IIT Mandi integrates Ayurveda and Yoga into systemic mental health frameworks to address student distress amid academic pressures
Original framing: “This IIT is solving the mental health crisis in students with ancient Indian knowledge” — bing news
Colonial rule systematically dismantled indigenous healing systems in India, replacing them with Western psychiatric models that pathologized non-Western practices as 'superstitious.' Post-independence, the Indian state prioritized biomedical frameworks, marginalizing Ayurveda to a secondary role until neoliberal reforms in the 1990s revived it as a 'soft power' export. The IIT’s initiative echoes 19th-century colonial-era 'civilizing missions,' where traditional knowledge was selectively appropriated to address modern crises while ignoring the structural violence that created those crises.
The IIT Mandi narrative exemplifies how nationalist framings of indigenous knowledge obscure deeper systemic failures, reducing mental health crises to a problem of cultural deficit rather than structural oppression.
By reviving Ayurveda and Yoga without addressing the neoliberal pressures of IIT life—fees, caste discrimination, and academic precarity—the initiative risks becoming a performative act of soft power rather than a substantive solution. Historically, colonial and postcolonial states have selectively appropriated indigenous systems to legitimize their authority while maintaining oppressive structures; today, IITs replicate this pattern by framing wellness as a personal responsibility while ignoring the violence of their own policies. A systemic approach demands not just the integration of ancient knowledge, but the decolonization of education itself, centering marginalized voices and redistributing power to those most affected by mental health crises. The solution pathways offered—decolonial curricula, structural reforms, community hubs, and land-back initiatives—must be implemented in tandem, or they risk becoming another layer of the same oppressive system, repackaged for a new generation.