This couplet by vaidya Kaviraj Shree Atridev Gupt is both a reluctant admission of the current pre-eminence enjoyed by western medicine for all its ‘devilish’ association and an assertion that the source of all its inspiration laid in the healing tradition of India.

This chapter seeks to show how both Indian allopathic practitioners and indigenous medicine practitioners had to struggle against the professional ‘borders and boundaries’ demarcated for their social standing by the colonial government. It reflects what were the emerging public platforms in Banaras which made space for the Allopathic and Ayurvedic medical practitioners; in associating Ayurveda with their cause, what the tensions generated with other systems of medicine were. It further shows how the ‘professionalization’ of medicine was a common endeavor both for the British and the Indian doctors trained in western medicine and a ground for conflict. At another level Indian Allopathic physicians were also engaged in a tussle with indigenous medical practitioners in their efforts to extend their clientele. It then explores how indigenous practitioners sought to refurbish their status and credentials by laying out their own institutional and other criteria for a ‘professional’ standing.