During 1803, at height of its rule in India, the British India Company (East India Company) had a private army of 260000, twice the size of British Army. Plenty of soldiers used to die, mainly from diarrheal diseases, malaria and kala azar. The only available treatment at that time was traditional Indian medicine. It was not possible to treat this vast number of soldiers with very limited European doctors. Necessity of imparting training to the native people in modern medicine was badly felt.
Asia’s 1st Medical College (Medical College, Bengal) came into being in 1835. However, the pass rate for qualifying examination was abysmal (30-33%). Sometime during 1841-42, Sri Ram Kamal Sen (Grandfather of Sri Keshab Chandra Sen), a social reformist, came up with a proposal for a Bengali section. In 1853, Principal of Medical College, Bengal Dr. F Mouat, Dr. Jackson and few others started the Bengali section, with the hope of improvement in the pass rate.
