Grant Medical College, Mumbai

About Grant Medical College, Mumbai

Grant Medical College Mumbai is one of the premier medical institutions in India and the oldest institution teaching western medicine in Asia. It has been rated amongst the ten best medical colleges in the country (India Today survey 2007). The foundation stone of Grant Medical College was laid on March 30, 1843 and the college started functioning in October 1845. The college is named after Sir Robert Grant who was the Governor of Bombay and played a pivotal role in the establishment of the college.

Grant Medical College Mumbai is affiliated to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nashik. Grant Medical College is attached with Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy Group of Hospitals. The Group of Hospitals includes the J. J. Hospital, St George Hospital, Goculdas Tejpal Hospital, and Cama and Albess Hospital.

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. 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 painstaking efforts of Dr. Charles Morehead (the then surgeon) to the governor that this society came into existence in November 1835.
Jamshedjee Jeejeebhoy Hospital-Old Print.

Dr. 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 practice amongst 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 enquiry is that the establishment of a medical School for the education of the Indians of the presidency in Medical Science, to the extent of qualifying Indians to become useful and safe practitioners of medicine."

Based on this Grant prepared his famous minute of March 1838 in which the subject of Medical education of Indians of this presidency was fully discussed in detail. It was sent to Sir Auckland's government in Calcutta.
Grant Medical College

Luckily enough for the cause of medical education and care, in March, 1838, Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy offered a donation of Rs. 1 lac for building a new general hospital with Indians. Sir Robert Grant took note of this in his minute, adding that the hospital would facilitate medical instruction.
Grant Medical College

The Government of India, as conveyed in its letter dated 18 July 1838, happily endorsed the proposal for a medical college. However, 9 days prior to the arrival of this wonderful news, Sir Robert Grant succumbed to an attack of cerebral apoplexy while vacationing in Dapori, near Poona.

A historic public meeting was held in town hall by citizens of Bombay to mourn his death. The famous Sanskrit scholar Jagannath Shankarsheth proposed that it would be a fitting tribute that the medical college so ably planned and so zealously advocated by him should be established and that it should bear his name. The government accepted this proposal. The foundation stone of the building was laid on the 30th day of March, 1843, and the building was completed in October, 1845.

Simultaneously with the plans and foundation of the college, it was also decided, with the aid of a munificent donation offered by Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy, to substitute the previously existing Indian general hospital in the city, by creating a "School of Practice" (now known as the Sir J.J. Hospital) near the hospital and in conjunction with it. The professors of the medical college were the medical officers of the hospital. The foundation stone was laid on January 3, 1843 and the School of Practice was opened for reception of the sick from May 15, 1845.
Grant Medical College

In 1845, admittance to the college was accorded without exception for caste or creed to candidates between the ages of 16 and 20 with respectable connection and general intelligence; grammatical knowledge of their vernacular language, arithmetic including Rules of Proportion and a thorough knowledge of English with fluency was expected. Each candidate was required to

present a certificate of good conduct from the headmaster of the school in which he had studied and also one expressly stating that he was possessed of the necessary information and capable of undergoing the examination proposed.

The entrance examination was conducted by the superintendent and the professors of the college. The books selected for testing the knowledge of English were Milton's "Paradise Lost", "Robertson's Histories", or a similar classical standard.

The first group of students admitted to the Grant Medical College, Bombay, on November 1, 1845 were:
Grant Medical College in the Illustrated London News October 8, 1859- Print from a photograph by H.Hinton.

Free: Bhau Daji Parsekar, Monoel A.D. Carvalho, Sebestian A.D. Carvalho Stipendary: Atmaram Pandurang, Paul Francis Gomes, Fardemjee Jamshetji, Ananta Chandroba Dkule, J.C. Lisoba, Manoel Antonio D'Abrew.

The first professors of Grant Medical College were Charles Morehead, M.D., FRCS, Professor of "The Institute of Practice of Medicine", Dr. John Peet, M.D., FRCS, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery and Dr. Herbert John Giraud, M.D., Professor of Chemistry and Materia Medica.

In 1849 two more teachers joined the college. Dr. W. C. Colls taught Medical Jurispudence and Dr. R. D. Peele taught Midwifery.

Attendance was not quite satisfactory during the first year. In following years, however, it became so good that students declined to take advantage of holidays but preferred to attend classes.

The Bombay University was founded in 1857. In 1860, Grant Medical College became one of the four colleges recognized by it for teaching courses leading to degrees (others being Elphinstone College, Deccan College and Government Law College, Mumbai). With its affiliation to the University, GMC's entrance exams were abolished. Matriculation in Bombay University was made a necessary qualification for admission to the Medical College. The G.G.M.C. degree was replaced by L.M. (Licentiate of Medicine) which later gave way to L.M.&S. (Licentiate of Medicine and Surgery) and finally to M.B.B.S. (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery).

Esis Hospital Qrtrs,
B2/5,
Mulund (West),
Mumbai,
Maharashtra 400080

Fax: +91-22-2373 5599