Sushila Nayyar
Encyclopedia
Sushila Nayyar, also spelled 'Nayar
' (1914 – 2000), was the younger sister of Pyarelal Nayyar
, personal secretary to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
and the Gandhis' personal physician.
, Punjab
now in Pakistan
, and came to Delhi
in her youth to study medicine at Lady Hardinge Medical College
. In 1939 she came to Sevagram
to join her brother, and quickly became a close associate of the Gandhis. Shortly after her arrival, cholera
broke out in Wardha
, and the young medical graduate tackled the outbreak almost singlehandedly. Gandhi praised her fortitude and dedication to service, and with the blessing of Dr B.C. Roy
appointed her his personal physician. In 1942 she was awarded an MD
and returned once more to Gandhi's side, to take part in the Quit India Movement
that was sweeping the country. That year she was imprisoned along with other prominent Gandhians at the Aga Khan Palace
in Poona
.
In 1944 she set up a small dispensary at Sevagram, but this soon grew so large it disturbed the peace of the ashram, and she shifted it to a guesthouse donated by the Birlas, in Wardha. In 1945 this little clinic formally became the Kasturba Hospital
(now the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences
). This time was, however, highly fraught; several attempts were made on Gandhi's life by Hindu
extremists
, including Nathuram Godse
, the man who was ultimately to kill him, and Sushila Nayyar testified on several occasions to the attacks. In 1948 she appeared before the Kapur Commission
regarding the incident in Panchgani
in 1944 when Nathuram Godse allegedly tried to attack Gandhi with a dagger.
After Gandhi's assassination
in 1948 in Delhi, Sushila Nayyar went to the USA where she took two degrees in public health
from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Returning in 1950, she set up a tuberculosis
sanatorium
in Faridabad
, the model township on the outskirts of Delhi set up on cooperative
lines by fellow Gandhian Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay
. Nayyar also headed the Gandhi Memorial Leprosy Foundation.
In 1952 she entered politics and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Delhi
. From 1952 to 1955 she served as Health Minister
in Nehru's
cabinet. She was Speaker of the Delhi Vidhan Sabha (as the State Assembly had been renamed) from 1955 to 1956. In 1957 she was elected to the Lok Sabha
and served till 1971. She was Union Health Minister again from 1962 to 1967. During the congress regime, she fell out with Indira Gandhi and was member of the opposition (Janata party). She briefly held a position when it was voted to power that created history by overthrowing Indira Gandhi's government. Thereafter she retired from politics to devote herself to the Gandhian ideal. She had set up the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences
in 1969, and remained committed to confine her energies to developing and extending it. She died towards the end of 2000
Nayar
Nayar, Nayyar or Nair can refer to:Groups of people:* Naga People from North Eastern India* The successors of Nāga tradition* Nayar – a caste from the South Indian state of Kerala...
' (1914 – 2000), was the younger sister of Pyarelal Nayyar
Pyarelal Nayyar
Pyarelal Nayyar was the personal secretary of Mahatma Gandhi in his later years. His sister Dr. Sushila Nayyar was the Personal Physician to Mahatma Gandhi....
, personal secretary to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
and the Gandhis' personal physician.
Biography
She was born in 1914 in KunjahKunjah
Kunjah is a village in Pakistan located in Gujrat District in the Punjab Province, the inhabitants are called Kunjahi.- History :...
, Punjab
Punjab (British India)
Punjab was a province of British India, it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British rule. With the end of British rule in 1947 the province was split between West Punjab, which went to Pakistan, and East Punjab, which went to India...
now in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, and came to Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
in her youth to study medicine at Lady Hardinge Medical College
Lady Hardinge Medical College
Lady Hardinge Medical College is a Medical College for women located near Connaught Plane in New Delhi, India. Established in 1916, it became part of the Delhi University, Faculty of Medical Sciences in 1950. For the teaching and training of medical students, it has two hospitals, Smt...
. In 1939 she came to Sevagram
Sevagram
Sevagram is Hindi for "A village for service" and the name of a village in the state of Maharashtra, India. This was the place of Mohandas Gandhi's ashram. Previously it was named as Shegaon: it was Mahatma Gandhi who renamed it to Sevagram....
to join her brother, and quickly became a close associate of the Gandhis. Shortly after her arrival, cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
broke out in Wardha
Wardha
Wardha is a city and a municipal council in Wardha district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarters of Wardha district. Wardha gets its name from the Wardha River which flows at the North, West and South boundaries of district. Founded in 1866, the town is now an...
