Background The obstacles to the study of practical anatomy were not unique to India. England had its own qualms regarding acceptance of human dissection and difficulties in obtaining bodies. British anatomy students were increasingly looking to France for training and the emphasis on knowing the anatomy of the body, diseased or otherwise, on being a competent abled physician or surgeon was strongly felt by western medicine. This conviction, the 1834 report on the state of medical education in Bengal, along with the resulting formation of the CMC and its then affiliation with
University College London, all played their part towards meeting the growing need of trained native doctors for a mounting British army. Adding to this, the persistence of
Lord William Bentinck, Henry Goodeve and others and the surrounding abundant supply of dead bodies in Kolkata, created a passage for practical anatomy from Europe to India. All that was then needed was Indian acceptance.
The first human dissection Widely acknowledged as the "first dissector of British India", Gupta has been frequently credited with the launch of modern medicine in India and breaking religious taboos. Hindu prejudice against touching the dead body was seen as a major obstacle in introducing practical anatomy to the college. In order for the influential Indian community to accept human dissection, and requested by
David Hare, who also sought advice from
Radhakanta Deb, to produce the necessary supporting literary evidence from traditional Sanskrit Ayurvedic literature. this date is disputed and others have cited the date as 28 October 1836. Following six months of preparation, persuasion by Bethune and with premeditated secrecy, Gupta followed Professor Goodeve to the
Godown Organised by the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal and Bethune, Gupta faced questions from an assembly of pundits, under the supervision of the Maharaja of
Nabadwip. He was successful with his given evidence from Sanskrit scriptures and what followed was a steady progression of dissection at CMC over the coming years. Mittra, in his memoirs, also recounts Tagore being witness to a dissection when the anatomy class for Indian youths was opened. Original documents of the dissection, found at CMC in 2011, indicate that the influential Tagore may have had a hand in smuggling the corpse to the anatomy rooms. In 1848, Goodeve claimed that more 500 dissections had taken place at CMC in the previous year. The question of whether Gupta's dissection was the actual first has been debated. In the 1830s, there was enough evidence to suggest that many Hindu students were ready to overcome prejudice and pick up a scalpel and "touch a dead body for the study of anatomy". In a personal statement in 1836, Gupta speaks of his major achievements, but does not mention the dissection. Bramley comments in 1836, that many Hindu students had been interested in and observed the "examination of bodies" and he described a human dissection performed by four Hindu students on 28 October 1836. He discloses his wish to praise those students, but for the adverse publicity they would receive, he regretfully refrained. An alternative account is given in 1899, when Professor of anatomy at CMC,
Havelock Charles, wrote to
the Lancet with regards to anatomy teaching at CMC. He described the credit and honour given to Gupta for the first dissection, despite in 1835…the original class of eleven students who had the courage to break through the iron bonds of caste, and engage in the dissection of the human body. I think it but right to mention the names of the students of this first class that studied human anatomy in India…Umacharan Set, Dwarkanath Gupto, Rajkisto Dey, Gobind Chunder Goopto, Kallachand Dey, Gopalchander Gupto, Chummun Lal, Nobin Chunder Mitter, Nobin Chunder Mookerjee, Buddinchunder Chowdree, and James Pote. == Later career ==