Explorative Study of Indian Medicines in Singapore

Abstract

Compared to ayurveda, siddha medical practice and use outside India has hardly been investigated. Based on an ethnography of siddha and ayurveda clinics conducted in 2019 in Singapore, and secondarily, in southern Malaysia, this paper analyzes the development of these medicines in terms of adaptations, transformations, and the strategies or avoidance necessary to respond to clients/patients’ demands and to fit in with the regulations for traditional medicines. Whereas siddha medicine is well established in Malaysia, it is hardly discernible in Singapore, represented by only two clinics: a long-standing one reflecting the tradition, and a recent one, illustrating the process of modernization impelled by the institutionalization of medical knowledge. The practice of ayurveda, by contrast, has seen a significant expansion since the beginning of the twenty-first century in these two countries, a dynamism impelled by its reputation abroad which has been spurring Indian practitioners to migrate and popularize it.