Family Legacy
Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
None other than Pandit Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar began this revolution. With the help and support of Rajendralal Dutta, who had cured Vidyasagar’s migraine with homeopathic medicines, and of Dr. Mahendralal Sircar, who was “converted” from the conventional/allopathic system of medicine by Vidyasagar himself. Vidyasagar began an amateur practice, with the free treatment of students in Kolkata. Thereafter, he successfully combined his homeopathic practice with philanthropy – first, with his younger brother Ishanchandra at their ancestral village, Birsingha and, in the last 18 years of his life, at Karmatar, now in Jharkhand, where he opened a charitable homeopathic clinic, which functions till today.
Dr. Pareshnath Banerji
The tradition of treating the poor through homoeopathy continued in the family with Ishanchandra’s son, Dr. Pareshnath Banerji. He was a legend, achieving phenomenal success in treating all kinds of diseases with homoeopathic medicines.
Dr. Pareshnath Banerji was one of the nine students to graduate from the University of Calcutta in the year 1910. The British Government offered him the post of a District Magistrate, which for patriotic reasons he refused. Later in his life when he was conferred the title of Rai Bahadur by the British Government he once again refused. He not only wanted to serve his country but also had the burning desire to do something for the less privileged. Pareshnath based himself in Mihijam where thousands came to him every day for homeopathic treatment. His growing popularity naturally led to an increase in the number of patients he saw every day. At this point he realized that if he were to use homeopathy to treat this huge patient population, he should devise a way to reduce the time required to attend to a patient. If he had followed the homeopathic approach to case assessment, he would have been able to examine very few every day. He found that about 80% of his patients suffering from common ailments were curable by specific medicines. For the remaining 20%, he gave the greatest importance to symptoms narrated by the patients themselves. Thus, he achieved success through sheer practical experience. His knowledge and keen interest in chemistry also lead him to develop an antidote for snake-bite, Lexin. It became very popular and was even exported to the South Americas.
Dr. Prasanta Banerji
Dr. Prasanta Banerji, son of Pareshnath, spent his childhood in an environment which saw thousands of patients being treated not only free of charge, but free meals being cooked for those patients who came from distant places.
When Prasanta completed his education and started assisting his father, he got first-hand experience of treating patients with a specific approach. In 1960 Prasanta decided to relocate to Kolkata, where he started his homeopathic practice. His practice grew exponentially and within a span of two years he started attending to 300 patients a day. This is when it occurred to him to standardize treatment protocols for every disease as per conventional diagnosis. He not only devised specific medicines for specific diseases much like the conventional medical treatment method, he also realized that specific potencies and dosage patterns could also be determined. At this point, he realized the potential of the treatment method that he had created, and began presenting successful case studies at different international forums. For many years, Prasanta struggled against the disbelieving attitude of the conventional world of medicine towards homeopathy. This did not deter his efforts, as he continued full-heartedly in his mission to make known to the scientific community that his approach was different from classical homeopathy. This aspect of what is the Banerji Protocols allows conventional research, where five patients suffering from the same disease are treated and regressed with the same medicine protocol and in the same potency with the identical dosage pattern.
Dr. Pratip Banerji
Dr. Pratip Banerji, son of Prasanta, completed his BHMS from the Calcutta University and was placed 2nd in the University with Honors in Pathology and Materia Medica. He Post Graduated from the London College of Classical Homoeopathy (UK), and was awarded a Post Graduate Degree with a Diploma in Teachers Training. He is also a Doctor of Medicine, M.D.(Hom), from the JRN Rajasthan Vidyapeeth (Deemed University), Udaipur, India.
After completing his education in London, he received an offer to teach as well as practice in the UK, but Pratip decided to come back to India and join his father Prasanta. From 1991, he started his own practice and took charge of the charitable clinic that was started by Prasanta. Soon he was attending to over 300 patients a day. Pratip got deeply involved in writing and documenting case studies and preparing scientific articles for peer-reviewed journals. He introduced scientific approach and international standards to allow verifiability of research data. The process of data accrual and documentation according to the highest international standards was introduced by him. This has made their research acceptable to the international scientific community. Ever since the completion of his education, Pratip has accompanied his father to every international scientific forum. Together they have attended and made dual presentations at many seminars and conferences, invited by conventional as well as Homeopathic medical institutions and bodies all over the world.