INTRODUCTION
Homeopathy in India is regulated through the Homeopathy Central Council Act, 1973.
The system was brought into India by the missionaries and travelers even during the life time of Dr Hahnemann. But, the earliest evidence of official patronage received to system was through a Romanian, Dr. John Martin Honigberger. Dr. Honigberger arrived at Lahore in 1829 - 30, and later in 1839 was invited to treat the Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab, who happened to be seriously ill. Subsequently, his success on the treatment and prevention of cholera epidemics gave him the name Cholera doctor. This made the system popular amongst the public in Calcutta. Gradually its fame spread across the country.
The year 1867 Banaras Homoeopathic Hospital was established with Shri Loke Nath Moitra, as Physician In-charge. In August 1869 a homoeopathic charitable dispensary was started at Allahabad with Shri Priya Nath Bose as the Physician In-charge of the dispensary. In 1870, the Maharaja of Jaipur sent for Dr. Salazar of Calcutta for the treatment of his cataract. From this time onwards, homoeopathy spread not only in Bengal, but also to other parts of India. Homoeopathic treatment proved to be highly effective in practice and its fame spread rapidly with the opening of several dispensaries in the second half of the nineteenth century. This necessitated the need to regulate the system and thus the process of its recognition by the Government of India was started.
In April 1937, Md. Ghias –ud-idin, M.L.A. moved a resolution in the Legislative Assembly of Bengal for its recognition. The resolution was passed and forwarded to the State Governments for its implementation and Bengal became the first province in India to constitute a Homoeopathic State Faculty in 1943. After independence and formation of National Government, on 17th February, 1948 Shri Satish Chandra Samanta, M.P. (West Bengal) moved a resolution which runs as follows:
“This Assembly is of opinion that homoeopathic system of treatment be recognized by the Indian Union and that a General Council and a State Faculty of Homoeopathic Medicine be established at once”.
This resolution was unanimously adopted and subsequently the Government appointed a Homoeopathic Enquiry Committee in 1948. The Committee submitted its report in 1949.
In 1952, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, the then Union Health Minister appointed a Homoeopathic Ad-hoc Committee which functioned up to 1954. In 1954 Government constituted a Homoeopathic Advisory Committee. In 1956, this Advisory Committee was taken over by the Minister of Health and Secretary in the Ministry of Health became its first Chairman. Govt. of India appointed Dr. K. G. Saxena as first Honorary Homoeopathic Advisor in 1962. This Advisory Committee also recommended the constitution of a Central Council of Homoeopathy. A special panel of Planning Commission of Indian Systems of Medicine and Homoeopathy endorsed this recommendation in 1952, 1956 and 1966. The Central Council of Health comprising of the State Health Ministers recommended in 1965 that the Central Council of Indian Systems of Medicine may be set up as early as possible to lay down and regulate the standards of education, examination and practice in Ayurveda, Unani and Homoeopathy.
The Central Council of Health, therefore, constituted a Sub-Committee in October, 1967 with Pandit Shiv Sharma the Chairman to look into the details of the proposed legislation.
Accordingly, the Bill for Indian Medicine and Homoeopathy Central Council was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on 17-12-1968. A joint Committee of Parliament considered the Bill. The exponents of Homoeopathy and also the experts of the three systems of Indian Medicine, viz., Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha represented before the committee that the basic concepts of Indian Medicine were different from the fundamentals of Homoeopathy and, therefore, a separate Council of Homoeopathy was needed. For the proper growth and development of all the four systems, the Committee recommended two separate independent Central Councils, one for all the three systems of Indian Medicine and the other for Homoeopathy. The Committee amended the Bill suitably so as to make provisions for a composite Central Council for the three Indian Systems deleting references to Homoeopathy. The Committee also recommended for preparation of a separate Bill for Homoeopathy and drafted a Bill on similar lines for introduction in Parliament. On the basis of these, The Homoeopathic Central Council Bill was drafted and was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on 3rd April, 1972. Subsequently th bill was passed by the Lok Sabha and on 19th December, 1973, the President of India gave his consent to the bill. Thus Homeopathy Central Council Act came into existence in 1973.
