Heritage walk traces Medical College Kolkata's 192-year journey of medicine, reform and nation-building

The Medical College, Kolkata, originally known as Medical College, Bengal, was founded in 1835. It is not only the first medical college in India but also the first institution in Asia to offer formal education in Western medicine.

The college is located on College Street, the city's intellectual axis. It was founded when colonial Calcutta was facing public health crises. The city was grappling with malaria, cholera, kala azar, and different waves of fever. Hence, modern, evidence, based healthcare was an immediate need of the city and not just an abstract ideal.

Last Wednesday a heritage walk on the old campus of Calcutta Medical College brought back that long and layered history to life. The event marked the 192nd foundation year of the institution. The heritage walk explored the contributions of the college over the past two centuries not only to medicine and public health but also to social reform and nation building.

The legendary urologist Dr. Amit Ghose was the chief guest at the event, which was organized by the Medical College Ex, Students' Association in collaboration with Purono Kolkatar Golpo, Indi Setu and the Indo, British Scholars Association.

The initiative was aimed at connecting the college's physical structures with its major role in the development of medical education and healthcare in India.

Participants were taken through the formative years of the college, which evolved amid epidemics and famine in late 18th- and early 19th-century Bengal. After the Battle of Plassey in 1757, rapid population influx, environmental change and poor sanitation made Calcutta acutely vulnerable to disease. Epidemics in 1757, 1762 and 1770 reportedly claimed tens of thousands of lives, followed by the catastrophic Bengal famine of 1770 in which nearly 10 million people are believed to have perished.

These crises prompted early attempts at institutional medical training. In 1822, the British government established the School for Native Doctors, the very first medical school of British India.

Nevertheless, displeasure with the curriculum and practical anatomy shortage brought a decisive change. By government order dated January 28, 1835, medical education was transformed into a secular, science, based discipline leading to the establishment of Medical College, Bengal under Lord William Bentinck, which is generally considered as a milestone in the history of medical education in India.

Most likely, the first batch at the present location took off on 17 March 1836.

The walk revisited those landmark events that made the institution a meeting point of medicine and social reform. It was in 1836 that Pandit Madhusudan Gupta broke the ground of first human cadaver dissection by an Indian under Dr. Henry Goodeve's guidance, thus directly confronting deeply rooted social taboos and heralding the advent of modern medical science in India. Several decades after that, in 1884, Kadambini Ganguly set a new record by being one of the first women in India to get admitted to formal medical education at the college.

Through its existence, the college has been home to a very distinguished alumni of Bidhan Chandra Roy, Upendranath Brahmachari and Sushila Nayar, whose contributions deeply influenced public health policy, medical research and healthcare delivery both in India and internationally, such as the UK National Health Service.

The carefully planned walking route took the visitors through some of the most historically and architecturally significant buildings of the campus. These included the main Medical College Hospital building, inaugurated in 1852 and central to the evolution of bedside learning in India; Eden Hospital, a pioneering centre for women's and maternity care; and the Carmichael Hospital for Tropical Diseases, closely associated with early research on cholera and tropical medicine under Sir Leonard Rogers.

Other stops included the Sir John Anderson casualty block, highlighting the development of emergency medicine, and the David Hare Block, formerly the Prince of Wales Hospital, reflecting the growth of modern surgical care. The walk also highlighted how philanthropy played a major role in the institution's growth, thus mentioning the contributions of Maharani Swarnamoyee, among other Bengal Renaissance benefactors, whose support to women medical education was made possible by her donations.

The heritage walk ended with a panel discussion entitled "Medical College and Kolkata's Living Heritage", which focused on how the historical, educational and social significance of the institution has always been and still is, as well as its relevance in the present day city shaped by an ever changing urban and cultural landscape.

Mudhar Patherya, communications consultant and heritage activist; Partha Ranjan Das, architect and President of The Bengal Club; Iftekhar Ahsan, entrepreneur and founder of Calcutta Walks; and Rajita Banerjee, academician.Dr. Andrew Fleming, British Deputy High Commissioner to East and North East India was the chief guest at the session, whereas Reetasri Ghosh, President of the Indo, British Scholars' Association, was the guest of honour.

The Medical College Ex, Students' Association, with Dr. Abhijit Chaudhuri as President, Dr. Abhik Ghosh as Vice President, Dr. Anjan Das as Secretary, Dr. Anirban Dalui as Treasurer, Dr. Sanjib Kumar Bandyopadhyay as Joint Secretary, and Dr. Partha Mondol as Assistant Secretary, was the sponsor of the event.

By linking buildings to ideas and milestones to lived experience, the walk offered participants not just a tour of a historic campus, but a deeper understanding of how Medical College, Kolkata has shaped-and been shaped by-the making of modern India.