The association had come into being at a time when there was political unrest and the country was passing through big turmoil. Yet, it was a matter of great satisfaction  that the stalwarts of the medical profession in those days like Dr. K.S. Ray, Sir Nil Ratan Sircar, Dr. B.C. Roy, dr. M.A. Ansari, Col. Bhola Nath, Major M.G. Naidu, Dr. B.N. Vyas, Dr. D. Silva, Dr. N.A. Ghosh, Dr. D.A. Chakravarthi, Dr. Viswanathan and Capt. B.V. Mukherjee actively participated in the promotion of the association. Some of these stalwarts were also active in Indian National Congress and had their terms in the Jail for participating in the struggle for participating in the struggle for Independence of the country.

The founding fathers while struggling for liberation of the Motherland from British rule simultaneously felt the need of a national organization of the medical profession. Before that, some members of profession – a selected few – were members of the British Medical Association which had opened branches in India to cater to the local needs. These stalwarts, ultimately succeeded in the formation of Indian Medical Association (with 222 members only ) which came into existence on 28-12-1928 with the avowed.

Our Objectives

• Promotion and Advancement of Medical and allied sciences in all their different branches.
• The Improvement of public health and Medical Education in India.
• The maintenance of honour and dignity of medical profession.
• IMA safeguards interest of its members and participates in all national  health programmes
• IMA has three academic wings
• IMA college of General practitioners
• IMA Academy of medical specialties
• Journal of the Indian medical association

Today , IMA is well established organsiation with it’s Headquarters at Delhi and State / Terr. Branches in 23 states and 9 Union Territories. It has over 1, 78,000 doctors as its members through over 1700 local branches spread all over the country.

Journey of Gurgaon IMA   -  From Drawing Room to fivestar
- D. R.C.Sharma

When I was asked by our young energetic and dynamic President Dr Suresh Vasistha to write about the history of IMA Gurgaon, I simply asked him why he has chosen me, I was deeply touched with his feeling when he said ”Sir you are the senior most surviving member of Gurgaon IMA and when I went through the record, I found you to be the first bona fide member enrolled in the branch and being founder secretary its your proud privilege to benefit us about that nostalgia.

Instantly I went into the sweet memories of those day in 1971 when I received a call from Dr. Dalip Chand Bahl who looked after my medical needs since my birth to my entry into medical college and who was Hon. Secretary of IMA Haryana. He requested me to explore the possibility of forming an IMA branch at Gurgaon. It was more of an order for me and I immediately swung into action contacting each and every practitioner of Gurgaon in Govt. & Private sector to help one form an IMA branch. Dr. B.S. Grawal senior most private practitioner called a meeting at his residence inviting all doctors and in the  very first meeting IMA-Gurgaon came into existence with seventeen members and with Dr. B.S. Grawal and myself as President and secretary respectively.

A meeting used to be held every month at the residence of one of the members by rotation with families taking part in games and fellowship activities while the doctors engaged in academic deliberations / presentation of cases, on problems affecting the community as well as discussion on specialized topics by our own specialists. The meetings were truly a family affair full of love, care and enthusiasm and there used to be cent percent attendance.

As was expected the membership increased as more and more colleagues found Gurgaon to be a place worth a home and practice and joined the IMA Family. As the family grew a get together at home with limited space become rather difficult. An alternative was a dire   need. The venue shifted from drawing room to Civil hospital and then to Bal Bhawan with the host members making all the a arrangements.

The executives realized the difficulties faced – particularly the expenses on such meetings. The host was requested to be austere in arrangements and to further curtail the expenses IMA purchased crockery to be used on such occasions. A further increase in membership allowed us to make use of farm house space offered by generous friends, medicos and others strengthening the family and concept of collective responsibility. Some Hotels like Groovie, Host and Plaza Solitaire also formed a part of this chain of venues.

And there came the involvement of Pharmaceutical industry to come forward to host / sponsor some of the meetings and promote their business in the process as a part of global change. There was great enthusiasm on the part of these  pharma companies for sponsoring initially but the even increasing membership and there for the expenditure seems to be damping their interest in such ventures.
           
Over the time IMA Gurgaon has increased its strength by leaps and bounds because of the hard work done by our various teams, of course with the unflinching supports of its members. There have been  academic sessions where experts from various specialties from all over India have enlightened the members on the latest of investigative and curative medicine.

With the growth  of IMA there  occurred formation of various specialty association and societies which are quite active and are doing exceedingly well and had led to the surge in  academics. Dr. D. S. Yadav marked a turning point by organizing an academic meeting for the first time in the Five Star hotel and this trend was propagated  by subsequent teams who even managed to get all the meetings sponsored IMA Gurgaon with innumerable healthcare facilities available currently and continuing to grow exponentially has a great future and the time is ripe to increase the membership manifold. The present team by mobilizing the maximum strength in its first meeting I have ever seen with its innovations and ideas, enthusiasm and energy, commitment and untiring efforts is all set to metamorphose the IMA. The launch of website is going to be benchmark in the history of our Branch. Gurgaon IMA is one of the best organized branch of Haryana and I hope to live and witness IMA-Gurgaon as the best run branch of India.

Jai Hind! Jai IMA!