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No other medical college anywhere in the world can be as privileged as Maulana Azad Medical College is in terms of its historical background and the land on which it stands. For centuries freedom fighters struggled to liberate Mother India from the foreign rule. In the process they suffered untold hardships and many of them laid down their lives. During the British Raj there was a big jail occupying the land where Maulana Azad Medical College stands today. Tens of thousands of freedom fighters were jailed in this jail at different times for wanting a free and independent India. The rooms of the jail were small and very dingy. In the middle of this jail complex, there were the gallows (phansi ghar) where fourteen freedom fighters were hanged between the periods 1915 to 1945. After India achieved freedom in 1947, it was decided by the leaders of the newly independent nation to start a medical college on this sacred land which had been soaked in the blood of the freedom fighters and patriots --- the men who were fired with the intense wish for India to be independent. The foundation stone of this uniquely located Maulana Azad Medical College, named after a great freedom fighter and first Minister of Education and Scientific Research of free India , Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, was laid by Pandit Gobind Ballabh Pant who was himself a great freedom fighter and the first Home Minister of Free India on 24th October 1959. The building of the college was ready in a record time of a year and six months. Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru -- the first Prime Minister of Independent India on 26th of February 1961, very proudly dedicated the complex of Maulana Azad Medical College to the nation. A part of the wall of the jail and also an arch at one of the entrances to the jail has been preserved to remind us of our heritage. Within the campus of Maulana Azad Medical College stands a very serene memorial to the memory of the gallant men who were hanged at that very site during the freedom struggle. And the history related to each patriot hanged here will make our head bow down in respect for the supreme sacrifice each one of them made. It was the decision of the founding fathers that the land used by the British to heap untold misery and hardships on the freedom fighters and where 14 of the patriots were hanged, should be used to provide comfort and best possible healthcare to the needy citizens of the nation. "The dismal walls of the jail had been demolished to be replaced by corridors illuminated by soft rays of light, science and knowledge" according to the wisdom of the founding fathers who wanted this land to produce world class doctors for the nation and these doctors will set the standards of healthcare and medical education and will be the leaders in medical research in India. And the very land which was the site of the
prison which tortured freedom fighters in their tens of thousands and which is
soaked with the blood of the patriots, we are proud to say, is now the site of a
world class medical college. Maulana Azad Medical College is fulfilling its
mandate set by the great founding fathers and is producing physicians of world
class standards, setting the standards of medical education in India and is a
leader in medical research in the country. |
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This page was last updated on March 23, 2002 09:02:57 AM
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