Last year, I read this op-ed in the Herald Tribune, ‘Can you patent wisdom?’, which I had saved and hidden away somewhere. (My attempt at hoarding knowledge?!) It is a beautiful piece on how Yoga has become big business in the West, through multitudes of copyrights, despite an understanding in ancient India that everyone has access to knowledge of any kind. Then this is paralled with Big Pharma’s co-optation of traditional medicinal knowledge. Read the article in full, it’s really quite funny in the way it’s written!
Still, Indians get upset every time they hear reports – often overblown – of Westerners’ stealing their age-old wisdom through the mechanism of copyright law. The fears may be exaggerated, but they are widespread and reflect India’s mixed experience with globalization.
Western pharmaceutical companies make billions on drugs that are often first discovered in developing countries. But herbal remedies like bitter gourd or turmeric, which are known to be effective against everything from diabetes to piles, earn nothing for the country whose sages first isolated their virtues. The Indian government estimates that worldwide, 2,000 patents are issued a year based on traditional Indian medicines.
Drugs and hatha yoga have the same aim: to help us lead healthier lives. India has given the world yoga for free. No wonder so many in the country feel that the world should return the favor by making lifesaving drugs available at reduced prices, or at least letting Indian companies make cheap generics. If the lotus position belongs to all mankind, so should the formula for Gleevec, the leukemia drug over whose patent a Swiss pharmaceuticals company is suing the Indian government.
It’s not just Indians that get upset–I also find it unfair that other people would be profitting off of knowledge which may not ‘belong’ to Indians alone, but at least was created here.
There’s more at stake than just the money. There is also the perception that the world trading system is unfair, that the deck is stacked against developing countries. If the copying of Western drugs is illegal, so should be the patenting of yoga. It is also intellectual piracy, stood on its head.
