Had a Hindutva organ ruled India after Independence and closed down CMC, Kattaiah would have died young; he broke superstition to let modern medicine save his life
Kancha Kattaiah was born in 1948 in a small forest zone village, Papaiah Pet, Chenna Rao Pet Mandal, Telangana. After school education up to 11tt grade in a small town nearby, he dropped out and got married. He then entered into his family’s double occupational job, shepherding and agriculture.
In 1976, he developed a major heart disease. According to doctors in Hyderabad, who examined him as an outpatient, he would not survive, as two valves in his heart were dysfunctional.
To CMC Vellore
It was found out that only in the Christian Medical College Hospital (CMC) Vellore, Tamil Nadu, the valve replacement could be done, if at all possible. Even in the then united Andhra Pradesh capital Hyderabad, there was no fully trained cardiologist at that time. There was no medical technology like an echogram as well.
Also read: RSS leader demands review of terms 'secular', 'socialist' in Constitution
Kattaiah was a courageous man. He pulled together his financial resources and went to Vellore CMC. With the help of his younger brother — this writer, whom he had educated up to a masters in Hyderabad's Osmania University — he applied for financial assistance for medical purposes from the Nizam Trust.
The Trust, at that time, was allotting grants for chronic heart patients. Kattaiah got Rs 8,000. That was his first financial lifeline.
The claims of the present ruling RSS/BJP forces are that Hinduism, from ancient to now, is the source of all science, and we do not have to learn anything from the West.
It was diagnosed at CMC that his mitral valve in the heart needed to be replaced, and it could be done. His admission number in that life-changing hospital, 912829, is archaic. For the entire operation, his family spent Rs 50,000, mostly borrowed.
With that medical opinion, he picked up courage and hope of life that was already declared to end soon. He was operated on on December 17, 1979. He lived for another 46 years and passed away earlier this month in his Hyderabad apartment, aged about 77.
Also read: Consumeristic lifestyle has reduced relationships to mere transactions: RSS
Source of science
The question is: why was such a pioneering valve replacement done in a Christian missionary hospital, but not in a Hindutva missionary hospital?
The claims of the present ruling RSS/BJP forces are that Hinduism, from ancient to now, is the source of all science, and we do not have to learn anything from the West.
Of course, the Western scientific growth happened by challenging the Christian dogma. But the medieval ancestors of the Hindu dogma were never challenged by the Brahmin intellectuals, who were custodians of all knowledge.
The Shudras, Dalits, and Adivasis, who constitute the majority of people whom they claim Hindu now, were not allowed to study the Hindu dogmas and challenge them to create a scientific base. In fact, they were not allowed to learn the Hindu religious language, Sanskrit. At no stage were Galileo and Copernicus allowed to emerge in the Hindu history.
Weakness of past
The modern organisers of the Hindutva forces do not accept the weakness of their past. They want to project weakness as strength; their superstition as science.
This is where Indian universities and research institutions are in danger, particularly the medical institutions. They are forcing Indian youth to read Sanskrit books that promote superstition as religion and science.
No doubt, there is a subtle relationship between religion and science. The historical spiritual discourse around the conflict between science and religion is framed in terms of Evolutionism Vs Creationism. The idea of God is based on human speculation.
But ideas like Karma in Hinduism and Original Sin in Christianity are superstitious but religious. Superstition cannot negotiate with science. Medicine is a science. The hospital is its institutional base.
Also read: TN govt plans to start Siddha fertility clinic, doctors question efficacy
Islam that arrived in India in the medieval times has created its own superstitious myths — that Allah cures all diseases. Indian Islam has not created a hospital of CMC standards.
Kattaiah’s anti-superstition life
Kattaiah realised well before he became a heart patient that superstition does not allow villagers to prosper. It adds only to their financial distress. He did not encourage superstitious practices in his house after his mother and father died, and he took over the responsibility of the family.
