“I've learned that
people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people
will never forget how you made them feel.”…..Maya Angelou
Though Dr Bernier ( 1625-1688 ), physician to Mughal King Aurangzeb
had visited Kashmir, it was only Dr William Elmslie (1832-1872) who established
the first allopathic dispensary in Kashmir. He was the first medical missionary
in Kashmir. He was followed by two dedicated brothers; Dr Arthur Neve and Dr
Earnest Neve, who stayed in Kashmir for about 3 decades during the latter half
of the 19th century. These doctors and their allopathic medicines brought
much-needed relief and happiness to the local population as a result of which
the local Hakeems lost their brisk practice and earnings. A group of Hakeems
went to the Maharaja and impressed upon
him the superiority of the ancient Unani system of medicines over what they
called ‘Firangi Dawasaazi’. They
asked the Maharaja not to grant any
favours to outsiders.The Maharaja gave them a patient hearing but encouraged
the allopathic doctors to expand their practice.
In 1882, Dr Arthur Neve arrived in Kashmir and thereafter in
1886, he was joined by his brother Dr Earnest Neve.
Their sister Miss Nora Neve also arrived in Kashmir and became Superintendent
of Nurses at the Mission Hospital. In May 1888, Dr Butler reached Srinagar
at Dr Neve' s request to set up a
dispensary in the city and named it the "Zenana
Shifa Khana". At that time, the Neve brothers were fighting the
terrible outbreak of Cholera epidemic in the Kashmir valley. These doctors travelled extensively
across the length and breadth of the Kashmir valley and Ladakh. Besides writing
several medical papers published in ‘The
Lancet’, Dr Arthur Neve (1859-1919 ) authored the following books:-
1 "Kashmir Ladakh and Tibet" (1899),
2 "Picturesque Kashmir" (1900),
3 "Thirty Years in Kashmir" (1913),
4 "The Tourist's Guide to Kashmir, Ladakh, Skardo
&c" (1923).
Dr Ernest Neve (1861-1946 ) wrote
below listed books:-
1 "Beyond the Pir Panjal. Life Among the Mountains and
Valleys of Kashmir" (1912)
2 "A Crusader in Kashmir" (1928)This book covers the
story of his brother's life and work.
3 "Things Seen in Kashmir" (1931).
In 1888, the Neve brothers converted the allopathic
dispensary at Drogjan ( just below Shankaracharya hill ) into a
full-fledged hospital on modern lines. In 1893, it became a premier hospital
with 135 beds. Dr Arthur Neve and Dr Earnest Neve would start their day at 8 am
and work at the ‘Mission Hospital‘ till
10 pm attending to patients, performing surgeries and moving in wards. Never
had Kashmiris seen such care, attention, compassion and dedication from their
local Hakeems or Vaids. These doctors would also frequently visit Baramulla,
Anantnag and other towns to see patients. Dr Earnest Neve spoke fluent Kashmiri
and worked during the rule of Maharaja Partap Singh and Maharaja Hari Singh. To
his patients, this god-sent doctor would say "zuv vandai...balai lagai (
My llfe for you. I can face death for you .) " . Most of the patients
would come in small boats though some used to come on Tongas during those
days. He would operate free and carry
sick patients from the Dal Lake Ghat to the hospital on his shoulders . Dr Arthur Neve and his brother performed 30000 surgeries in Kashmir which
included 3651 eye operations,864 operations for tumours and 579 bone operations
apart from treating patients of Kangri cancers, syphilis, leprosy and smallpox.
