- Dwarkanath Kotnis
-
Dwarkanath Kotnis 
A statue of Dwarkanath Kotnis in Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China.Born October 10, 1910
Solapur, Maharashtra, IndiaDied December 9, 1942
ChinaAlma mater University of Bombay Occupation physician Dwarkanath Shantaram Kotnis (October 10, 1910 in Solapur, Maharashtra, India – December 9, 1942, in China; Chinese: 柯棣华; pinyin: Kē Dìhuá; Devanagari: द्वारकानाथ शांताराम कोटणीस) was one of five Indian physicians dispatched to China to provide medical assistance during the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1938. Besides being known for his dedication and perseverance, he has also been regarded as an example for Sino-Indian friendship and collaboration.
Along with the Canadian Dr. Norman Bethune, he continues to be revered by the Chinese people. In April 2005 both their graves were covered completely in flowers donated by the Chinese people during the Qingming Festival, a day used by the Chinese to commemorate their ancestors.
Contents
Origins
Dwarkanath Kotnis was born to a lower middle class Marathi family in Solapur, Maharashtra, he had two brothers and five sisters. He studied medicine at the Seth G.S. Medical College of the University of Bombay.
Indian medical mission
In 1937, after the Japanese invasion of China, the communist General Zhu De requested Jawaharlal Nehru to send Indian physicians to China. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, the President of the Indian National Congress, made arrangements to send a team of volunteer doctors and an ambulance by collecting a fund of Rs 22,000 on the All-Indian China Day and China Fund days on July 7-9. He had made an appeal to the people through a press statement on June 30, 1938. In Modern Review S.C. Bose wrote an article on Japan's role in the Far East and denounced the assault on China. The key element of this mission was it was from a nation itself struggling for freedom, to another nation also struggling for its freedom. The mission was reinforced with Nehru's visit to China in 1939.
A medical team of five doctors (Drs. M. Atal, M. Cholkar, D. Kotnis, B.K. Basu and D. Mukerji) was dispatched as the Indian Medical Mission Team in September 1938. All, except Dr. Kotnis, returned to India safely.
Dr. Kotnis, who was 28 at arrival, stayed in China for almost 5 years working in mobile clinics to treat wounded soldiers. Dr. Kotnis first arrived in China at the port of Hankou, Wuhan. He was sent to Yan'an, and was eventually to be posted as director of the Dr. Bethune International Peace Hospital there.
In 1939, Kotnis finally joined the Eighth Route Army (led by Mao Zedong) at the Jin-Cha-Ji border near the Wutai Mountain Area, after his efforts all across the northern China region. The hardships of suppressed military life, stresses that were especially relevant to the front-line doctors who often had to work over 72 hours at a stretch, finally began to tell on him. He died of epilepsy on December 9, 1942 at age 32, and was buried in the Heroes Courtyard, Nanquan Village. It is rumoured that he joined the Communist Party of China just before his death.
During his mission he was also a lecturer at the Dr. Bethune Hygiene School of the Jinchaji (晉察冀) Military Command, and the first president of the Dr. Bethune International Peace Hospital, Yanan.
Tributes
Mao Zedong mourned his death by observing that:
“ The army has lost a helping hand, the nation has lost a friend. Let us always bear in mind his internationalist spirit.. ” Madame Sun Yat-sen was to say to the Indian nation, concerning his role in the revolution, that "His memory belongs not only to your people and ours, but to the noble roll-call of fighters for the freedom and progress of all mankind. The future will honor him even more than the present, because it was for the future that he struggled."
Family
In November 1941, about a year before his death, Kotnis married a Chinese woman, Guo Qinglan, (Chinese: 郭庆兰; pinyin: Guō Qìnglán, born September 15 1916 in Fenyang County, Shanxi Province) who worked at the Bethune International Peace Hospital as a nurse. Kotnis and Guo had a son who was born on August 23, 1942. At the suggestion of Nie Rongzhen they named the boy "Yinhua" combining the Chinese characters for "Yin" (印) for India and "Hua" (华) for China. Yinhua died aged 24 in 1967 shortly before he was to graduate from medical college[1]. His death has been attributed to medical negligence[1][2]. In 1949, his mother remarried to a Chinese husband with whom she had a son and a daughter[2]. She has been living near Dalian, in Northeastern China.
