Indica strains were introduced for body highs instead of cerebral, mainly to deal with pain and ailments. Today many hybrid strains control the market, with the breeders in Holland raking in the money.
Of course now the medical strains not containing THC are the rage, for treating many issues...Charlotte's Web being the most famous for eliminating seizures in small children.
That would be incorrect. It was about money. Outdoors there is one growing season (for marijuana, which needs the summer solstice to trigger flowering, at least in the USA). Indoors there are as many seasons as you can cram in. The equatorial sativas that were coming in in the 60's and 70's from Mexico and South America took up to 120 days of flowering indoors. That does not include the vegetative phase.
Hippies following the legendary "Hippie Hashish Trail" took trips through places like Afghanistan and picked up seeds of indica strains (the argument about Afghani (species) being distinct from indica notwithstanding). These indica strains flowered in as little as 40-45 days with a little breeding work. That allowed indoor growers to get in as many as 3x the crops as the equatorial sativas in a given time frame. Not to mention, in general, indicas are smaller in stature so you can get more plants in a given area. It's all about maximizing product to maximize profit.
Now that you have somewhat mainstream research going on, yes the indicas are prized for medical purposes. They were in the past too, but not to the extent they are today. Indica was introduced to the US to breed with sativas to shorten their flowering cycle.
DJ Short writes in "Cultivating Exceptional Cannabis: An Expert Breeder Shares his Secrets"...
"The first Indica buds entered the market in 1979. These all came in one source from Northern California who had imported the seed directly from Afghanistan. Short, stout, dark, compact and skunky, these plants were totally different than what the industry had been accustomed to. The most desirable features of the pure Indica were their compact productivity and shortened growing season. Indica plants produced large, dense, potent buds very quickly. They soon became the variety of choice for the indoor scene."
