China to build school in Maharashtra in memory of Indian doctor

NEW DELHI - In 1938, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, China reached out to India for material and medical assistance to shore up its military campaign.

Although preoccupied with the Indian independence movement, the Indian National Congress responded promptly, putting together a five-member team of doctors who went on to save many Chinese lives and win countless more hearts.

One of the physicians who was part of that historic group was 28-year-old Dwarkanath Kotnis from Solapur in the western state of Maharashtra.

He worked in China for more than four years, treating wounded soldiers on the front line – performing more than 900 surgical operations, according to one account – and even became a member of the Communist Party of China.

Physically drained, Dr Kotnis died in northern China’s Hebei province on Dec 8, 1942, from epilepsy. He was buried at the Martyr Cemetery of North China Military Region in Shijiazhuang, resting perennially where he had served.

This legacy has cemented his position as a fount of goodwill for ties between India and China, one that has withstood recurring tensions between the two Asian neighbours whose soldiers fought a war in 1962 and, more recently, exchanged blows in a deadly clash along the disputed Indo-China border in June 2020.

It is a legacy China has accentuated yet again, this time to commemorate Dr Kotnis’ 80th death anniversary. The Chinese consulate in Mumbai, capital of Maharashtra, announced in December that it will set up a Dr Kotnis Friendship School in Solapur.

A statement issued to The Straits Times by the Embassy of China in India said it is an effort to develop the city’s education infrastructure as well as “inject new energy to the spirit of Dr Kotnis and China-India cooperation”.

While details of the charitable school are being discussed with the Indian authorities, the statement added that it will be set up with support from a few Chinese companies keen to support the initiative.

Dr Kotnis is widely regarded as a hero in China, even though his fame is little-known in India. Popularly referred to as Ke Dihua in Chinese, he has graced Chinese stamps, and his statue next to his tomb continues to draw reverential visitors. Completed in 1979, the statue represents “the Chinese people’s endless yearning and immeasurable reverence for Dr Kotnis”, added the embassy in its statement.

Chairman Mao Zedong even noted in his eulogy to Dr Kotnis that “the army has lost a helping hand, and the nation lost a friend”.

While in China, Dr Kotnis married Guo Qinglan, a Chinese nurse he worked with. She died in 2012. They had a son named Yinhua, which combines two Chinese characters that stand for India and China respectively. He was studying to become a doctor but died at age 24 in China, due to alleged medical negligence.

Dr Kotnis was survived by an extended family in India, including five sisters and two brothers. Visiting Chinese leaders have made it a point to visit them while in India, and President Xi Jinping kept this tradition alive by meeting Dr Kotnis’ sister Manorama Kotnis in 2014 in New Delhi.

Ms Kotnis, who was 93 then and used a wheelchair, was flown in by the Chinese consulate in Mumbai for the event. The famed physician’s last surviving sibling died in 2015.

“Dr Kotnis is a symbol of peace and his message of humanity applies to us even today,” Dr Rajendra Jadhav, chairman of the Dr Dwarkanath Kotnis Memorial Committee in Maharashtra, told ST.

Chinese Consul-General Kong Xianhua and Solapur Municipal Commissioner Sheetal Ugale (centre) meeting on Dec 20, 2022, to discuss collaborations. PHOTO: CONSULATE-GENERAL OF CHINA, MUMBAI

Among the four other physicians who had accompanied Dr Kotnis was Kolkata’s Dr Bejoy Kumar Basu, who later revisited China and learnt acupuncture, popularising it across India on his return.

One of his students, Dr Debasis Bakshi, continues this legacy even today by fusing yoga and naturopathy along with acupuncture to offer holistic treatment.

“We are implementing India-China friendship every day,” said the director of the Indian Research Institute for Integrated Medicine in Howrah, West Bengal.

India’s offer to help China in 1938, he added, demonstrated how “a poor man can stand by a poor man”, as well as how “a neighbour stands by a neighbour”.

“That is our history. Unfortunately, today there is a dispute around territory – one that is barren and even people cannot go to. It should be resolved with friendship,” he said, referring to the territorial dispute between India and China along the Line of Actual Control that serves as the de facto border between the two countries.

Indian and Chinese officials gathered in Beijing on Feb 22 for a meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs, the first such talks held in person since July 2019. They discussed ways to restore “peace and tranquillity” along the Line of Actual Control, but there was no indication of any breakthrough.

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