, and the young medical graduate tackled the outbreak almost singlehandedly. Gandhi praised her fortitude and dedication to service, and with the blessing of Dr B.C. Roy
Bidhan Chandra Roy
Bidhan Chandra Roy, M.R.C.P., F.R.C.S. was the second Chief Minister of West Bengal in India. He remained in his post for 14 years as a Indian National Congress candidate, from 1948 until his death in 1962. He was a highly respected physician and a renowned freedom fighter...
appointed her his personal physician. In 1942 she was awarded an MD
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
and returned once more to Gandhi's side, to take part in the Quit India Movement
Quit India Movement
The Quit India Movement , or the August Movement was a civil disobedience movement launched in India in August 1942 in response to Mohandas Gandhi's call for immediate independence. Gandhi hoped to bring the British government to the negotiating table...
that was sweeping the country. That year she was imprisoned along with other prominent Gandhians at the Aga Khan Palace
Aga Khan Palace
The Aga Khan Palace was built in the year 1892 by Sultan Muhammed Shah, Aga Khan III in Pune. Since then it is one of the biggest landmarks in Indian history...
in Poona
Pune
Pune , is the eighth largest metropolis in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai, and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Once the centre of power of the Maratha Empire, it is situated 560 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau at the confluence of the Mula ...
.
In 1944 she set up a small dispensary at Sevagram, but this soon grew so large it disturbed the peace of the ashram, and she shifted it to a guesthouse donated by the Birlas, in Wardha. In 1945 this little clinic formally became the Kasturba Hospital
Kasturba Hospital
The Kasturba Hospital was started in 1945 by Dr Sushila Nayyar. It was a 648 - bed hospital, located in Sevagram, about 8 km. from Wardha, and offered tertiary care healthcare facilities to rural patients....
(now the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences
Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences
The Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences is run by the Kasturba Health Society. It was earlier affiliated to the Nagpur University and from 1998 to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nasik.-History:...
). This time was, however, highly fraught; several attempts were made on Gandhi's life by Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
extremists
Extremism
Extremism is any ideology or political act far outside the perceived political center of a society; or otherwise claimed to violate common moral standards...
, including Nathuram Godse
Nathuram Godse
Nathuram Vinayak Godse , from the city of Pune, India was a Hindutva activist and journalist, who was the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi. Along with his brother Gopal Godse and six other co-conspirators, he executed a plot to assassinate Gandhi.-Early life:Nathuram Godse was born in Baramati, Pune...
, the man who was ultimately to kill him, and Sushila Nayyar testified on several occasions to the attacks. In 1948 she appeared before the Kapur Commission
Kapur Commission
The release of the conspirators in the Gandhi murder case in 1964 and the resultant celebrations in Pune and Ketkar's remarks that he was aware of Nathuram Godse's desire to kill Gandhi, led to a public outrage and resulted in the forming of the Pathak commission...
regarding the incident in Panchgani
Panchgani
Pānchgani is a town and municipal council in Sātārā district in Mahārāshtra, India .-History:Scenic Panchgani was discovered by the British during the British Raj as a summer resort, and a superintendent named John Chesson was placed in charge of the hill station in the 1860s...
in 1944 when Nathuram Godse allegedly tried to attack Gandhi with a dagger.
After Gandhi's assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
in 1948 in Delhi, Sushila Nayyar went to the USA where she took two degrees in public health
Public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...
from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Returning in 1950, she set up a tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
sanatorium
Sanatorium
A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...
in Faridabad
Faridabad
Faridabad is a city in the south-east of Haryana state in northern India, in Faridabad district. It lies at 28º 25' 16" N Latitude and 77º 18' 28" E Longitude. The district shares its boundaries with the National Capital and Union Territory of Delhi to its north, Gurgaon district to the west and...
, the model township on the outskirts of Delhi set up on cooperative
Cooperative
A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...
lines by fellow Gandhian Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay was an Indian social reformer, freedom fighter, and most remembered for her contribution to Indian independence movement, for being the driving force behind the renaissance of Indian handicrafts, handlooms, and theatre in post-Independence India, and for upliftment of the...
. Nayyar also headed the Gandhi Memorial Leprosy Foundation.
In 1952 she entered politics and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Delhi
Legislative Assembly of Delhi
The Legislative Assembly of Delhi, also known as Vidhan Sabha, is a unicameral law making body of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, one of the 7 union territories in India...
. From 1952 to 1955 she served as Health Minister
Health minister
A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare and other social security services....
in Nehru's
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...
cabinet. She was Speaker of the Delhi Vidhan Sabha (as the State Assembly had been renamed) from 1955 to 1956. In 1957 she was elected to the Lok Sabha
Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha or House of the People is the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct election under universal adult suffrage. As of 2009, there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...
and served till 1971. She was Union Health Minister again from 1962 to 1967. During the congress regime, she fell out with Indira Gandhi and was member of the opposition (Janata party). She briefly held a position when it was voted to power that created history by overthrowing Indira Gandhi's government. Thereafter she retired from politics to devote herself to the Gandhian ideal. She had set up the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences
Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences
The Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences is run by the Kasturba Health Society. It was earlier affiliated to the Nagpur University and from 1998 to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nasik.-History:...
in 1969, and remained committed to confine her energies to developing and extending it. She died towards the end of 2000