History & Heritage

The K. J. Somaiya Medical College, Hospital & Research Centre was founded in the year 1991 by Padmabhushan (late) Shri Karamshibhai Jethabhai Somaiya, an entrepreneur and philanthropist. He was a self made man, wealthy yet simple, humble and compassionate, who dedicated his life to the service of mankind.

He was committed to the ideal, “What you receive from society give back multifold” Padmabhushan Shri K. J. Somaiya was a visionary. In 1959 he founded the Somaiya Trust which set up the Somaiya Vidyavihar Campus in Ghatkopar (E). Somaiya Vidyavihar and Ayurvihar campuses together house 35 institutions with approx.. 1500 teaching staff. Over the years, it has come to encompass the entire educational spectrum from pre-school to post-graduation with about 27000 students.

Somaiya Ayurvihar Campus is in Sion East on 22 acres where the following are located: A Medical College with an attached 550 bedded teaching hospital and 56 bedded superspeciality hospital which has all the infrastructure and facilities required to impart quality medical education as per MCI standards.

The K.J.Somaiya College of Physiotherapy educates aspiring physiotherapists who excel and conduct research that advances the practice of physiotherapy and promotes high standards of health. The college aims to conduct programs for the highest academic degree i.e Ph.D. in the near future.

Established in 1994, the School of Nursing offers a 3.5 years Diploma program in General Nursing & Midwifery as recognized by the Maharashtra Nursing Council and the Indian Nursing Council. The College of Nursing, commissioned in 2011, offers a B. Sc. Nursing (Basic) Degree program of 4 years duration. Both the Nursing College and the School of Nursing are attached to a 550-bed K. J. Somaiya Medical college hospital, located at Ayurvihar, Sion.

The K.J.Somaiya College of Physiotherapy educates aspiring physiotherapists who excel and conduct research that advances the practice of physiotherapy and promotes high standards of health. The college aims to conduct programs for the highest academic degree i.e Ph.D. in the near future.

Established in 1994, the School of Nursing offers a 3.5 years Diploma program in General Nursing & Midwifery as recognized by the Maharashtra Nursing Council and the Indian Nursing Council. The College of Nursing, commissioned in 2011, offers a B. Sc. Nursing (Basic) Degree program of 4 years duration. Both the Nursing College and the School of Nursing are attached to a 550-bed K. J. Somaiya Medical college hospital, located at Ayurvihar, Sion.

 

Our Founders

Shri. K. J. Somaiya

"न त्वहं कामये राज्यं, न स्वर्गं ना पुनर्भवम्।
कामये दु:खतप्तानाम् प्राणिनामार्तिनाशनम्।।"

This was the thought that Shri K. J. Somaiya, our founder and my grandfather, had when he founded Somaiya Ayurvihar. The shloka says that he longed not for kingdom, and certainly not for heaven. Instead, what he desired was to keep being reborn, to alleviate the sufferings of all living beings.

He was an entrepreneur. He was born poor, in rural Maharashtra to Kutchi parents. Working hard, he achieved success in the sugar industry (http://www.somaiya.com/). He believed that he owed a debt to the society, and spent much of his life creating institutions that created opportunity and alleviated the suffering of the society around. His work in the Girivanvasi Pragati Mandal was a demonstration of that desire. Every year, for almost 10 years, he traveled to parts of tribal India, and set up medical camps, dedicated to the service of those Indians, to whom no services, let alone health care reached. The best doctors from Mumbai, bogie load of students from Somaiya Vidyavihar as volunteers, and many of us family members would go there to work with them.

Somaiya Vidyavihar was his dream to create education opportunity, for students to enter at kindergarten, and leave at various points - 10th, 12th or with a variety of degrees; to create human beings who are competent, and great citizenship.

Medicine was his final project. He believed, that the Somaiya Trust should also promote medical education, and medical education should be there to create great doctors, who healed patients, and were great human beings.

And it was on this basis, that the K. J. Somaiya Medical College, the K. J. Somaiya Hospital, the K. J. Somaiya Nursing College, K. J. Somaiya College of Physiotherapy were started. The aim and dream, was to create an institution of service, of research, and of medical and health education. And medical education would be accompanied by a hospital. This hospital would be a place of health and wellness. A place of respect. A place of hope. A place of life, and a place for living. A place for finding a cure. A place for relieving suffering.

