The recent failure of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) to acknowledge the merits of traditional Indian medicine has prompted the director of the University of Pune's inter-disciplinary school of health sciences Dr. Bhushan Patwardhan, to expose the fact in various Indian journals including the CSIR's.
Talking to this correspondent, Dr. Patwardhan said, "In its December 2002 issue, the journal had published three articles, including a review on herbal remedies. Ironically, not one of the more than 139 references in the articles mentioned India's rich contribution to traditional medicine."
He lamented that India, which represent the Ayurveda remedies, was completely overlooked by the NEJM and he felt this was a deliberate attempt to lower the India's contribution to herbal medicine. Dr. Patwardhan opined that Indian scientists and Indian researches have always faced such neglects by the international scientific/medical journals.
He said the journal mentioned about the Chinese Homeopath amongst others but Indian Ayurveda remedies were not given any place in the article. Despite writing to NEJM twice, they simply declined to acknowledge India's contribution saying they had received many letters and cannot publish every letter as per their editorial policy.''
Thus, to reveal this fact before the Indian scientific community Dr. Patwardhan had decided to use Indian journals. "We will write about the fact in Indian journals for the Indian scientists to know how the Indian work is neglected by the International journals," Patwardhan pointed out. However, Patwardhan had asked the NEJM editorial boards to reconsider the case.