She has been an honoured guest at many high-level diplomatic functions between China and India, such as the banquet Dalian Mayor Bo Xilai hosted for then Indian President K.R. Narayanan in June 2000 and during the visit of then Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee to Beijing in June 2003. In November 2006, she accompanied Chinese President Hu Jintao on a state visit to India[3].
In film
- The story of his life was the subject of a Hindi film with the title Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani (1946, English: The Immortal Story of Dr. Kotnis), scripted by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, and directed by V. Shantaram,[4] who also portrayed Kotnis in the film.
- His life was also the subject of a Chinese film Kē Dì Huá Dài Fū (1982, Dr. D.S. Kotnis), with a screenplay by Huang Zongjiang.
Honours
Both China (1982 and 1992) and India (1993) have honored him with stamps.
The Chinese government continues to honour his relatives in India during every high-level official trip. His relatives (primarily sisters) were visited in Mumbai by:
- the then Premier Zhou En-lai in 1950
- the then President Jiang Zemin visited India in 1996, he sent flowers to the Kotnis family.
- the then Premier Li Peng in 2001
- the then Premier Zhu Rongji in 2002
- Present President Hu Jintao in 2006[5]
Dwarkanath Kotnis is commemorated together with Dr. Bethune, and Scottish missionary and athlete, Eric Liddell in the Martyrs' Memorial Park (Lieshi Lingyuan) in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, China. The entire south side of the memorial is dedicated to Dr. Kotnis, where there is a great statue in his honour. A small museum there contains a handbook of vocabulary that Kotnis wrote on his passage from India to China, some of the instruments that the surgeons were forced to use in their medical fight for life, and various photos of the doctors, some with the Communist Party of China's most influential figures, including Mao.
References
- Notes
- ^ a b [1] Neha Sahay, "The Legend Lives on", The Telegraph, Calcutta, India, November 16, 2006
- ^ a b "May Sino-Indian Friendship Develop From Generation to Generation", People's Daily, June 02, 2000
- ^ "Hu Jintao's team has an Indian connection", Rediff News, November 08, 2006
- ^ Dr Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani The Tribune, December 17, 2006.
- ^ Hu Keeps Tradition, Meets Kotnis Family CRI, November 24, 2006.
- Bibliography
- Sheng Xiangong et al. "An Indian Freedom fighter in China: A Tribute to Dr. D. S. Kotnis", Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1983, p. 174.
Additional reading
- Abbas, Khwaja Ahmad. And One Did not Come Back! The Story of the Congress Medical Mission to China. Bombay: Sound Magazine, 1944.
- Basu, Dr. B. K., Light on China: Call of Yanan - Story of the Indian Medical Mission to China 1938-1943, Edited by Manjeet H. Singh. Sketches by David Olivant. Foreign Languages Press Beijing, 2003, Hardback 420pp 235 x 155mm, ISBN 7-119-03476-6
- Gao Liang: Dr. Kotnis. A Short Biography. New Book Centre, Kalkutta 1983.
- Kotnis Mangesh Shantaram: The bridge for ever. A biography of Dr. Kotnis. Somaiya, Bombay / New Delhi / Madras 1982.
- Guo Qinglan: My Life with Kotnis. Manak, New Delhi 2006.
- Sheng Xiangong, Jin Hede: Dr. Kotnis in China. Dolphin Books, Beijing 1987.
- Hán Hǎishān 韩海山 (Ed.): Kē Dìhuá zài Táng Xiàn 《柯棣华在唐县》. Héběi rénmín chūbǎnshè 河北人民出版社, Shijiazhuang 1992.
External links
Categories:- 1910 births
- 1942 deaths
- Indian doctors
- Military physicians
- Marathi people
- Chinese Hindus
- Indian expatriates in China
- University of Mumbai alumni
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