Their hospital
at Dalgate Srinagar was later converted to Chest Diseases Hospital. In
1891, Neve brothers established the Kashmir State Leper Hospital which was dedicated to treating
leprosy patients, and Dr Ernest neve was
the hospital's honorary superintendent for many years .About the 1885 earthquake in Kashmir, Dr
Arthur Neve writes this in his book, ‘ Thirty
Years in Kashmir':-
“Post-1885 earthquake, as I moved through villages, the stench
was awful and might be smelt half a mile away from the putrefying bodies of
animals. I found men and women with dislocations and fractures unreduced and
unset; the few survivors had been so stunned by the calamity that they thought
little of minor injuries. People gave special offerings in shrines. For us, it
was a time for deeds rather than for words, for sympathy than sermons. Even the
boat that carried me, was converted into a hospital. There was no safe building
in which to work, so we put up tents and hired some very large barges which
were soon filled with cases. The wounds were suppurating horribly and in many
cases, badly applied splints or over-tight bandages had caused mortification to
set in. Tetanus also claimed its victims. Patients were brought on the
shoulders of their friends or bed sheets walking 10 miles ……….. In the valley
there were some notable fissures; one at Dubgam had at first given out steam
and sulphurous fumes. Another very long near Pattan crossed the main road.
.………About evening, a crowd of poor people came, and I gave away a lot of clothes
to little naked children, who came paddling through slush and snow with lips
blue and chattering with cold, and also gave a dole to eight or ten
widows .’
The Neve brothers fought many outbreaks of cholera and
famine epidemics ( major being 1883, 1888,1892,1900,1907 and 1910 during their
stay ) in the Kashmir valley that killed thousands of persons
. Dr Arthur Neve also fought the epidemic of plague in 1903 in the Kashmir
valley. He brought the smallpox vaccine injection to Kashmir that came to be
known as ‘Trombun’ in Kashmiri. At
that time practically the whole population of Kashmir contracted smallpox in
childhood. It was described by Dr. Neve as the most frequent cause of total
incurable blindness. He wrote that from smalipox and other causes, fifty per
cent of children in Kashmir were said to die in infancy. Walter Lawrence, who spent more than six
years in the valley ( when Neve brothers were deeply entrenched in serving
Kashmiris ) also makes a mention of their work in his book, ‘Valley of Kashmir’ published in 1895. He
writes this:-
“If I had the privilege of listening to Dr Neve before I
attempted to write my poor chapter on physical history in the valley of
Kashmir, I should have been able to write with much greater effect. From what I
have seen myself, I can testify to the great accuracy of Dr Neve’s account. I
think this is a good opportunity, before this great audience, for letting you
know what work the ‘Medical Mission’
is doing in Kashmir. I lived for six years in that country and know the road
from Kashmir to Gilgit and Ladakh. Wherever I went there was only one question.
The people did not want to see me but they wanted to know when Neve Sahib was
coming – Neve Sahib who brought comfort and healing wherever he went. Working
with very little help, working in a very small way against every hindrance,
against the Brahman influence, the two
Neves (Arthur and Ernest) have won everything for them and now they have a
grand hospital in Srinagar and when the Neves are not going into the villages,
the villagers are coming to the Neves.”
Prof Rais Akhtar, Emeritus
Scientist and recipient of ‘Leverhulme
Overseas and Henry Chapman Fellowships’ has also documented the work done by the Neve brothers
in Kashmir. This is what Prof Rais Akhtar writes:-
“ In many countries, hospitals were established within
colonial motives but in Kashmir first a dispensary and later a Mission Hospital
was established by the Medical Missionary Society in order to provide modern
medical care to the population without much disturbing the availability of the
indigenous system of medicine. Despite the practice of the Unani system of
medicine, allopathic medicine when first introduced into Kashmir became extremely
popular among the people. The missionary doctors who worked in the dispensary
and hospital, and particularly Arthur Neve, were committed to serving the
population and were devoted researchers who published their results in
internationally reputable journals – The Lancet, the British Medical Journal
and the Indian Medical Gazette. Arthur Neve also wrote Kashmir, Ladakh and
Tibet (1899), Picturesque Kashmir (1900) and Thirty Years in Kashmir (1913).
