The Calcutta Medical College, 1822-1897: Medicine, Social Psyche and the Making of Modern Citizenry

The Calcutta Medical College, 1822-1897: Medicine, Social Psyche, and the Making of Modern Citizenry explores the history of the first medical college in India and its evolution through the nineteenth century. Established during the period of 'hospital medicine', the college paved the way for a paradigm shift in the field of medical cosmology. Not only did this lead to new governing and medical processes-such as dissections during medical classes, post-mortem examinations, and the use of medical tools like stethoscopes-it also had a great impact on the social psyche of the general populace of Bengal. As a result, the students of the college were indoctrinated into new kinds of discipline and governance-two requisites of the emerging semi-modern state. Through such new endeavours, as well as contemporary international events in the medical sphere, changes in the outlook of the British Empire, and the forces of Utilitarianism and Evangelism, the college became a medium for the making of a modern citizenry and led to the birth of a modern public healthcare sector in India.