Soorjo Coomar Goodeve Chuckerbutty

Soorjo Coomar Goodeve Chuckerbutty, also spelled Surjo Kumar Chakraborty ( – 29 September 1874) was the first Indian to pass the examination of the Indian Medical Service (IMS) in 1855 and subsequently became the Professor of Materia Medica at Calcutta Medical College (CMC) in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Orphaned at the age of six, his aspirations for an English education led him to the Hare School and then entry into medicine at the Medical College of Bengal, where, under the guidance of retired professor of anatomy and obstetrics Henry Goodeve and funding from the government, he was one of the first four Brahmin medical students taken to England in 1845 for further medical training. Upon return to India in 1850, despite his achievements being celebrated and supported by some of his British colleagues, he was prohibited from taking up a senior post in the IMS. When the announcement to open the IMS examination to 'all' came in 1854, Chuckerbutty took the opportunity to take it and passed in second place. Returning again to India, he became the first Indian professor of Medicine at the CMC. In addition, he co-founded the Bethune Society and became the president of the Bengal Branch of the British Medical Association. As one of the earliest Indians to contribute to western medicine, he published in medical journals including The Lancet, the British Medical Journal and The Indian Medical Gazette. Initially embracing the British ways of life, his later lectures, "Popular Lectures on Subjects of Indian Interest", following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, reflected his changed opinion and criticism of European interest. He died in Kensington during a visit to London in 1874. Early life Soorjo Coomar Goodeve Chuckerbutty was born a Kulin Brahmin, as Soorjo Coomar Chuckerbutty, in either 1824, 1826 or 1827 in Kanaksar, Bikrampur division, Dhaka, British India, to pleader, Radhamadhab Chuckerbutty. He was orphaned at the age of six. Subsequently he completed his early education in Bengali, Sanskrit and Persian at his home village school (Pathshala). Then, at the age of 13, he became influenced by an official visit and his first experience of hearing English. As a consequence, he travelled the sixty mile journey to Comilla where he was taken under a district court official, Golok Nath Sen, and attended the English school where in order to pay his way, he exchanged working as a cook for English lessons.