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Founder President The Association of Surgeons of India

Lt. Col. Krishnan Gopinath Pandalai was born on May 20, 1885 at Mavelikkara in the erstwhile Princely State of Travancore in Kerala. He was born to Lakshmi Pandalai and Raja Raja Varma Thampuran of the Royal Family of Mavelikkara. Dr. Pandalai had his early education in the High School at Mavelikkara and later moved to Trivandrum for his collegiate Education. He then joined the Madras Medical College and took his MB, BCh in 1909, distinguishing himself as one of the Most Promising student. He later went to England and joined the Middlesex Hospital, took the conjoint diploma of M.R.C.S and L.R.C.P., and entered the Indian Medical Service by open competitive examination in 1911. He saw active service in the 1st World War and was stationed in Aden and East Africa. In 1918, he left for England again and qualified for the F.R.C.S. On his return from UK he was posted to the Military Hospital, currently known as Air Force Command Hospital at Bangalore.

It was in 1920 that he was transferred to the civil side of the service and posted to Madras, being the first Indian I.M.S officer to serve at the Madras General Hospital and with conjoint duties of a Professor in the Madras Medical Col1ege. He was the first and only Indian Officer in the IMS cadre among his colleagues of British Origin and needless to say had to face many impediments typical of pre-independence colonial British rule. In the beginning he was posted as Professor of Natural Science and the Third Surgeon there. Later he was re-designated as Professor of Operative Surgery, which chair he adorned over five years till his retirement in 1937. He was also the Superintendent of the Government General Hospital, Madras from 1932 to 1937.

Col. Pandalai’s record of service in the Madras State was unique. At a time when practically all the posts influence were in the hands of European I.M.S. Officers, Col. Pandalai had to fight hard to secure a place for Indians, whether they were in the Indian Medical Service or in the Provincial Medical Service. A large number of beneficial schemes were introduced by the Government acting under his advice in the Madras Medical College and the General Hospital.

As a surgeon, Col. Pandalai made a mark in the profession, calm and collected, meticulous in his technique, it was delightful to watch him performing many operations, more particularly operations on the stomach, gall-bladder, thyroid, kidneys, etc. The reputation that the Madras General Hospital earned as one of the largest centers for gastric surgery was largely due to his skill and the technique that he adopted and the training that he gave to many others. Surgery of the oesophagus fascinated him and he was one of the earliest surgeons to attempt a resection.

After retirement, Col. Pandalai went on a study tour visiting several institutions in Europe and the United States of America.

When the Indian Science Congress was held at Madras in 1927, he was one of the Local Organising Secretaries. It was then he conceived the idea of promoting an All India Association of Surgeons. In 1937, the Madras session of the Indian Medical Association – Annual Conference was held and he was the Chairman of the Reception committee. It was at that time he took the first step to bring into being the Association of Surgeons, thus fulfilling an ambition which he had entertained for a long time. The Association of Surgeons of India was inaugurated, with the co-operation of Surgical Colleagues in Bombay and elsewhere, in October 1938 at Bombay. Col. Pandalai was made the founder President which position he held for two years. Since then, Col. Pandalai was closely associated with the activities of the Association and he attended most of the sessions. The Association of Surgeons had made a name for it and is now a recognized exponent in regard to the policies that ought to be followed by the Surgeons. Its function was strictly limited under his wise leadership to activities in the field of surgical advancement, specialisation, research and Post-graduate studies.

Many were the younger surgeons who came to him to learn his techniques. It was his ambition to create an Indian College of Surgeons and to give guidance in regard to the higher Surgical qualification in the country and to foster a big centre for higher surgical study and research in the country.

Dr. Col. Pandalai was married to Smt. Kamala and their only daughter Radha Devi was married to H.E Prince Marthanda Varma, the Yelayaraja of Travancore. Two of his brothers Justice K Krishnan Pandalai and Justice K Shankaran Pandalai served the Madras high court.

