Dr S Rangachari
The statue of Dr S Rangachari within the precincts of the Madras Medical College is a famous landmark of Chennai. Most visitors know that he was an eminent surgeon of pre-Independence Madras whose exploits have become part of the lore of the medical annals of the city, though they may be unaware that his was perhaps the first and only memorial built entirely with funds donated by a grateful public.
A public he served tirelessly, often donating his personal money to needy patients to buy medicines and food. Dr Sarukkai Rangachari was born in the village of Sarukkai in April 1882. His father Krishnamachari was a government servant who played a role in the construction of the Napier Bridge and parts of the General Hospital of Madras.
His grandfather Raja Srinivasa Iyengar was a wealthy landlord. Rangachari graduated from Madras Christian College and decided to study medicine, moved by the sufferings of his ailing grandfather and the tragedy he witnessed at the General Hospital of a mother who had lost her son. He had to overcome the opposition of his orthodox extended family whose elders thought practising medicine was an unclean profession for a Brahmin. Once he qualified as a doctor, Rangachari had to face many challenges. His great skill as a practitioner and his fame led to envy and animosity from the British medical fraternity. As a result, he was frequently transferred all over the Madras Presidency.
Petty rivalries continued to harass him even when he took charge as Professor of Surgery and Medicine at Madras Medical College, and he eventually resigned his post in disgust, to set up private practice.
He became one of the most celebrated medical practitioners of his time, achieving international fame. He was a legend at a time when the Madras medical scene was dominated by Colonel Pandalay, renowned for his surgical skills, Dr Guruswami Mudaliar for his proficiency in general medicine, and Dr A Lakshmanaswami Mudaliar, the most famous gynaecologist of the period. Dr Rangachari was to achieve fame in all three fields.
One of the many stories, real and apocryphal, that went to make the Rangachari legend was of an Englishwoman’s refusal to allow Rangachari to deliver her baby. He was then an assistant of a Dr Thomson, who however had more faith in the young Indian than in his own ability. The baby was safely delivered by Rangachari, who entered the ward in the guise of an anaesthetist and took over from Dr Thomson once the lady became unconscious.
Dr Rangachari’s clinic “Kingston” on Poonamallee High Road soon became a much sought after destination for people with diverse health problems. He had two operation theatres, and started work at four a.m. every day. He performed operations in both rooms without a break till 11 a.m. Rangachari was famous for his Rolls Royce in which he visited his patients rich and poor—after completing surgery and ward visits for the day—carrying his lunch packet with him. When someone questioned the need for such ostentation, he is said to have retorted: “Why not? I practically live in my car, visiting patients round the clock.Is it wrong to live in a nice home?” An oft told story involved his car being stopped on Beach Road by poor fisherfolk who took him to a nearby slum. IThere he gave emergency treatment to a pregnant woman who was bleeding excessively.
Refusing to take the ten rupees proffered by her husband, Dr Rangachari gave him Rs. 100 to spend on mother and child.Yet another beneficiary of Dr Rangachari’s kindness was a little boy he treated for typhoid, whom he gave a rupee coin everyday during his illness.
The patient went on to become a well known neuro surgeon—Dr V Balasubramaniam of Ranga Nursing Home, an institution named after his benefactor. The Rolls Royce was not the only luxury Dr Rangachari possessed. He was perhaps the ‘first flying doctor’ of the country, travelling by his own aircraft to visit patients in all parts of the country. Dr Rangachari’s end came in April 1934 during a typhoid epidemic that swept through Madras. Going round the city, tirelessly attending to patients, the doctor succumbed to the disease himself at the age of 52.
Dr S Rangachari