Delhi Rewind: How Sir Ganga Ram Hospital stood the test of Partition in Lahore as well as Delhi

“The last one to leave was my mother’s younger brother, whose friends had to force him to go for the sake of his own safety,” she said. Slowly and through the meagre means they had at hand, the family settled down in Delhi and felt the need to keep alive the legacy of the extensive work Sir Ganga Ram had carried out in Lahore.

Her uncle, Dharma Vira, who was private secretary to the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, played a crucial role. He was also in charge of rehabilitating refugees from Pakistan, and was able to convince the government to allocate 11 acres of land in Karol Bagh, where a large number of refugees had settled down. He wanted to use this land to build a hospital named after Sir Ganga Ram, thereby bringing to the new capital the tradition of a hospital by the same name in Lahore.

“So much philanthropy had been done by Sir Ganga Ram in Lahore. When the family moved here, they wanted to continue in the same way,” said Sharma. “Also, there were hardly any hospitals in Delhi at the time.”

In April 1951, the Ganga Ram Hospital was inaugurated by Nehru. It was a small hospital with 50 beds and minimal infrastructure.

The story of the hospital, however, stretches back another 30 years. In 1921, it was opened in Lahore, where it still stands by the same name and is currently run by the government of Pakistan. During the same period and in the same vicinity, Sir Ganga Ram had also built a medical college by the name of his son: Balak Ram Medical College. After the Partition, it was renamed as Fatima Jinnah Medical College.

The name and efforts of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, however, could not be removed by the tides of the Partition. Even when efforts were made to rename it, locals objected. Dr D S Rana, the chairman of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi, recalled a recent visit to Lahore where, on asking for directions to Fatima Jinnah Medical College, he was quickly corrected by a resident who said: “We only know of it as Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.”

The popularity of Sir Ganga Ram among residents of Lahore is unsurprising, given the many ways in which he built the city. An engineer by profession, he is best known for his initiative of converting a 50,000-acre stretch of desert in Montgomery district into fertile fields through innovative irrigation method. He earned millions, most of which he gave to charity. In the words of Sir Malcolm Hailey, the Governor of Punjab, “he won like a hero and gave like a saint”.

He designed and built many of Lahore’s major buildings, including the General Post Office, Lahore Museum, Aitchison College, Mayo School of Arts (now the National College of Arts), Lady Mclagan Girls High School, Ravi Road House for the Disabled, and the Lahore Cathedral. His is also remembered for his efforts at eradication of child marriage and the upliftment of Hindu and Sikh widows.

What Sir Ganga Ram meant to the people of Lahore was best captured by the writer Sadat Hasan Manto in his short story, The Garland, based on a true incident that took place during the religious riots of 1947. An inflamed mob, desperate to obliterate the Hindu name of Sir Ganga Ram, attacked his statue in front of the hospital with stones and shoes. One person was injured in the incident and as he fell, the mob shouted, ‘Let us rush him to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital’, easily forgetting that the hospital was named after the same person whose memory they wanted to erase.

“Even in Delhi, Sir Ganga Ram had his contributions. In 1903, he was selected by Lord Curzon to act as a superintendent of works in the Imperial Durbar to be held in connection with the accession of King Edward VII. For his work in the Durbar, he received the title Rai Bahadur,” said Ashutosh Kumar, Professor of Modern South Asian History in Banaras Hindu University. “He was invited to the Durbar in 1911 as well.”

Sir Ganga Ram was knighted in 1922 and was invested with this honour at Buckingham Palace by King Emperor George V. He died in 1927 in London where he was representing India at a meeting. A portion of his ashes were consigned to the Ganges, and rest remains buried in Lahore on the banks of the river Ravi.

“Sir Ganga Ram, during his time, did so much work and made so much money that he could contribute a lot to charity. But after the Partition, things were not the same for our family. When we came to Delhi, it was a new start and the means were limited,” said Sharma. She explained that when the hospital in Karol Bagh was established in 1951, all members of the family came together to contribute whatever they could to set it up.

By the early 1970s, the hospital trust came to the realisation that while the healthcare provided by it was serving the local community, it was unfortunately not making a wider impact. Further, the hospital budget was having a sizable yearly deficit. Consequently, in 1976 some of the consultant doctors in the hospital, namely K C Mahajan and B K Vohra, suggested to the trust that the management of the hospital be handed over to the doctors through a legal agreement. Dharam Vira was instrumental in pushing through this proposal, thereby creating a one-of -a-kind medical institution in Delhi that is run by doctors themselves. “The hospital was handed over to the doctors on the promise that the vision and ideals of Sir Ganga Ram must be maintained,” said Rana.

“The trust had decided that at least 20 per cent of the beds were to be reserved for poor people and free treatment and medicines must be made available to them. Another 20 per cent must pay 50 per cent more than the breakeven price and the remaining can pay 100 per cent more,” explained Rana, adding that the same principle continues to be applied in the hospital till date. The doctors and the trust continue to have no stake in the profits in the hospital, nor do they claim a monthly salary.

Over the years, the hospital has grown from its humble beginnings of 50 beds to a multispeciality facility. “I have also been insisting to the management to expand the hospital to other parts of Delhi,” said Sharma, who is also a member of the hospital’s trust, about the institution’s future plans. Also in the making is a new wing for radiology and cancer treatment.