Arthur Neve died suddenly in Srinagar of fever on 5th September 1919. The
Maharaja of Kashmir ordered a State Funeral. The mourners included people from
all classes, races and religions who united to pay tribute to their
well-beloved and trusted friend who had done so much for Kashmir and its
people. The obituary in the Geographical Journal in 1919 noted: ‘he probably
did more than anyone who ever lived towards the amelioration of suffering for
various native races of that country among whom his reputation was
extraordinary.”
Dr Arthur Neve also finds mention on page 24 in the Book,“ Trans-Himalaya: Discoveries and
Adventures in Tibet ’ by Sven Hedin:-
“ Dr
Arthur Neve is one of the men I most admire. He has devoted his life to
the Christian
Mission in Kashmir and his hospital ..... There he works
indefatigably day and night and his only reward is the satisfaction of
relieving the suffering of others. “
Again in
chapter "Fire, Flood
and Cholera "of the book ,‘Tyndale Biscoe Of Kashmir...An Autobiography’ we read this:-
"In 1892, 500 to 700 persons died of cholera per day in the
Kashmir valley. The Mullahs and the Brahmin priest won't allow people to take
Western medicine. The Mullah and the Brahmin priest wrote Allah and Shiva on
the local paper and asked people to swallow it with Jhelum water which was already
full of cholera germs. Later people started visiting Mission Hospital and the
lives of so many could be saved....... He ( a patient) was in the third stage
of cholera. The only option was a blood transfusion. Dr Arthur Neve did it by
opening a vein in his own arm and transferring
his blood with a rubber tube into the vein of the patient . Neve and I
spent a night at the hospital and hoped for the best, but it was not to
be."
According
to Walter Lawrence , the cholera epidemics
in the Kashmir valley would
always start from Srinagar city
.Walter Lawrence writes this :-
“ The
houses were built irregularly and without any method, on narrow tortuous
paths.Ventilation in the town is therefore very imperfect. Few houses have
latrines,and small lanes and alleys are used as such….There is no drainage.
Slush, filth and ordure are washed by storm water into the river and Nalla Mar
which supply the city with drinking water. On account of absence of snow in
winter and rains in spring, and river was dry and low and the bed of the Nalla
Mar canal was converted into a string of cesspools. People were immersed in a
polluted atmosphere caused by the products of putrefactive and fermentable
water accumulated in houses and numerous narrow lanes, passes, nooks and crevices
which intersect the town. This produced an epidemic constitution in the people
fitted for the reception and fostering of cholera-germs.”
And Prof
Rais Akhtar writes this :-
“After the
1892 cholera outbreak in Kashmir, efforts were made towards improvement in
sanitary conditions. These have brought desired results. According to the
Annual Administration Report of 1895-96, the sanitation conditions in the a
city of Srinagar have improved considerably. “Roads and drains have been made,
a supply of pure water has been started and conservancy is systematically and
methodically done. Dr. A. Mitra who was also Administrator,Srinagar
Municipality during the 1892 cholera outbreak, says, “These measures of public
sanitation are having their influence on the habits of the people, and thus the
cause of both public and private hygiene is improving with rapid strides.The
opprobrium now resting on Srinagar, as a filthy city, and on its inhabitants,
as a filthy people, will,I confidently hope, be a thing of the past at no distant
date. Never, perhaps in the history of sanitation so quickly and so effectively
have sanitary improvements been done as in Srinagar, in spite of financial and
other local difficulties.”
In
his book , “Arthur Neve of Kashmir”
, A P Shepherd writes this :-
“ Busy
as he was he had many hobbies, of which one of the chief was sketching.
