Those Sweet Little White Pellets

There are more than 6,000 unregistered and untrained practitioners of homeopathy in and around Calcutta and their number is growing, thanks to the immense popularity of this branch of medicine among Bengalis. These untrained homeopaths treat, between themselves, more than 1.5 lakh patients a day. The 3,500 registered ones—graduates from the state's five homeopathy colleges—do better business, treating about 2.5 lakh patients a day.

The popularity of this branch of 'medicine' can be traced to a German homeopath, Honnigberger, who settled in Calcutta in 1839. A big businessman of that time, Babu Rajendralal Dutta, took to homeopathy and roped in prominent people like Dr Mahendralal Sarkar and Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar as patrons of homeopathy.

Pareshnath Banerjee, Iswarchandra's nephew, was one of the first to set up a practice. Pareshnath's son Parimal followed in his footsteps and has treated 14.5 million patients over the last four decades! Parimal sees no harm in amateur practitioners of homeopathy. "That's because homeopathy medicines have no side-effects," he says. "I denounce ignorant practice of homeopathy, but allopathic doctors don't visit the rural areas and many people can't afford the high consultation fees," he argues. Pointing to the increasing number of patients who flock to him from Europe, the US and Canada, Parimal says: "People here (in Calcutta and Bengal) realised the efficacy of homeopathy long time ago. Now people from the rest of the country and the world are waking up to homeopathy".