Herbal eye drops to ‘cure’ cataract, coffee enemas for detoxification, magnet therapy for pain relief – alternative medicine promising quick fixes has long been popular in India. However over the last decade such treatments – which can be outright quackery – have had their status boosted by the nationalist nostalgia pushed by a hardline government. Empirical science is often loudly trashed by people in positions of power; the risk to public health is evident.

In India’s academic circles it is increasingly common for ‘decolonization’ to be a mast upon which the Hindu Right hoists its flag. These hardliners have successfully pushed for a forced linearity between anti-imperialism and modern hyper-nationalism, and medicine is a convenient frontier on which these battles are being fought.