The need for medical education in Rajputana on modern lines was first felt in the nineteenth century when trained Indian doctors were required for the British Army in India.
So far only English doctors were appointed as surgeons to some of the agencies in Rajasthan and in other States of India. But as their number was not sufficient to meet the army and civil requirements, Indian youths were required to be given “training in the various branches of medical science cultivated in Europe.”
For this purpose the first Medical college was established at Calcutta in June 1835. The same year a Medical school was opened at Madras also. Nearly a decade afterwards efforts for opening Medical schools at Jaipur and Ajmer were made. But before such a proposal could be entertained, hospitals and dispensaries had first to be established.
In May 1841 Major Thoresby, the Political Agent at Jaipur, sought sanction for a sum of Rs. 800/- from the agent to the Governor-General in Rajputana for constructing a hospital building at Jaipur. The matter lingered on for three years because the members of the Council of Regency at Jaipur were divided in their opinion as to the need and efficacy of English medicines.
In May 1844 the matter was again taken up by Major Ludlow, the new Political Agent, but the request was refused on the ground that “it would be desirable to exert ourselves first for the liquidation of the Jeypore national debt, and then the proposition for a city Hospital with European medicine and establishment be taken.”[1]
However, the required sanction was later on given, for a hospital and dispensary was established at Jaipur in the beginning of the next year 1845.
Proposals for the establishments of Medical Schools at Jaipur and Ajmer
In June 1846 Lt. colonel Sutherland, the A. G. G. in Rajputana, informed the Governor-General that the hospital and dispensary lately established at Jaipur had attracted the attention of the people not only in Jaipur but in the neighbouring States also and he wished “to extend the benefits of similar institutions to the other capitals of Rajputana.” But the wish could not be materialised because of the insufficient number of trained youths produced by the Medical college at Calcutta.
He therefore, concurred with the opinion of Dr. Ernest Coleridge, whom he had brought with him from South Africa and had appointed as in-charge of the Jaipur hospital, that, “with the assistance of a few sub-assistant Surgeons from the Calcutta College a medical school on a small scale might be established at Ajmer, sufficient in process of time, to supply all our wants. The cost of the school or college would, I think, readily be paid through limited contributions by the community of the Ajmer District.”[2]
A guarded suggestion of establishing a medical school at Jaipnr had already been given by Ludlow the Political Agent.
Thus there were two proposals for starting medical schools, one at Jaipur and the other at Ajmer, but as two institutions of the same nature could not be estiblished simultaneously at two separate places, the Government of India sought the Medical Borad’s expert opinion about the feasibility and suitability of “establishing a medical school at Jeypore with the help of a few Sub-Assistant Surgeons from the College at Calcutta.”[3]
The Board however, rejected the proposal on the ground that “the means deemed most essential for the establishment of even an elementary Medical School are wanting…… in Ajmere, or in any of the cities of Central India, where the prejudices and superstitions of the Hindu population are still so strong. We allude to dissection of the human body without which a practical knowledge of anatomy cannot be imparted, and such knowledge is universally held to be an indispensable part of the education of a Medical student of whatever rank or class.”
Thus the difficulty of procuring “subject”, that is dead bodies for dissection because of the conservative ideas and feelings of the people was, in the opinion of the Board, a great “obstacle” which could not be surmounted, and they, therefore, gave their considered opinion that “the attempt to establish a Medical School in Rajputana or elsewhere, is at present altogether unnecessary.”[4]
The Government of India concurred with this opinion and informed their Agent in Rajputana that it was “inexpedient” to establish a Medical School at Jaipur.
But Sutherland (the A. G. G.) was not the man to feel discouraged or frustrated, for, in his reply to the Government of India, he reiterated with greater force and renewed arguments the necessity of establishing “A medical school, hospital and dispensary at Ajmere”, saying that “the institution was intended especially for the benefit of the people of the native Principalities although in process of time, it might also send medical practitioners and medicines to the capitals of some of the Principal Chiefs of Ajmere such as Bhinnae and Mussuda.” [5]
To explain his scheme in details he stated, “It is a part of my scheme to get the several States of Rajputana to send persons of their own selection to the Medical School at Ajmere and that those persons when qualified would receive charge of Hospitals and Dispensaries at the capitals of the States which were disposed to bear the expense of the institution.[6]
In another letter he added, “Several of the Native States, Jeypore. Bhurtpoor, Bikaner and Alwar, have named persons to be sent for instructions to the Medical School.”[7]
He also prepared a prospectus which was circulated for “effecting that object through subscription from Europeans and natives.”
