Gandhi Medical College Hyderabad- History ( the article published in Housecall magazine)

The other famous medical college of Hyderabad Gandhi Medical College

Though the rest of India had long been independent, the state of Hyderabad remained under the seventh Nizam, a little country surrounded by independent India on all sides remaining aloof and untouched by what was happening in the rest of the country (two years were to pass before the Indian government took over Hyderabad in a Police Action).

The Nizam’s Hyderabad, as it was then known, not only spread over the eight districts of Telangana, but also included two districts of present-day Karnataka, Raichur, and Gulbarga, and areas of Marathwada thereby giving birth to a unique language: a mixture of Telugu, Urdu, Marathi, and some words that are typically Hyderabadi. To provide for the medical needs of this entire area and to train young doctors there was only Osmania Medical College and Hospital, which understandably was insufficient to meet the demands of the ailing.

Dr Nizamuddin, a well-known doctor and highly qualified TB specialist with an MRCP to his credit, felt that it was high time that a new college be started in the state of Hyderabad, augmenting the strength of the highly acclaimed Osmania.

An executive member of Hyderabad Medical Society, he sought the help of Col Waghray to broach the matter with the Nizam and facilitate the process. In later years, the colonel was able to procure from the government a lease on the land at Basheer Bagh. All that was now needed was an entree to academic bodies so that his status as an educationist was accepted. The Anwar-ul-Uloom Trust, of which he was a member, was running schools and a college at Mallepally, and his position as an executive member of this organization gave him the necessary background as an educationist. Soon Dr Ansari, a pharmacology professor from Osmania, and Dr Jabbar, a radiologist still in service, joined hands with him. The Hyderabad branch of the Indian Medical Association was involved with the enterprise right from the outset.

One fine day in June 1954, an ad appeared in the local papers, as also in those of other states, calling for students to come “to study medicine at People’s Medical College, Asif Nagar, Hyderabad”. Four students from Madhya Pradesh, three from Maharashtra, one from Kerala, and a few from Hyderabad boldly applied for these seats and came to Hyderabad to become doctors. Among those from Hyderabad were those who had failed to get admission to Osmania that year.

They had paid the royal sum of thirteen hundred rupees for the privilege of this admission, but on arrival at Hyderabad they were disappointed to see tin sheds awaiting them and a handful of classmates hanging about the place. It appeared that there were noclassrooms, no teachers, and no recognition for this new People’s Medical College. The students were kept pleasurably occupied playing cricket and enjoying picnics at Gandipet, and trips to the movies so they did not lose heart and run away.

Classes actually began only in September 1954, as getting together a sufficient number of teachers was a Herculean task, assuming that Dr Nizamuddin could keep the student flock together and in good spirits. He showed in his register Dr Hyder Ali Khan, a professor of anatomy from Osmania who was to retire in six months, and claimed that he was presently working with them on a part time basis and would join them on retirement. Dr S A Samad, a private practitioner of Kachiguda, a crowded locality in Hyderabad, taught physiology. “He came on a bicycle to teach us,” say some of the students of the first batch who have vivid memories of those turbulent early years.

When a few students like Dr K Dayanand Reddy began pestering Dr Nizamuddin about when the college would receive recognition (“All our originals were held by Dr Nizamuddin thereby preventing us from going elsewhere, “Admission nako saab, originals de do saab,’ we would say”), he would show them some money and then point toward the gate saying, “Yeh raha paisa, woh raha gate”, never actually letting this happen.

In 1956 the state of Andhra Pradesh was formed, and People’s Medical College came under the umbrella of the state government and was then called Gandhi Medical College. Eventually the first batch, perhaps in recognition of the hardships they had undergone, came to be called the forty pillars of Gandhi Medical College. The first batch was now about to begin their clinical years and the KEM Hospital was requisitioned for the purpose. A century old hospital, first commissioned in 1851 as the infirmary with three wards, grew into the Cantonment Hospital with ninety beds and later became King Edward Memorial Hospital in 1913, and finally in 1958 was privileged to become Gandhi Hospital, a recognized teaching institution that grew steadily in stature, becoming the first hospital to have performed open heart surgery in Andhra Pradesh in 1977 under Dr C R Rajagopalan.

When it first became Gandhi Hospital it was shifted to the present building that was government property and it was planned that some of the buildings of the adjacent Lady Hydari Club would be included. The latter was government property leased to the club and the students rightfully felt that the hospital was more deserving of government largesse than a club. How they acquired this property remains a colourful story in the annals of the GMC. After having patiently waited for decades for the club to turn over their buildings to the hospital, the Gandhians, says Dr K Ramesh Reddy (now a consultant paediatric surgeon), first went on a hunger strike and when push came to shove, in a very un-Gandhian move, smuggled out skeletons from the anatomy theatre at three in the morning and decoratively hung them in the club’s anteroom, and for good measure, adorned them with a cadaver or two. The then chief minister N T Rama Rao and the club conceded defeat and handed over some of its buildings, which became a part of Gandhi Hospital, providing the teachers and students with enough room to comfortably accommodate the thousand plus inpatients. The efforts of the students were largely instrumental in this acquisition, their gift of gratitude to their beloved college.

With everything in place, including excellent teachers like Drs Prasada Rao and G Subba Rao for surgery, Drs G Narsing Rao, N R A Swamy, and K Ram Das for general medicine, and Drs B S Surti and J V Desai as gynaecologists, it was time to battle for recognition. It is said that the British Medical Council recognized this college earlier than many others in Andhra.

Gandhi Hospital had an innovation rarely seen in medical history. Dr Subba Rao, as the superintendent in the early days, built a gallery system in the operation theatres and provided the students with binoculars to better view the operations in progress. His emphasis on discipline was such that the then chief minister Sanjeeva Reddy was stopped by the security when he came after visiting hours.

A common amenity like the lift was reserved for patients only, while doctors were expected to be agile on their feet and run up the steps. He was equally particular that the monthly audit, an introspective exercise into the reasons for failure, be attended by the house surgeons. “This is a time to learn,” was his dictum.

Another specialty of Gandhi was microphones in all lecture halls. In later years, when Dr P Seeniah, a surgery professor, came to a class the microphone was not functioning, but the professor assured the students that he would speak at a pitch that would be heard by all, and in a booming voice taught the class. Dr Raja Reddy, a student of the ‘57 batch was the first to start the neurosurgery department, and his pioneering work on fluorosis will always remain Gandhi Medical’s signal contribution to the field of medicine.

Gandhi Medical College has had a close association with cricket, having treated Mohinder Amarnath for a skull fracture after he was struck by a Richard Hadlee ball, and another cricketer for a nasal injury. They laid claim to the World Cup victory and kept the Prudential Cup in 1983 just for a bit! Through the good offices of Dr Ram Mohan, a member of the cricket association of Hyderabad, the college was able to retain the Prudential Cup for a while, on its way to Fateh Maidan. The headlines of the papers the following day screamed, “Gandhi Medical College has the Prudential Cup”!

The college has always nurtured a close-knit Gandhian feeling. Perhaps it is the relatively small intake of students or perhaps, say some, it is the little corridor that connects both the important buildings: “Everyone has to keep crossing this corridor any number of times, and we run into one another so often that we know everyone!”

Whatever the reason, once a Gandhian always a Gandhian, wherever they may be; many have made names for themselves in foreign lands and many have stayed behind to contribute substantively to the field of medicine in India.