And he named it सोमैया आयुर्विहार

In the 1939 Shri K.J. Somaiya launched 2 sugar factories – in Sakarwadi and in Lakshmiwadi to mark the launch of his own sugar business. He soon came to be known as the Sugar King of India.

At the age of 60 he relinquished the leadership of his economic enterprise to his son Dr Shantilal Somaiya, and fully immersed himself in social service. He was committed to the ideal "what you receive from society give back multifold".

No sketch of Shri K.J. Somaiya can be complete without mentioning his philanthropy. The establishment of various educational institutes was the manifestation of the guiding philosophy of his life. His work in the Girivanvasi Pragati Mandal was also a demonstration of that desire. Every year, for almost 10 years, he traveled to parts of tribal India and set up medical camps, dedicated to the service of those Indians, to whom no services, let alone health care reached. The best doctors from Mumbai, family members and a train load of students from Somaiya Vidyavihar as volunteers, would accompany him.

Shri K.J. Somaiya was warm and endearing. Stately in appearance, immaculately dressed, generally in spotless white hand spun khadi, he exuded a picture of resourcefulness and restraint. He was compassionate and reached out to those in suffering. In all he did, Karamshibhai brought a sense of love and humanism, qualities imbibed in his early youth from the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. He believed in the ancient Sanskrit saying (na manushit paro dharmah). "There is no religion greater than Man". Karamshibhai's life exemplified this lofty principle through practice.

Shri Karamshibhai Somaiya passed away on May 9, 1999, a week before his 97th birthday. Somaiya Vidyavihar is the living legacy he has left behind, a standing monument to his sagacity, perseverance and foresight.

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Dr. S.K. Somaiya

Dr. Shantilal K. Somaiya followed in the footsteps of Shri K. J. Somaiya - his father and our founder. He was a worthy successor to the tradition set by our founder, and also set a new and expanded course, for both Godavari Biorefineries and the Somaiya Trust.

He led the K. J. Somaiya Medical Trust and imagined the creation of a multi-specialty medical centre - a health city that would be a world class centre of research, education, and service. He dreamt for it to provide the best tertiary care and education in India and the world.

He also led the Somaiya Trust and Somaiya Vidyavihar ably. He presided over a period of rapid asset creation at Vidyavihar, and also conceptualized the formation of Sanskritivihar. These institutions teach courses on Indian philosophy, religion, and bring values into the curriculum. The K.J. Somaiya Bharatiya Sanskriti Peetham, K. J. Somaiya Institute of Buddhist Studies, and K. J. Somaiya Jain Centre are all parts of this organic whole.

Through these institutions, he also brought people of diverse backgrounds together. He organized programs on inter-religious dialogue with the Vatican, and was invited by the President of Kazakhstan for discussion on Islam.

Earlier, Dr. Somaiya excelled in the field of sugarcane research, sugar manufacture and ethanol, and ethanol based chemistry. His contribution to the company was the identification of the site for sugar production in Karnataka, at Sameerwadi, in the late 1960s. At that time, very little cane was grown there. Through the founding of the K. J. Somaiya Institute of Applied Agriculture Research (KIAAR), he taught how to grow cane to the farmers of the area. Today, North Karnataka is among the best cane growing areas of India.

He also visualized that Sameerwadi should be capable of crushing 10,000 tons per day, in a time when average mill outputs were 1,500 tons per day. Even today, India has only a handful of Mills (Sameerwadi being one of them), that have capacities exceeding 10,000 tons per day.

Dr. Somaiya was awarded an honorary Ph.D. by The University of Agriculture Science at Dharwad, for his outstanding contribution to the growth in the prosperity of the area.

Dr. Somaiya also pioneered the production of ethanol from molasses in 1950s; he pioneered the use of ethanol as a feedstock for industrial chemicals. It is only now - in the face of rising energy and petrochemical costs, that the world is revisiting the use of renewable chemistry.

He was a believer in the power of the sugar industry to bring about social as well as financial prosperity. He continuously tried to create new social programs to benefit the rural population. His last program, ‘Ankur’, was an effort to eradicate blindness caused by the deficiency of Vitamin A in diets. This he tried to do by establishing a partnership between the National Association for the Blind (NAB), and various sugar mills.

Dr. S. K. Somaiya left behind a wonderful vision of an integrated development - be it in medicine, business, education, religion, or philosophy. One that engages rather than divides, and encompasses all, reflecting the true spirit of our heritage and tradition!