RG Kar
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A brief biography
Poulomi Banerjee & Subhajyoti Kanjilal, August 25, 2024: The Times of India
His father, Durgadas Kar, was a doctor, so it seemed only natural that Radha Gobinda Kar, the eldest son of Durgadas, would follow in his footsteps. For a while, he did. Everything went to plan. In 1869, RG Kar joined the Bengal Medical College (or Calcutta Medical College), Asia’s oldest medical school, set up in 1835. But then he chose to take a break. He dabbled in theatre, he took up gymnastics, and he also got married. The break from medicine stretched on. A decade passed. And then RG Kar’s life took another turn, and there was no looking back after that.
Born On Aug 23, 1852
RG Kar’s 172nd birth anniversary was two days back, on Friday. Some sources, however, mention 1850 as his year of birth, say researchers. Which would make this his 174th birth anniversary. The discrepant mentions of his year of birth highlight the absence of enough recorded history on RG Kar. What is available has been pieced together by researchers from writings and journals over the years, including obituaries published after his death.
He was born in their family home at Santragachi in Bengal’s Howrah district, a short distance from Kolkata. He was the eldest among four brothers and five sisters. It was from here that a young RG Kar would travel to Kolkata’s Hare School in a horse-drawn phaeton before his father bought another house in Shyambazar, much closer to his school, says Partha Kar, a fourth-generation descendant. Partha still lives in the old Santragachi house.
Then, in 1869, RG Kar got admitted to the Bengal Medical College (now Medical College, Kolkata) to study medicine, says Dr Shankar Nath, a former oncologist at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital (RGKMCH), whose serialised writing on the history of RGKMCH and its founder is being published in a Bengali journal, he says. Continuing the conversation, Nath adds that RG Kar dropped out of college after only one year.
First Marriage, First Arrest
“Durgadas loved theatre and RG Kar shared his father’s passion. After dropping out of college he spent some time performing on the stage,” Nath says.
According to Projit Mukharji, professor of history at Ashoka University, RG Kar also got fascinated by gymnastics after watching a group of Anglo-Indian gymnasts perform. “With his father’s permission, he formed a troupe of Indian, primarily Bengali, gymnasts, who practised gymnastics in the family’s Shyambazar home. “RG Kar himself became a trained gymnast… the troupe performed gymnastics to the accompaniment of music,” says Mukharji.
It was also during this time — between 1870 and 1879 — that RG Kar got married for the first time, but his wife died a few years later, says Nath.
The doctor narrates another little- known anecdote about RG Kar from that period, referring to a previously published article in a Bengali journal. “He served a 15-day jail term in 1879… On the day of Kali Puja [which coincides with Diwali], RG Kar’s younger brothers and some boys from the neighbourhood were bursting crackers. A person complained to a constable who was standing there about the noise. When the constable destroyed the crackers, an altercation followed. After some time, a police team came and arrested RG Kar even though he had not been on the spot at the time of this incident.”
A Hospital Is Born
Then in 1880, RG Kar enrolled himself again in medical college, first in Calcutta (where he studied for three years but didn’t complete the course) and then in Scotland in 1883, from where he finally received the LRCP&S (License of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons) degree in 1886, says Nath. Instead of practising in England or Scotland, which would have been way more lucrative, RG Kar chose to return to India. Back home, RG Kar “realised that the prevailing colonial culture was a great hindrance for the people… to get the benefit of the existing medical schools — both as students and as patients”, states a 2011 article on the history of RGKMCH available on ResearchGate.
The Bengal Medical College had been primarily founded with the aim to churn out doctors to meet the medical demands of the British army and European civilians in India, say historians. Most of the senior positions at the college were occupied by Europeans. “The general condition of public health in the country was appalling and there were few hospitals or trained doctors to treat Indians, while the incidence of epidemics was high,” says Sujata Mukherjee, a professor of history at Kolkata’s Rabindra Bharati University. Her area of specialisation is medical history.