Regarding the Medical Board’s objection to the establishment of a medical school at Jaipur, the agent to the Governor-General emphasized that “it was no part of Doctor Coleridge’s plan to make dissection of the human body a part of his system of instruction, but he has no doubt, that through good anatomical plates, much may be done even in this respects.”[8]
And to make the case still stronger the agent revealed that the Lt. Governor of the North Western provinces (James Thomason) had offered to supply ten thousand rupees per annum from the educational funds “for the purpose of establishing a college at Ajmer for the benefits of Rajputana” This College, A. G. G. pointed out, would cost forty thousand rupees per annum, and weighing the comparative need and utility of the two institutions, he emphatically remarked that he was not sure whether the benefits from the college “would be so immediately appreciated as those of a medical school.”[9]
And finally to win over public support and to gain a wide publicity for his scheme, he got published in the ‘Delhi Gazette’ of 29thAugust, 1846, a notice about the opening of a medical school at Ajmer.[10]
The Government of India, while recognizing the benevolent motives which actuated their Agent in Rajputata, observed, “You ought to have consulted the Government of India previously to making any communication of the nature you have done to the Chiefs of Rajputana.”
They further added that ” an invitation from the Governor-General’s Agent to the Chiefs to contribute to any object must always be more or less of the nature of a command, and if the institution is to be in any way under the control or auspices of the Government Agent, the Court of Directors would doubtless desire that it should be under the superintendence of one of their own medical officers responsible to them for his conduct.”[11]
In reply the A. G. G. stated that the communication had been made to the Chiefs of Rajputana no further than to discuss the subject generally with their Vakeels in attendance with him, and to invite them to send qualified persons to receive instruction at the school. He was even prepared, if it was necessary, “to bear the expense of the Institution during the early period of its operations.”[12]
It is true that Sutherland felt himself morally bound to secure the superintendence of the proposed medical school for Dr. Ernest Coleridge who had saved his life from a serious illness in South Africa, but to overlook his benevolent motives in proposing to establish the medical school at Ajmer is to do scant justice to Sutherland.
There is no doubt that it is because of his earnestness and sincerity in espousing the cause of medical education in Rajasthan that Maharaja Takht Singh of Jodhpur and the Regency Council at Jaipur had proposed to contribute to the scheme. Even the Rao Raja of Sikar had also offered to subscribe five or ten thousand rupees.[13]
The matter lingered on for two years, but Sutherland seems to have opened in the meantime-without the Government of India’s sanction a medical school at Ajmer, as is evident from his letter to the Government of India which runs thus, “The experience which I had attained of the advantage arising from the Madras and Hyderabad Medical Schools led me to originate the establishment of a medical school at Ajmere under the superintendence of Dr. Coleridge, M R.C.S. of London.”
This is further corroborated by the following sentence from the same letter, “There is a medical school house at Ajmere, for which I paid Rs. 4,500/-, and Dr. Coleridge has had several pupils sent to him by the States,”[14]
Then he pointed out that as Dr. Coleridge was performing medical duties of the Rajputana Agency and attending on the agent to the Governor-General who was mostly on tours he (Dr. Coleridge) could not do full justice to the institution. He (the A. G. G.), therefore, suggested that the interests of the institution (that is the medical school) might be supervised by the Civil Surgeon of Ajmer, and on that plea he renewed his proposal that “it (that is the school) should be brought into active operation.”[15]
This proposition was not agreed to by the Government of India who, without giving any reason, informed their Agent, “The Government are not prepared at present to go to the expense of establishing a Government Medical School at Ajmere.”[16] Thus the sincere and earnest efforts of Lt. Colonel Sutherland for establishing a medical school at Ajmer proved abortive, and he soon died at Bharatpur on 24th June, 1848.
Establishment of a Medical “College” at Jaipur (1861)
Even after Sutherland’s sad demise, efforts for the establishment of a medical school in Rajasthan continued, but the focus of attention had now shifted from Ajmer to Jaipur. In March 1859 Dr. Kingsford Burr resumed charge of the medical duties of the Jaipur Agency.[17]
In that capacity he revived-being actively supported by Major Brooke, the Political Agent-the question of the establishment of a medical school at Jaipur.
It was through their joint and sincere efforts that Maharaja Ram Singh readily agreed to establish a medical school at his capital. The intention of the Maharaja was first reported by Col. report dated 7th January 1861 when requests for the Demonstrator in anatomy were made.
A further reference was made by the agent in his report dated 17th August of the same year, and only three weeks afterwards the request was Acceded to when on 7th September 1861 the Maharaja formally inaugurated the Medical “College” at Jaipur in the presence of ” all the principal Thakurs and officials of the State as well as the English gentlemen” and the boys of the Maharaja’s College and their teachers.
