Remembering Dr BC Roy, In Whose Memory India Celebrates National Doctors’ Day

National Doctors Day: Dr BC Roy was born on July 1, 1882, & died on July 1, 1962. India celebrates National Doctors’ Day on this day to recognise and appreciate the role of doctors serving the nation.

Bidhan Chandra Roy, a legendary doctor, was the second chief minister of West Bengal. ( Image Source :Getty )

Dr BC Roy Birth And Death Anniversary: Every Year, India celebrates National Doctors’ Day on July 1 to recognise and appreciate the role of doctors serving the nation. The day is marked in memory of Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy, a famous physician and philanthropist who went on to become the chief minister of West Bengal and served on the post from 1948 until his death in 1962. 

Dr BC Roy was born on July 1, 1882, and it’s his 140th birth anniversary on Friday. The day he died in 1962 was his 80th birthday.   

On this day, India pays tribute to the late doctor remembered for his contributions towards the health sector as he is credited with making quality health services available to common people.

Roy played an instrumental role in the creation of the Indian Medical Association in 1928 and the Medical Council of India in 1939. He was the first president of MCI, from 1939 to 1945. Roy helped start the Indian Institute of Mental Health, the Infectious Disease Hospital and Kolkata’s first postgraduate medical college.

He is also considered to be one of the makers of contemporary West Bengal due to his key role in developing cities and urban clusters like Durgapur, Kalyani, Bidhannagar, and Ashoknagar. 

BC Roy As A Doctor

Born in a Bengali family in Patna, Roy completed his schooling from Patna Collegiate School. He went to Kolkata (then Calcutta) and did his graduation from Calcutta Medical College. 

His medical career as a physician began after his post-graduation in 1911. 

Roy later joined the Calcutta Medical College as a faculty member. It is said that when he was in medical school he had come across an inscription that said "Whatever thy hands findeth to do, do it with thy might." This became a lifelong motivation for him.

He went on to become a Member of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) and did Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) from London.

Roy later joined the provincial health service and taught at the Campbell Medical School. He resigned from government service in 1919 to become the chair of medicine at Carmichael (now RG Kar) Medical College. 

In an obituary after Roy’s death, the British Medical Journal called him the “first medical consultant in the subcontinent of India, who towered over his contemporaries in several fields”. “… at his professional zenith he may have had the largest consulting practice in the world, news of his visit to a city or even railway station bringing forth hordes of would-be patients,” it added.

The obituary recalled how “even at his busiest times as a political administrator Roy would fit in a few patients, often at no fee”.

Political Journey

When Roy was at the peak of his career, India’s struggle for independence was also gaining momentum. 

In 1925, he started his political career, and even succeeded Subhas Chandra Bose as the Mayor of Calcutta in 1931. 

He had joined Mahatma Gandhi during the Civil Disobedience Movement of 1930, and was both a friend and a doctor to Gandhi. When Gandhi was undertaking a 21-day fast in Parnakutivin in Poona (now Pune) in May 1933, Roy was by his side.

He was part of the Congress, and was even promoted as a member of the Congress Working Committee. Roy, however, never ceased to be a doctor. “He kept his practice alive and took care to cultivate the image of the legendary doctor who added value to the Congress movement,” Jawhar Sircar, former culture secretary, Government of India, wrote in wire.in. 

After India gained Independence, Roy was appointed the governor of Uttar Pradesh, before he became the second chief minister of West Bengal. 

Dr Roy was honoured with Bharat Ratna on February 4,1961. The next year, on his 80th birthday he died after treating his morning patients. 

His house was gifted to the public after his death, to run a nursing home. In 1976, the MCI instituted the BC Roy National Award in his memory for work in the areas of medicine, politics, science, philosophy, literature and arts.