Indian Army Medical Corps

Army Medical Corps
The Indian Army Medical Corps Logo.
Active	3 Apr 1943 – present day
Country	India
Branch	Indian Army
Nickname(s)	AMC
Motto(s)	SARVE SANTU NIRAMAYA

The Indian Army Medical Corps is a specialist corps in the Indian Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel.

Very little is known of the medical organisations that existed in the Indian armies in ancient times. However, Kautilya’s Arthashastra shows that during battles, physicians with surgical instruments (Sastra, medicines and drugs in their hands besides women with prepared food and beverages) stood behind the fighting men. Similarly, from the Sushruta Samhita, it is seen that a physician fully equipped with medicines would live in a camp not far from the royal pavilion and would treat those wounded by arrows or swords. Physicians in the King’s service adopted certain measures to protect the ruler from secret poisoning. Physicians well versed in the technical sciences and other allied branches of study was held in high esteem by all.

The Army Medical Corps came into existence as a homogeneous corps of officers and men on the pattern of the Royal Army Medical Corps on 3 Apr 1943 by the amalgamation of the Indian Medical Service, the Indian Medical Department and the Indian Hospital & Nursing Corps. The Corps was formed as a wartime necessity for attracting suitably qualified men for service in a rapidly expanding army.

The history of the Indian Medical Service (IMS) dates back to 1612 when, on the formation of the East India Company, the Company appointed John Woodall as their first Surgeon General. Under him, medical Corps officers (mainly civilians) were recruited more or less on individual contracts. The company expanded activities in various part of the country which necessitated the formation and maintenance of regular bodies of troops in India. As a consequence, they commenced employing military surgeons from 1745 onwards. It was not until 1764 that these surgeons were made into regular establishment of the company’s armies. Thus the Bengal Medical Service was formed in 1764, the Madras Medical Service in 1767 and the Bombay Medical Service in 1779 for the three Presidency Armies of Bengal, Madras and Bombay. The three medical services were combined into the Indian Medical Services (IMS) in Apr 1886 under a Surgeon General to the Government of India. The designation was later changed into the Director General, Indian Medical Service. In 1913, the appointment was designated as the Director of Medical Services in India.

Until the First World War the IMS was predominantly civil in character, but gradually from 1912 onwards those employed in civil duties became less and less in number. Indianisation of this service commenced from 1915 onwards. Sarjoo Coomar Goodeve Chauckerbutty was the first Indian to enter the service as Assistant Surgeon on 24 Jan 1855.