page_title: Grant Medical College and Sir Jamshedjee Jeejeebhoy Group of Hospitals
section_title: Establishment of Grant Medical College
hierarchical_section_title: Grant Medical College and Sir Jamshedjee Jeejeebhoy Group of Hospitals / History / Establishment of Grant Medical College
caption_attribution_description: English: Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy Hospital in Bombay Engraver; Charles Rosenberg Artist: W.J Huggins (1781-1845) Medium: Engraving, 19.x30. centimetres Publishers: Collett &amp; Co. Place of Publication: Bombay Publishing year: 1843 Caption "Engraving of the Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy Hospital in Bombay by C. Rosenberg after W. J. Huggins and published by Collett and Co. in 1843. Inscribed: 'Bombay Native Hospital. This engraving of an important Charitable Institution, founded, and constructed at the joint expense of Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy &amp; the East India Company, is respectfully dedicated to Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, by his obedient servant, W. J. Huggins. (This Building is 400 feet in length &amp; 280 feet in depth)."
context_page_description: The Grant Government Medical College, Mumbai, is a medical college affiliated to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nashik. Founded in 1845, it counts among the premier medical institutions in India and one of the oldest institutions teaching Western medicine in Asia. It has been consistently ranked on the list of top ten medical colleges in the country. The college accepts 250 students annually for the undergraduate degree and around 100 annually for the various postgraduate degrees in medicine. The medical college is situated in Byculla on the campus of Sir J. J. Hospital.Thee hospital has a combined bed strength of 2844 and caters to an annual load of 1,200,000 out-patients and 80,000 in-patients, from all parts of Maharashtra and central India.
  Its clinical affiliate is Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy Group of Hospitals: a conglomerate of four hospitals in South Bombay that include the Sir J. J. Hospital, St George Hospital, Gokuldas Tejpal Hospital, and Cama and Albess Hospital
  Grant Medical College is among the 8 medical colleges of India which have been recognised by medical council of Singapore.
context_section_description: 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 efforts of Charles Morehead (the then surgeon) to the governor that this society came into existence in November 1835. 
  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 inquiry 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."
  Grant developed a proposal in 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. In March 1838 Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy offered a donation of Rs. 1 lac for building a new general hospital with Indians. Grant took note of this in his minute, adding that the hospital would facilitate medical instruction. The East India Company, as conveyed in its letter dated 18 July 1838, happily endorsed the proposal for a medical college. However, nine days before the arrival of this news, Grant succumbed to an attack of cerebral apoplexy while vacationing in Dapori, near Pune.
  A historic public meeting was held in town hall by citizens of Bombay to mourn his death. The Sanskrit scholar Jagannath Shankarsheth proposed that it would be a fitting tribute that the medical college should be established and that it should bear his name. The government accepted this proposal. The foundation stone of the building was laid on 30 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 3 January 1843 and the School of Practice was opened for reception of the sick from 15 May 1845. 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 la
caption: Jamshedjee Jeejeebhoy Hospital, 1843 print.
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