Ayurveda occupies an unusual place in India’s health system. It is deeply familiar yet institutionally peripheral, widely used yet unevenly evaluated. Around half of Indians report using an AYUSH system, with Ayurveda the most common choice for everyday wellness and, at times, curative care. But can a medical tradition built around individualised treatment meaningfully serve population health, which depends on scale, standardisation, and predictability?

Ayurveda has strengths in prevention, lifestyle, and long-term wellbeing. In an era dominated by chronic disease, stress-related illness, and over-medicalisation, Ayurveda’s emphasis on diet, daily routine, and balance resonates with concerns Western medicine has only recently begun to address.

Yet population health is a different enterprise from individual care. It relies on interventions that can be delivered reliably, evaluated transparently, and scaled across diverse populations. Vaccination, sanitation, food fortification, and standardised treatment protocols work not because they are perfect for every individual, but because they are effective for most and can be implemented widely. The tension is obvious: Can a personalised system be reconciled with population-level needs?

Even at the individual curative level, many argue that Ayurveda cannot be rigorously evaluated. Because treatments vary by constitution, digestion, stage of disease, diet, and season, standard clinical trials are said to be inappropriate. But difficulty does not offer an exemption from........

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