After its inauguration by the Maharaja, Dr. Burr explained “the advantages of the Medical College”[18] which started the actual teaching work a week later to twenty four students who had “already enrolled their names and attended the first lecture” on 14th September, 1861. A new era of medical education in Rajputana started with the establishment of Medical Colleges at Jaipur.
Col. Lawrence, the A.G.G., conveyed to the Maharaja-to use his own words “the expression of my sense of his enlightened proceedings, and the gratification with which the Governments of India and England will view it”[19]
Thus the sincere and continuous efforts of Lt. Colonel Sutherland, Dr. Coleridge, Col. Brooks and Dr. Burr brought into existence in September 1861with the munificence and generosity of Maharaja Ram Singh-the first regular medical school in Rajasthan at Jaipur “for the introduction of the European system of treatment of the sick and for the education of a number of young men to practice as native Doctors in Jeypore (Jaipur) and the principal towns of the district.”[20]
September 7, 1861 is, therefore, a red-letter day in the medical history of Rajasthan. was Appointed as “the Superintendent of the Medical College and Lecturer in Materia Medica, Practical Therapeutics, Surgery and Practice of Medicine.” Doctors Najeeb Khan and Husain Bukhsh were appointed Demonstrators in Anatomy, and Sub-Assistant Surgeon, Parvati Charan Ghosh a Lecturer in Principles and Practice of Medicine, Physiology and Materia Medica.
The school progressed well for the first three years of its existence. In 1865 Dr. Burr submitted the first report on the working of the school in which he seems to have made certain observations which were perhaps not liked by Captain Beynon the new Political Agent at Jaipur. This created a misunderstanding, leading to a bitter controversy, between Dr. Burr and Captain Beynon which, not only resulted in “the suspension of Dr. Burr from all his duties connected with the Durbar”,[21] but also in the unfortunate closure of the Medical School in 1868.
This closure was not due so much to academic or economic reasons as due to the personal hostility and bitterness between the Political Agent and the Superintendent of the school. If the agent had not adopted a stern And autocratic attitude towards the Superintendent and if the Medical School had not been closed in March 1868, it would have by now completed a century of its useful existence.
Thus the Medical Education in Rajputana was started with the great efforts of Political Officers or political Agents of Rajputana Agency of British government in India.
REFERENCES
[1] Thoresby to Ludlow ; No. 660 dated 25th May, 1844 Foreign Proceedings; 8th June, 1844, No. 52. 1021
[2] Sutherland to Currie; No. 102 dated 10th June, 1846 Foreign Political Consulta tion; 18th July, 1846, No. 183.
[3] Foreign Pol. Cons; 18th July, 1846, No. 187.
[4] Foreign Pol. Cons; 29thAugust, 1846, No. 102.
[5] Currie to Sutherland; No. 1685, dated 17thAug., 1846 Foreign Pol. Cons; 29thAug., 1846, No. 103.
[6] Sutherland to Currie; No. 155 dated 27thAug.. 1846. Foreign Pol. Cons; 17th October, 1846, No. 274.
[7] Same to Same; No. 165 dated 10th Sept., 1846. Foreign Pol. Cons; 17th October, 1846, No. 276.
[8] Same as 1 Above.
[9] Same as 2 Above.
[10] Currie to Thornton; No. 1800, dated 20th Sept., 1846. Foreign Pol, Cons. 17th October, 1846, No. 277.
[11] Currie to Sutherland. No. 1933, dated 22th Sept., 1846, Foreign Pol. Cons; 17th October, 1846, No. 275
[12] Sutherland to Carrie; No. 183, dated, 2nd October, 1846. Foreign Pol. Cons. 17th October, 1846, No. 277.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Sutherland to Elliot; No. 83, dated 1st May, 1848. Foreign Pol. Cons; 20th May, 1848, No. 56.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Foreign Pol. Cons; 20th May, 1848, No. 57.
[17] Foreign Pol. Cons; 29thApril 1859, No. 341.
[18] Just as the Maharaja’s College, Jaipur, was called a “College” right from its very inception, the medical school also was called a “College” in all official papers. This was perhaps in uniformity with the system then in vogue, for the Bharatpur school was also designated a “College” a tits opening even though it was then only an ordinary school.
[19] Foreign Progs; Genl. A Oct., 1861, No. 27
[20] Foreign Progs; Genl. A Feb., 1864, No. 109.
[21] Eden to Muir; No. 1202/142G. dated 14th September, 1866. Foreign General B October, 1886, No. 130.
