Gumghar – The quarantine and isolation that was there in Old Calcutta

 

After the pandemic of Covid – 19 the whole world is now familiar with the word Quarantine or isolation . But did you know Calcutta had a Quarantine & isolation house for isolating infectious and contagious patients back in 1792. Cholera was on its run as an epidemic in Kolkata and one more epidemic setting in is Plague at that point of time. As both Cholera and Plague were highly infectious and contagious ,  and the natives Indians being affected the most , the British lords planned to build up a hospital called native hospital in 1792 . The hospital was built near Colootola Street where the Chandni Market stands today in Kolkata.

What happened to the patients who came out of the hospital and needed to be isolated from their family and stay on quarantine? Britishers built up a house called Gumghar where these patients were kept and maybe they never saw daylight again. Gum in Bengali refers to hiding someone forcibly and Ghar refers to House or room. So Gumghar meant a house where people were kept forcibly separated from others. Historian P. Thankappan Nair writes in his book ‘History of Calcutta’s Streets’ that the earliest known mention of the lane can be found in the Bengal Agra Directory of 1850. But that too is a passing mention, and has been referenced using a different spelling than what is presently used: “Goomgur lane, north side of the native hospital, dhurrumtolla. While there is no clear historical documentation to confirm this, the name of the lane suggests that the houses may have specifically been used for isolation and quarantine purposes

A report by the Rivers Pollution Commission in 1868 titled ‘The Domestic Water Supply of Great Britain’ presented in both houses of Parliament in Britain indicates that cholera, endemic in Calcutta during that time, was one of the illnesses to be treated at the Native Hospital in the city, while the Calcutta Review says that small-pox was also treated at the institution.

In many ways, this institution was the predecessor of the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital that was established in College Street in 1835, Asia’s first medical college. Some 78 years later, in 1874, this institution was once again shifted, this time to Strand Road near the Hooghly river, renamed Mayo Native Hospital where it still stands. With time , the Gumghar building was also shut as there were no need to isolate infectious patients anymore.

However, the  300 Meter lane got its name as Gumghar lane and still there is a board marking the colonial history , which shows that this lane exists in the 21^st century though it is difficult now to say which building was used as the actual isolation house for infected patients. This lane bubbles with hustle and bustle all through the day but as night sets in , the silence speaks  about the history of quarantine and isolation process which started 200 years back in Kolkata