Inside The Fascinating World Of India’s Bonesetters, Where Tradition Supersedes Reason

Inside The Fascinating World Of India’s Bonesetters, Where Tradition Supersedes Reason
Taarika John

From the dodgy lanes of Old Delhi and Turkman Gate, to the busy streets of Shakarpur in East Delhi and Mahipalpur at the southern end, driving around India’s capital there’s a strong chance you might have chanced upon some boards depicting muscular men with white plasters on an arm and/or a leg, ripped wrestlers and bodybuilders, even Deepika Padukone in one case in Mysore, that sell a shartiya ilaaj, or a guaranteed treatment, for bone-related ailments. These aren’t doctors, nor chiropractors as you might assume at first. In fact, they’re advertising a small community of people who have cemented themselves within indian tradition as bonesetters, an art and ‘science’ that isn’t really a science at all. According to Dr. Amitabh Mitra, the practice may possibly have trickled down the Silk Route, and brought into India by Mughal armies when they invaded the subcontinent in the first place. “The knowledge of manipulation and healing was well known since centuries,” Dr. Mitra writes.

Even in the face of rapid urbanization though, bone-setters remain one of the largest specialist groups practicing traditional medicine. It’s estimated that there is one practitioner for every two to five villages in rural India, their numbers only surpassed by dais, or traditional birth attendants. Bone-setters exist across India too, but as Dr. Mitra points out, Delhi hosts the largest number of bonesetters. Here, the art is frequently attributed and linked with wrestlers, with many of these medicine men even adding Pahelwan as a surname for ‘credibility.’

Source: Niyati Upadhya

Ghugghi Pahelwan is one such bone-setter. Having migrated from Lahore and set up shop in Shahdara after Partition in 1954, today, his is a household name in the area where he started practicing, with his sons carry on his legacy of bonesetting ever since he passed away. He originally learned the art from a guru in Lahore, and other bonesetters have even taken on the name Ghugghi in various different forms and spelling as a way to increase their own brand value. “Wrestlers understand the human body,” explains Saleem, a wrestler who also runs the shop Guru Guggu Pahelwan, to Motherland Magazine. “They know about bones and muscles.”

To be fair, there’s a lot of truth to that statement. Wrestlers do have a fair understanding of how to manipulate muscle sprains and bones, and Choudhary Mohammed Ikram Pahelwan, owner of a small roadside ‘clinic’ in Mahipalpur, told Times of India that it has a lot to do with having often suffered dislocations and sprains themselves, not to mention watching fellow wrestlers being treated for the same. In the process, many of them develop a rudimentary understanding of bones. “One wrestler was such an expert that he would dislocate his opponent’s elbow in the ring, flatten him and fix the elbow again,” Mohammed said.

Rather evasive, the Pahelwans are all very secretive about their trade and the ingredients that go into their murky-looking salve and oils, but they do assure it’s all natural. Many hadvaids even claim it can treat polio, paralysis, cervical pain and even sciatica. Whether we buy it or not however, is hardly the question. There are numerous people who swear by the work of the bone-setters, such as interior decorator Nirupama Chanana. Wary at first of the hadvaid’s legitimacy, she took her aging grandmother to Ghugghi Pahelwan for multiple hip fractures, which doctors had ruled against surgery for due to her age, leaving them with no options. “After two-three visits, she got relief from pain. After about 10 visits , she was able to crawl. Now, she can move with a walker. For us, the recovery is almost a miracle,” she told Times Of India. But there are many who don’t share her blind faith.

“Repairing a fracture isn’t just about fixing a bone. What about the torn tissue? Faulty treatment can hamper blood circulation or worse.” asks orthopaedician P. K. Dave, former director of AIIMS. The Indian Medical Association’s ‘anti-quackery wing’ has been rallying to curb the practice of medicine that is not recognised by the government, the ‘alternative medical practices.’ A survey estimates the number of quacks, a derogatory term for people who promotes unproven or fraudulent medical practices in the country exceeds the number of licensed doctors. As per the 2009 study conducted by the Association of Medical Consultants, there are close to 2.5 million quacks in India, with Mumbai having approximately 20,000 and Delhi as many 40,000, respectively. As opposed to the 90,000 legally licensed and registered doctors in Maharashtra, there are an incredible 95,000 quacks in the state, and Andhra Pradesh is said to have a whopping 1.5 lakh quacks as opposed to the 60,000 qualified doctors.

Still, this bonesetting tradition, however conflicted a terrain it may be, has held a place in our society for hundreds of years. Many people swear by their treatments, eternally grateful for finally getting some relief from their aches and pains; while on the other hand, there are groups that continue to rally against the ‘medieval’ practices. As long as there are takers, however, regardless of elusive they may appear to Indian society, their position in our cultural heritage is one that cannot be denied.

Related Stories

No stories found.
logo
Homegrown
homegrown.co.in