting from this basis is a logical basis upon which to build a strong foundation of medical science.”

Throughout her research, Dr. Oakley will be partnering with scholars from Pondicherry Central University, the Pondicherry Institute of Linguistics and Culture, The French Institute of Pondicherry, Sri Venkataswarna University and the University of Hyderabad.

Dr. Oakley received a Faculty Research Fellowship from the Shastri Institute in 2007-2008. During her fellowship she trained in the Tamil language and began pilot research for her current project. She attributes much of her success in attaining SSHRC funding to the work she was able to accomplish during her Shastri fellowship and appreciates the Institutional support she received from Pondicherry Central University and The French Institute of Pondicherry. She would also like to thank her colleagues Dr. Sasicoumar Brumont, Suresh Chandrasekaran , R. Mishra, G. Ravi Kumar Reddy and R. Yalamala for the their ongoing academic contributions to both of these projects.

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