RG Kar teamed up with other likeminded people and doctors to set up the Calcutta School of Medicine (RGKMCH now), Asia’s first non-governmental medical college. “He would wait outside places where the rich were gathered and collect money for the institute,” says Partha.
The Calcutta School of Medicine opened at a rented address in Kolkata’s Baithak Khana Road. Both location and name would change several times over the years, before the more familiar RG Kar Hospital and Medical College came up in Kolkata’s Belgachia. The initial courses were of three years’ duration and classes were conducted entirely in Bengali, unlike in the Bengal Medical College where courses were taught in English, Hindustani and Bengali, according to researchers.
Treating In Slums
“His father Durgadas Kar wrote the first Bengali book on materia medica or medicinal substances. RG Kar followed in his footsteps and wrote books in Bengali and acted as publisher for books written by others,” says Mukharji of Ashoka.
“He had a cycle and would attend to patients even in slums. During a plague outbreak, he worked with Sister Nivedita (an Irish teacher, social activist, and disciple of Swami Vivekananda) and others to take care of the afflicted. He was a social philanthropist and nationalist, in addition to being a remarkable physician,” Sujata Mukherjee adds.
The Calcutta School of Medicine was managed by a trust called the Medical Education Society of Bengal, says Mukharji, and RG Kar remained its secretary till his death from the Spanish Flu in 1918. He had left his Shyambazar house to the institute in his will and after the death of his second wife – he remarried but had no children – it was sold and Rs 75,000 handed over to the trust, says Partha.
The Legacy Of RGKMCH
In its initial years, the Calcutta School of Medicine didn’t have a hospital attached to it. This made practical education difficult. “In his acting days, RG Kar and others had performed Neel Darpan, a play written by Dinabandhu Mitra on the plight of the indigo farmers, to raise funds for the setting up of Mayo Hospital. And in the early years when the Calcutta School of Medicine didn’t have a hospital attached to it, students would attend classes here for practical exposure,” says Mukharji.
The were several milestones in the institute’s journey to its present avatar. In 1898, a 12-bigha plot of land (about 4 acres) was purchased for the construction of the college building at its present site. A 30-bedded, single-storeyed hospital building was inaugurated in 1902. In 1904, the Calcutta School of Medicine amalgamated with another similar institute, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Bengal, which had been established in 1895.
Other buildings were constructed over time to accommodate various departments in the same premises. “Finally, Belgachhia Medical College was formally inaugurated by Lord Carmichael in 1916,” says the ResearchGate article. The college also bore Carmichael’s name for many years.
The affiliation to Calcutta University for final MB (Bachelor of Medicine) standard came in 1919. “Many famous doctors taught at the college over the years, including Sundari Mohan Das, Nilratan Sarkar (who has a hospital named after him in Kolkata) and Bidhan Chandra Roy, Bengal’s first chief minister after Independence. Dr Subodh Dutta, who had pioneered the first gall bladder surgery in Calcutta, was also associated with the institute. Asia’s first Psychiatry OPD opened here in 1933,” says Mukherjee.
Though it was renamed RG Kar Hospital and Medical College in 1948, it was only after another 10 years that the state govt took over its operations.
Sixty-six years later, this govt hospital is convulsing: allegations of corruption, the rape-murder of a trainee doctor inside the hospital…. It’s hard to imagine the hospital’s storied past when you watch today’s news.
MILESTONE YEARS
1886: Calcutta School of Medicine is founded in a rented house at Calcutta’s Baithak Khana Road, though it moved to Bowbazar Street soon after
1898: A 12-Bigha plot of land (about 4 acres) is bought for the construction of the college at its present site
1902: 30-bedded hospital is inaugurated by then Governor Lord Woodburn and is named the Albert Victor Hospital after the Royal Prince Albert Victor
1916: Bigger Belgachia Medical College is inaugurated by Lord Carmichael. The college also bore his name for many years
1919: Receives Calcutta University affiliation for final MB standard 1948: It is renamed RG Kar Medical College and Hospital
1958: West Bengal government takes over the college
