A walk covered a slice of the city that is so familiar to many but the fascinating history these places are steeped in is little known.
A group of teachers, researchers and students covered what they called the cradle of modern scientific education in India.
It also stopped by places associated with some of the architects of education in India.
The walk in January was organised by the Science Communicators’ Forum, which works to make science education attractive and joyful, and the Know Your Neighbour campaign.
Metro takes a closer look at two such stops
Tale of two busts
A bust of Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, educationist, crusader for women’s rights, social reformer and among the most revered figures of the Bengal Renaissance, at College Square, was the first
stop.
“This is the first statue — made of stone — in Bengal that was built by an Indian. Back then, stone statues would be made abroad and shipped here,” the guide, Shankar Kumar Nath, 75, told the participants.
A doctor who retired as a consultant oncologist from the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, also his alma mater, Nath keeps a keen interest in the area around College Street.
He quoted from Kolkatar Statue, a book by Kamal Sarkar, to share the history behind the bust.
A town hall was convened following Vidyasagar’s death in 1891. The likes of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (novelist) and Mahendralal Sarkar (doctor, social reformer and founder of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science) were among those present.
The convention decided to have a statue of Vidyasagar at Sanskrit College, where he was the principal. As a tribute to the polymath, it was decided that the statue would be made by an Indian.
A Benaras-based sculptor, Durga Mistry, was entrusted with the job. A photograph of Vidyasagar, taken by the Bourne and Shepherd studio, was shared with him as reference.
The statue was made in Benaras and arrived in Calcutta in 1898 and placed under a canopy at Sanskrit College in 1899.
The place was earlier occupied by a bust of educationist David Hare, who died in 1842.
Hare’s statue came from London in 1845 and was placed at Sanskrit College the next year. But the same year, it was shifted to in front of Hare School, where it still stands. The spot at Sanskrit College remained vacant until March 28, 1899, when Vidyasagar’s statue found a place there.
John Woodburn, the then lieutenant governor of Bengal, unveiled the statue. A biography of Vidyasagar and the details of the statue were published in the form of a booklet by the then principal of Sanskrit College, Nilmani Nyayalankar.
The statue stayed there for eight years. But after a while, a clamour grew to shift the statue to a place where more people would be able to see it. In 1907, the statue of Vidyasagar was brought to College Square.
Now, the canopy at Sanskrit College fell vacant. Another statue — this one made by a European sculptor — of Vidyasagar was brought to Calcutta and placed at Sanskrit College in 1908.
“The statues at College Square and at Sanskrit College were disfigured by Naxalites in the 1970s. The second one was damaged beyond repair. A sculptor named Pramod Gopal Chattopadhyay built another statue that was placed at a different place in Sanskrit College. It still stands,” said Nath.
History repeated itself in May 2019, when another statue of Vidyasagar (at Vidyasagar College) was vandalised by alleged BJP supporters during a road show led by Union home minister Amit Shah in the run-up to the general election.
A first
Shankar Kumar Nath, an alumnus of Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, has written a book, Kolkata Medical College er gorar kotha o Pandit Madhusudhan Gupta.
It won the Rabindra Puraskar (conferred by the state of Bengal) in 2014. On Sunday, he also talked at length about the origins of the institution, the first medical college in the country.
Despite being the second city of the British empire, Calcutta did not have much by way of health facilities.
Three institutions came up in the 1820s with the objective of imparting medical education in the local language.
A Native Medical Institution was founded on June 21, 1822. It operated from the house of Ramkamal Sen, the grandfather of Keshab Chandra Sen, reformer and philosopher. The same building now houses the Indian Coffee House.
Two more centres — an ayurveda school at Sanskrit College and a unani centre at Calcutta Madrasa — came up within years.
But the curriculum at these places was allegedly not up to the mark. William Bentick, the then governor-general, received multiple complaints about medical practitioners who studied there.
He set up a probe panel in October 1833. The panel submitted its report the next year, making some critical observations. It also recommended the setting up of a medical college that would impart Western medical education.
On January 28, 1835, the journey of the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital began. It started taking in students from the next month. The course ran five-and-a-half years. English was the medium of education.
The teachers were brought in from England. They were Mountford Joseph Bramley, the first principal of the college, and two professors, Henry Harry Goodeve and William Brooke O’ Shaunessy.
The college also had three demonstrators. One of them, Masdhusudan Gupta, is credited with the first dissection of a human corpse in the history of modern medical education in India.
The first batch had 49 students. The first secretary of the college was David Hare.
“We live in a time when history is being distorted. We have a glorious scientific past. All of it started here. It is very important to inculcate that scientific temper and rational attitude in the present times,” Nath said.
Abhijit Bardhan, one of the founders of the Science Communicators’ Forum, said walks like this one would also help in making science popular and attractive among students.
“With each passing day, the number of higher secondary students opting for science is dipping in Bengal. We want to arrest the dip,” he said.