From 1939 to 1945, John Black Grant a Rockefeller Foundation officer and former Professor of Public Health at the Peking Union Medical College served as the Director of the All Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Calcutta. Grant's India tenure is important for his efforts to ameliorate the condition of public health in India. Much has been written about Grant's contribution to transforming public health in China but his work in India has not received sufficient attention. This article acquaints readers with some of his more noteworthy ideas and endeavours to remodel the colonial public health and medical system. His views on Indian public health may also be viewed as a critique of the colonial health system.