What am I looking at?
The Grant Government Medical College is a public medical college located in Mumbai, India.
The quick answer
The Grant Government Medical College is a public medical college located in Mumbai, India. It is affiliated to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences. Founded in 1845, it is one of the oldest medical colleges in South Asia. Its clinical affiliate is Sir J.J. Group of Hospitals, a conglomerate of four hospitals in South Mumbai including Sir J.J. Hospital, St George Hospital, Gokuldas Tejpal Hospital and Cama and Albless Hospital.
How it came to be
The Bombay Presidency became part of the British possessions in India in 1818. In Western India there was a need for well-trained doctors as well as a general hospital for Indians. Under the guidance of Mountstuart Elphinstone attempts were made to offer Indians an opportunity to learn and practice Medicine along western lines. In 1826, a medical school was started with surgeon John McLennan as the superintendent of the Indian (native) medical school around Azad Maidan in southern Bombay. However, this school failed after six years. Around 1840 only two medical schools existed in India, one at Calcutta and another at Madras.
The detail most people miss
In 1834 Sir Robert Grant was appointed the Governor of Bombay. He directed his attention to the expediency of establishing a systematic institution in the city for imparting medical knowledge to the, which would be more complete, comprehensive and better planned than the previously abolished medical school. He instituted a detailed inquiry into the ways and means by which Indians could have better medical care and education. As he struggled and strove to push through his ambition for a wisely planned medical college in Bombay, he met strong opposition. To quell the opposition Grant envisaged the formation of the first medical society in India, The Medical and Physical Society of Bombay. It was a society that would bring together the medical officers of the Bombay Presidency and encourage a spirit of scientific enquiry. It was due to efforts of Charles Morehead (the then surgeon) to the governor that this society came into existence in November 1835.
Why it still matters
Moorehead and other members studied all the documents pertaining to the abolished medical school. They also drew up and circulated a questionnaire aimed at collecting information on the current medical practices among the Indians. It was also intended to help educate Indians in European medicine. In July 1837, the Society reported that "the conclusion to which we have been led by this course of inquiry is that the establishment of a medical school for the education of the Indians of the presidency in medical science is necessary, to the extent of qualifying Indians to become useful and safe practitioners of medicine."
