Who was Dr. RG Kar? Philanthropist who gave Kolkata Asia’s first non-government medical college

Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, an institution with a history spanning over a century, is currently under the spotlight for deeply troubling reasons. A postgraduate medical intern was found dead there last week and according to the police, she was raped and murdered. Although the accused, Sanjay Roy, has been arrested, the incident has triggered nationwide protests, with resident doctors at government hospitals announcing an indefinite strike, severely disrupting medical services.

The tragedy has brought the nation’s focus to the RG Kar Medical College, which has long been a cornerstone of Kolkata’s healthcare system. Established in 1886, the institution was Asia’s first non-government medical college and has played a pivotal role in shaping healthcare in West Bengal and beyond.

The medical college was founded by Dr. Radha Gobinda Kar, who was the first secretary of the institution and remained in office until his death in 1918.

The Government of West Bengal took over the erstwhile private college on 12 May 1958. It is affiliated to the West Bengal University of Health Sciences (WBUHS) and recognized by the Medical Council of India (MCI). It offers undergraduate (MBBS) and postgraduate (MS/MD) medical education, as well as postdoctoral (DM/MCh), PG Diploma and Fellowship programs in various disciplines.

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Who was Dr. RG Kar?

Radha Gobinda Kar was known as a visionary philanthropist who founded the medical college in a rented house on Baithakkhana Bazaar Road in the heart of old Kolkata.

Born in 1852 during the British rule, Kar, the son of a physician father, pursued his medical education at the Bengal Medical College, which was then the oldest medical college in Asia and later came to be known as the famous Calcutta Medical College. After graduation, he went to Edinburgh, England, for further studies and returned with medical degrees in 1886.

Upon his return, he “realized that the prevailing colonial culture was a major obstacle to the general public benefiting from existing medical schools, both as students and as patients,” the authors quote in a 2011 article published in the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM).

This is how the idea of ​​establishing a new medical college came into Kar’s mind, and the “Calcutta Medical School” came into being the same year he returned from England.

According to the NLM article, the duration of the first medical course offered at the college was three years, and the language of instruction was Bengali. He says that donations to set up the college came from all over Bengal.

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From Calcutta Medical School to R.G. Kar Medical College

From the rented building on Baithak Khana Road, the college first moved to Bowbazar Street, also in central Kolkata. There was no hospital attached to it at that time, and hence students had to go to the 24-bed Mayo Hospital in Howrah for training.

In 1898, about 4 acres (12 bighas) of land was purchased — apparently for Rs 12,000, according to a report in The Telegraph — in Belgachia, the present site, to construct the college building. Four years later, in 1902, then-governor Lord Woodburn inaugurated a 30-bed, single-storey hospital building, which was named after British royal Prince Albert Victor.

Two more floors were later added, and the original building maintains the same shape to this day, although several other buildings have sprung up around it to house various departments.

In 1904, the college merged with a similar institute, the Bengal College of Physicians and Surgeons, which had been established in 1895. The Calcutta Medical College eventually became the Belgachhia Medical College in 1916, with the then Governor General Lord Carmichael formally inaugurating it.

Kar passed away two years later on December 19, 1918. Before his death, the college saw several glorious moments. The Calcutta University gave affiliation to the MB Preliminary Scientific course in 1916 and extended it up to the first MB standard the following year. About 100 students were admitted, according to the NLM article.

A year after Kar’s death in 1919, the University of Calcutta granted affiliation to the college for the final MB standard. Since Lord Carmichael was instrumental in ensuring these developments, the article said that the college was named Carmichael Medical College as a mark of gratitude.

The college gradually got its surgical building, an anatomy block and Asia’s first psychiatry OPD. The Sir Kedar Nath Das Maternity Hospital was established on the campus in 1935, and a separate cardiology department, the first of its kind, came into existence in 1939.

By the time India gained independence from the British, the college had already become a renowned institution.

Months after Independence, on May 12, 1948, the college was renamed in honor of its founder, Dr. RG Kar.

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More than a 100-year legacy

In 2016, West Bengal celebrated the centenary of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, commemorating its formal inauguration in 1916 as Belgachia Medical College.

Currently, the 1,210-bed hospital complex, spread over 15 acres, has 10 buildings and seven hostels.

At an event held in 2015 to mark the beginning of the centenary celebrations, Sushanta Banerjee, a former student and then director of medical education, highlighted how the college was an important part of the freedom struggle.

On a lighter note, state minister Shashi Panja, a doctor and alumnus of RG Kar, shared how people looked down on the college because Belgachia was not considered part of Kolkata city at that time.

“Khaler College (a college near the canal) would be the default answer when we said where we were studying,” she was quoted as saying in the Telegraph report cited above.

The college which started with an intake of 48 students now admits 150 students annually for its MBBS course. In addition, there are seats for several other courses in medical and paramedical disciplines. The college also has a School of Nursing which trains 45 students every year, and a College of Nursing which offers the B.Sc. Nursing course.

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