Wherever he went his sketch book accompanied him, and every one of his journeys
was recorded in colour. At every time and place he had tried to sketch, even
when the paint froze as soon as it reached the paper. Sketching brought to him
that relief that a pipe brings to many men. Often in his study he would have a
sketch on an easel behind his chair, and would turn round to find relaxation
from some deep reading in the pursuit of his hobby. Of music he was also
passionately fond and, though he was too busy ever really to develop his
abilities in that direction, he always played the organ in the station church
and spent many spare minutes improvising on his own piano. He was
besides a real student and lover of books. Often when the work of a hard day
was over, he would sit up late poring over his medical books, that he might be
abreast of the latest knowledge in his profession. He
was himself supremely happy in his marriage. He
and his wife had so much in common in ideals, aims, and work that their lives
were closely knit together. Her work, however, lay especially
in teaching, and here she was able to give the greatest help in the mission
school and in one of its branch schools. She also accompanied her husband in
his visit to the leper asylum, and while
he talked to the men, she would address the women. If
he was trusted and admired by the Europeans, he was beloved and almost
worshipped by the Kashmiris among whom he worked. The secret of their love 1or
him was his love for them.”
The service
rendered by Dr Arthur Neve to ameliorate
the pain and the suffering of the local population after the terrible
earthquake of May 1885 has no parallel anywhere. Dr Arthur Neve died
on 5th September 1919 in Kashmir after being suddenly struck down by fever. He
lies buried in Sheikh Bagh cemetery in Srinagar. About his death, A P Shepherd writes this :-
“There
was a mela that day in Srinagar and the news spread rapidly. The whole city was
plunged in grief. In the mosques the mullahs announced to the crowds what had
happened. For a moment there was silence, then the silence was broken by the
sobs of men. Immediately meetings were held both of Moslems and Hindus and
arrangements were made to put up a memorial to the doctor they had loved so
much. One of them was to be a consumption hospital on which it was known that
Arthur Neve and his brother had set their hearts. The funeral took place the
next day, and it was a sight no one in Srinagar would ever forget. It was a
military funeral. First came the State band and troops sent by the Maharajah, together
with the European Indian Defence Force Company. Then followed the coffin, covered
with the Union Jack and a beautiful Kashmir shawl which the Maharajah had sent for
the purpose. The coffin was carried by European
and Indian Christians together, and after the coffin came the crowds of
mourners, twenty abreast. Neve was buried in the little English cemetery in which
Colonel Condon's body had been laid a week before. For the whole mile and a
half to the cemetery the roads were packed by a dense throng of people, quietly
weeping for their beloved " Daktar Sahib, whom they would see no more
among them. From all sides letters of sympathy poured in to Mrs Neve, some from Europeans all over India, some
even from distant parts of the world from those who had at one time profited by
his gentle skill, some from men who had met him in the hospitals or
battlefields of France. But most touching of all were the letters from the people
of India to whom he had given his life and love and who had learned to love him
in return. Very quaint sometimes their eastern expressions sounded in the stiff
English of their letters, but they spoke of a depth of love of which the
writers themselves had to a great extent been unconscious, till the object of
their love was taken from them. One such letter came from a young Hindu doctor
who had been one of the Indian officers Arthur Neve had treated at Brighton.
" He was a benefactor for the poor," he wrote, "and those who
were in suffering and distress. . . Oh! he was a living idol to worship! .
Really, India has lost one of her most precious jewels." The Municipal
Committee of Srinagar sent a long vote of sympathy. "He was truly a doer of
golden deeds. . . . Our debt of gratitude to this noble departed soul is too
deep to be ever repaid.”
And later Kashmiris forgot these noble souls altogether. No
memorial and no hospital in their name. And for sure, nobody knows these names
in Kashmir now. About Kashmiris , Dr
Arthur Neve has written this :-
"
They have not the picturesque
qualities of the bold bandits of the Afghan frontier, they have not even a
heroic past ; and yet I have a vision of a bright future,
for there are many attractive qualities in
the timid but versatile Kashmiris. . . . In addition
to their alert intelligence, their quick wit
and artistic qualities, many of them are not lacking
in elements of heroism . There is indeed some good and brave material among this
people. . . . If the Kashmiri could only be touched by the Heavenly Vision,
what might not he become ! "
( Avtar Mota )
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