A Study Of Medical Advancement In Colonial Calcutta

Sandip Banerjee

History of colonisation in any country is a definite story of exploitation and deprivation. The very essence of colonisation emanates a fragrance of suppression of freedom where the foreign masters channelised the native resources for their economic benefits, leaving the natives in a state of damage. The story of colonisation of India is no different. Recent studies show that as much as 45 trillion British Pounds have been drained by the British during their two hundred years of rule in India. Even then there is also a narrative of some contributions of colonial rule in India. Of course there also remains a question whether the British made those contributions for the sake of the natives or for their own purpose; was it an outcome of administrative necessity or was it a result of generous disposition of a class of Britishers who wanted some welfare for the nation they ruled.

With the consecutive victories in the Battle of Plassey (1757) and Battle of Buxar (1764), the British achieved political masterdom over India. Along with political power came economic control and soon Bengal became the epicenter of British rule in India. When by the end of the 18th Century, the British East India Company extended its political supremacy to the southern part of India they could frame out a long and lasting reign in India. Calcutta became their favourite city and their capital which it remained till 1911. This was the city that the British wanted to shape in their ways and soon it happened. Calcutta emerged as the “Second City of the Empire’’. British Calcutta witnessed things that were not only first in India but many of those were first in the Asian continent itself.

A study of history would reveal that institutions of different discipline have been integral part of administration. As civilisation progressed, science and technology evolved. Hence when the British set up their firm hold on India they were also keen to set up institutions which would foster a sense of study and research in the field of Science including Medical Science. Perhaps they realised that in order to rule a country like India having such diversity it might require institutional developments. On the other side of the argument it can be placed that such institutional settlements were colonial tools by which Britishers tried to tame our minds .The introduction of English education through Macaulay’s Charter in 1835 opened the gates of Western education to India. There was immediate response.  The gradual increase in number of schools and colleges accelerated this policy. As Calcutta was the capital city, it benefitted the most. In 1784, when the Asiatic Society was founded by Sir William Jones it provided an impetus, at its initial stage, to studies in Science and Technology.

As 19th Century progressed many leading thinkers in Calcutta and Bengal felt the necessity of European education along with the traditional Indian curriculum. They felt that for such learning educational institutions need to operate in European ways imparting relevant lessons. Many British residents of the city complemented this way of thinking. It was this combined intent that led to the establishment of the Hindu College in 1817. People like Raja Rammohun Roy, Radhakanta Deb and Edward Hydes came together. It is here that a young teacher named Henry Derozio bloomed some of the greatest minds who would eventually play major roles in determining the fate of future India. Hindu College eventually became Presidency College, an institution that produced scholars, scientists, mathematicians, economists and biologists of national and international repute. The institution emerged as a pioneer centre of learning and excellence.

By the middle of the 18th Century saw setting up of one academic institution after another in Calcutta which became the epicenter of medical studies and research. The year 1835 became a landmark year as the Calcutta Medical College was set up which became the first Medical College in India. It was here that a gentleman named Madhusudhan Gupta performed the first modern anatomical surgery in India. This changed the very course of medical studies in colonial India. People got exposed to European methodology of treatment which gained immense popularity in short span of time. The system of treatment in hospitals proved beneficial to both the Europeans as well as to the natives. The Presidency General Hospital popularly known as P.G. Hospital dates back to more than two hundred years. In the campus of this hospital, in one of the laboratory rooms did Sir Ronald Ross discover the transmission process of Malaria which consequently fetched him the Nobel Prize in Medicine in the year 1902. The Presidency General hospital added more feathers of glory when it became the first Post Graduate Medical Institute in Eastern India when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurated the institute in 1957.

The evolution of public health in British India provides a valuable insight into the period that witnessed the emergence of new trends in medical systems and a transition from surveys to microscopic studies in medicine. Calcutta experienced this the most in Colonial India. It needs mention here that a medical department was established in Bengal way back in 1764 for rendering medical services to the troops and servants of the East India Company. In 1775, Hospital Boards were formed to administer European Hospitals comprising the Surgeon General and Physician General. The hospitals that were gradually set up, many of which were in Calcutta harboured the earliest laboratory works and ground breaking achievements in microbiology and immunology. The advent of infectious diseases and tropical medicine was a direct consequence of colonialism. Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, the first of its kind in India was established in 1914 by Leonard Rogers of the Indian Medical Service who was a Professor of Pathology at the Calcutta Medical College. It needs mention here that Calcutta Medical College was first in India to accommodate natives in Indian Medical Services.

Calcutta continued to have growing number of medical colleges. The Campbell Medical  School, later to be renamed as Nilratan Sarkar Medical College and Hospital was established in 1873.The great history associated with this medical institution was the discovery of medicine of ‘Kalajar’ by U.N. Brahmachary in 1921 when he discovered  Urea Stibamine that successfully killed the germs and saved thousands of lives. This was much before the discovery of Penicillin in 1928. The R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital originally known as Calcutta Medical School was established in 1887. Indian doctors working in other hospitals of Calcutta joined this institution sacrificing their salary as a response to Gandhian call for civil disobedience. There was a time when the hospital saw the likes of U.N. Brahmachary, Amal Kumar Roychowdhury, Kedar Nath Das (the inventor of Das’ forceps used for forcep delivery), M. N. Chatterjee – the legendary ophthalmologist and above all the doctor of mythical fame Dr. B. C. Roy who requires no introduction to the citizens of Calcutta. A conglomeration of such luminaries advanced the methodology of medical treatment. In fact, if for a considerable length of time the Bengali doctors commanded fame and glory all over British India, then certainly the onus of credit goes to the medical studies and research accomplished in the medical colleges of Calcutta. With setting up of Calcutta University in 1857, medical studies in Calcutta started to get affiliation. The  Indian Institute Of Public Health was founded in Calcutta in 1932.This is South East Asia’s first public health teaching, training and research institute which received support from the Rockfeller Foundation. During the initial decades of its inception the institute became synonymous with ground breaking innovations as Sir Joseph Bhore’s Primary Health Care Delivery System, low cost pour flush toilet.

When it first arrived Western medicine was simply another addition to the giant melting pot of India’s vibrant medical traditions including hakims, vaidyas and tribal healers. But institutions like Calcutta Medical College paved way for new research which gave birth to biomedicine in India. Any study of medical education in British India would be incomplete without the chapter of Calcutta for it is in this city that the Europeans and the Indians worked so closely to set up various institutions including medical colleges and hospitals.

The colonial masters adopted their policies for medical education keeping Calcutta in mind. Here medical professional went beyond their domain to encourage research on Science. The eminent physician Dr. Mahendralal Sarkar founded in 1876 the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science. It is the oldest institute in India devoted to the pursuit of fundamental research in the frontier areas of basic sciences. Colonial Calcutta set the ball rolling for expansion of medical studies in India; it even popularised it. It also established western approach to medicine by breaking many social myths hitherto regressive in the path of research and medical practice. Today when we see Calcutta as the only city in India to have four medical colleges, we will have to trace its link to Colonial Calcutta.