Modern medicine was seen as British colonial medicine and against the ancient, indigenous Ayurveda
The village cultural atmosphere in those days was very superstitious. People would spend a lot of money around mantrics and villages, regional temples and priests. Kattaiah overcame such superstitious beliefs by the end of his school education.
Normally, such a health condition generates fear and makes a person run to anything that constructs a myth around life. Kattaiah while going to Vellore had to halt at Tirupathi. When the attendant brother asked him whether he would go for a darshan of the deity, he said, “If the surgeon who operates on me is good I will survive and if the physician is good and recommends proper medicines I will live long, but not with the darshan of divine images.”
Also read: 'Regressive, harmful': Medical fraternity slams move to merge Ayurveda with MBBS course
He proved himself so right by living for 45 years and six months with a single valve.
Nehruvian science Vs RSS anti-science
India is a country of superstitions. Even educated men and women, with the campaign of organisations like the RSS, Hindu Mahasabha and Bajrang Dal, are spreading superstitions against the Nehruvian scientific spirit, which encouraged Christian missionary hospitals and schools.
The RSS did not establish a single hospital matching CMC in Nagpur or elsewhere. While the CMC was established by a Christian missionary organisation, Hindutva organisations have organised Kumbh Melas, temple visits, Kasi yatras, Durga poojas, and so on, but never focus on modern medicine.
In fact, modern medicine was seen as British colonial medicine and against the ancient indigenous Ayurveda. But Ayurveda did not advance like what they abusively call ‘English medicine’. They never differentiated between science and colonialism.
Even in Telangana, people were forced to believe that dipping in the Ganga (often it just means some water body nearby) would cure them of diseases. They did not distinguish between religion and superstition.
The Star Edward steel valve
To go back to Kattaiah, he wanted to live by all means. He got operated on in CMC and the valve was replaced at a cost of Rs 50,000, raised through loans. It was a huge amount way back in 1979.
Dr Stanley John operated on him and placed a Star Edward steel valve just brought into the medical market in America. Dr George Cherian was his physician. That was the first ever manmade valve in the world. It worked for over four decades before failing earlier this month, causing his death.
Kattaiah's medical record.
Nehruvian nationalism allowed Christian hospitals akin to CMC and advanced institutions akin to the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.
The CMC was established as a nursing and delivery clinic by an American missionary woman, Dr Ida Sophia Scudder. It has grown into a major world-class medical institution in India. It developed with the help of foreign mission funding and also money collected from patients over time. The government in Delhi supported its growth by allowing fund flow.
Opposite entities
Imagine the RSS/BJP being the first ruling force in India. They may have closed down CMC as a 'conversionist' and 'beef feeding' hospital. Beef was sold in the CMC canteen at a subsidised price both for attendees and patients for protein supply. Doctors recommended beef for patients like Kattaiah. There was no force-feeding of any food item.
Science and superstitions are opposite entities and human practices. The RSS spreads superstition, which does not have any theoretical capacity to negotiate with both science and religion. This is where anti-superstition laws are needed in India. Many heart and other disease patients died depending on superstitious practices, even after spending huge amounts.
Constant feeding of superstition into people’s minds was used as a tool to keep them as slaves of casteism and Brahminism.
Caste construct
One of the main institutions that the ancestors of the RSS ideologues constructed was caste. The caste system has built superstitious beliefs into the mind of most Indians now. Caste is not a religious institution. It is a superstition in itself.
Had an RSS (though it calls itself a social organisation) kind of political force come to power after Independence and closed down CMC, Kattaiah would have died 46 years ago. He set a record in the history of artificial valve survivors in India, maybe in the world.
We now know that medical science in the world has advanced far more, and daily discoveries are happening. But India remains backward in that field, and RSS/BJP anti-science and anti-English language is likely to keep us more backward. There is no discourse around the scientific spirit in India now.
(The late Kancha Kattaiah was the brother of the writer.)
(The Federal seeks to present views and opinions from all sides of the spectrum. The information, ideas or opinions in the articles are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Federal.)