Dr. Col. Pandalai passed away on 5th Februay1960.

The Association of Surgeons of India has borrowed his memory by instituting “The Pandalai Oration” in 1961.


Important Note

  • As per the decision of the Executive Committee Meeting held on 28th & 29th March 2015, it was decided to make a limit for getting ASI awards for each person, and cooling period in between the awards.
  • There should be a minimum Cooling period of 3 years before the next oration is awarded to any one person, regarding Sealing & limitation of Orations is 2 orations each person excluding Col. Pandalai Oration


Col. Pandalai Orators

Dr. R.N. Cooper
Bombay
1961
Col. Sangham Lal
Madras
1963
Dr. P.K. Duraiswamy
New Delhi
1965
Dr. A.K. Basu
Calcutta
1966
Dr. A.K. Sen
Bombay
1967
Dr. K.N. Udupa
Varanasi
1968
Dr. H.N.Antia
Bombay
1969
Dr. H.S. Bhatt
Vellore
1970
Dr. V. Ramalingaswamy
New Delhi
1972
Dr. B. Ramamurthi
Madras
1973
Dr. R. Ganguly
Pune
1974
Dr. Atm Prakash
New Delhi
1975
Dr. V. Balasubramaniam
Madras
1976
Dr. M.S. Ramakrishnan
Madras
1977
Dr. M.L. Chatterjee
Calcutta
1978
Dr. R.K. Gandhi
Bombay
1979
Dr. T. Dorairajan
Madras
1980
Dr. G.B. Parulkar
Bombay
1981
Dr. N. Rangabashyam
Madras
1982
Dr. R. Venkataswami
Madras
1983
Dr. M.P. Vaidya
Varanasi
1984
Dr. A.S. Fenn
Vellore
1985
Dr .Manohar J. Joshi
Pune
1986
Dr .Solomon Victor
Madras
1987
Dr. T.E. Udwadia
Bombay
1988
Dr. S.K. Bhansali
Bombay
1989
Dr. P.B. Desai
Bombay
1990
Dr. H.S. Asopa
Agra
1991
Dr. B.M.L. Kapur
New Delhi
1992
Dr. A.P. Pandey
Vellore
1993
Dr. Hari Gautam
Agra
1994
Dr. B.D. Pujari
Miraj
1995
Dr. Devendra D. Patel
Ahmedabad
1996
Dr. S.M. Bose
Chandigarh
1997
Dr. B. Krishna Rau
Chennai
1998
Dr. Narendra Pandya
Mumbai
1999
Dr. K.K. Maudar
Pune
2000
Dr. N.C. Mishra
Lucknow
2001
Dr. S. Vittal
Chennai
2002
Dr. G. Balakrishnan
Chennai
2003
Dr. M.R. Girinath
Chennai
2004
Dr. N.M. Gupta
Chandigarh
2005
Dr. H.S. Bhanushali
Thane
2006
Dr. J.D. Wig
Chandigarh
2007
Dr. Y.M. Fazil Marickar
Thiruvananthapuram
2008
Dr. K.S. Shekar
Bengaluru
2009
Dr. T.K. Chattopadhyay
New Delhi
2010
Dr. P.N. Joshi
Mumbai
2011
Dr. Rajan Badwe
Mumbai
2012
Dr. C Palanivelu
Coimbatore
2013
Dr. Ahmad Abdul Hai
Patna
2014
Dr. Adarsh Chaudhary
New Delhi
2015
Dr Ashok R Mehta
Mumbai
2016
Dr. Ramesh Ardhanari
Madurai
2017
Dr. P. Raghu Ram
Hyderabad
2018
Dr. Avinash Supe
Mumbai
2019
Dr. Sandeep Guleria
New Delhi
2020
Dr. R Ravi Kannan
Silchar
2021
Dr. Santhosh John Abraham
Cochin
2022
Dr. Arvind Kumar
Delhi
2023
Dr. Shiva Kant Misra
Kanpur
2024