We hypothesized that attitudes of professionals and academics towards traditional practices would be the result of three interacting factors: professional identity and ideals; individuals’ traditionalism (as expressed in religiosity); and social-historical givens. An Internet survey of 1,100 Indian academics in 130 institutions assessed their attitudes towards several forms of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and towards the official recognition of such practices. The findings showed that Ayurveda, a traditional system of indigenous medicine, enjoyed high acceptance among Indian academics; 90% of respondents said they approved of university degree courses in Ayurvedic medicine. Half of Indian scientists also thought that homeopathy was efficacious. Multivariate analysis showed that these attitudes were correlated with academic discipline, belief, religiosity and demographics. Belief in God increased the likelihood of support for the efficacy of homeopathy. Similarly, academics who regard themselves as “spiritual” were more likely to support homeopathy. As expected, professing no religion reduced the probability of supporting homeopathy by half as compared to those who self-identified as Hindus. The most important factor determining the level of support for homeopathy was academic discipline. Engineers were three times as likely as physicians and academics in the health professions to endorse homeopathy.
