CDS (I) 2021 General Knowledge · Question 32 of 120

Correct — C, Indians were never admitted to IMS. One name settles it. Soorjo Coomar Goodeve Chuckerbutty went to London in 1854, the year the Company opened the covenanted medical examination to all candidates, and passed it in January 1855 — the first Indian to do so, placing second in the list behind George Marr. He was appointed Assistant Surgeon in the covenanted service, and Rajendra Chandra Chandra followed on 27 January 1858. Indians remained a small minority in the IMS for decades, and the service was dominated by British officers to the end, but 'never admitted' is a claim that one documented entry in 1855 destroys.

• (a)IMS began in 1764. — True as the paper means it. The organised medical services date from the Bengal Medical Service, set up on 20 October 1763 with fixed grades and rules of promotion, with similar services established in Madras and Bombay by 1764 — the year the service is conventionally dated from.
• (b)It recruited health professionals by means of a competitive examination. — True. Entry to the covenanted medical service was by competitive examination held in London, thrown open to all candidates in 1854 — the very examination Chuckerbutty travelled over to sit.
• (d)The IMS was at first meant to look after the troops. — True. It grew out of the surgeons attached to the Company's ships and armies, and the pressure of military campaigning is what forced the separation of military surgeons from civil surgeons.

The Indian Medical Service was the medical arm of the East India Company's establishment and later of the Government of India — a uniformed service whose officers held military rank, served the army first, and were seconded to civil duties such as jails, dispensaries, medical colleges and public-health work when the army could spare them. Its officers ran the Calcutta Medical College, the Indian Medical Gazette and much of the sanitary and research apparatus of British India, including the laboratories where Ronald Ross worked on malaria.

Absolute words are where these items are decided. Three of the four statements are cautious — 'began in', 'recruited by', 'at first meant to' — and one is total: 'never'. A single counter-example beats 'never', so the sensible move is to hunt for one. The one to remember is Chuckerbutty in 1855, and it is worth remembering precisely because it is exceptional: admission was through a London examination that few Indians could afford to sit, and the service stayed overwhelmingly British. A trap in the other direction is to be so struck by the racial exclusiveness of the colonial services that 'Indians were never admitted' sounds obviously right; the honest statement is that Indians were admitted, in small and grudging numbers, from 1855 onward.

• The Bengal Medical Service was established on 20 October 1763 with fixed grades and rules for promotion, and similar services were in place in Madras and Bombay by 1764.
• Soorjo Coomar Goodeve Chuckerbutty was the first Indian to pass the IMS examination, in January 1855, placing second behind George Marr.
• Rajendra Chandra Chandra entered the service on 27 January 1858, the second Indian to do so.
• The competitive examination for the covenanted medical service was thrown open to all candidates in 1854 and held in London, which itself limited Indian entry.
• IMS officers held military rank and served the army first; civil appointments in jails, dispensaries and medical colleges were secondments.

• Treating 'never' as safely true because the colonial services were racially exclusive; one documented Indian entrant is enough to break it.
• Confusing the Indian Medical Service with the modern Central Health Service or with the Army Medical Corps of independent India.
• Assuming a service that mainly did civil sanitary work must have been civil in origin; the IMS was military first and civil by secondment.

Usually as a which-is-not-correct item where three statements are hedged and one carries an absolute word such as never, only or always.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Who was the first Indian to enter the covenanted Indian Medical Service, after passing its competitive examination in London?

  • (a)Mahendra Lal Sircar
  • (b)Soorjo Coomar Goodeve Chuckerbutty
  • (c)Kadambini Ganguly
  • (d)Anandi Gopal Joshi

  Answer(b) Soorjo Coomar Goodeve Chuckerbutty — he passed the examination in January 1855 and was appointed Assistant Surgeon in the covenanted service.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Medical College, Bengal — India's first institution to teach Western medicine in English — was founded at Calcutta in

  • (a)1817
  • (b)1835
  • (c)1857
  • (d)1882

  Answer(b) 1835 — established by an order of Lord William Bentinck, and staffed largely by Indian Medical Service officers.