Dwarakanath Shantaram Kotnis (
Marathi
Marathi may refer to:
*Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India
*Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people
*Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece
See also
*
* ...
: द्वारकानाथ शांताराम कोटणीस ; 10 October 1910 in India – 9 December 1942 in China), also known by his Chinese name Ke Dihua (), was one of the five Indian physicians dispatched to China to provide medical assistance during the
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...
in 1938. Known for his dedication and perseverance, he has been regarded as an example for
Sino-Indian friendship and collaboration.
Along with the Canadian
Dr. Norman Bethune, he continues to be revered every year by the
Chinese people
The Chinese people or simply Chinese, are people or ethnic groups identified with China, usually through ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, or other affiliation.
Chinese people are known as Zhongguoren () or as Huaren () by speakers of s ...
during the
Qingming Festival
The Qingming festival or Ching Ming Festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day in English (sometimes also called Chinese Memorial Day or Ancestors' Day), is a traditional Chinese festival observed by the Han Chinese of mainland China, Hong Ko ...
, a day used by the Chinese to commemorate the martyrs.
Early life
Dwarakanath Kotnis was born to a middle class
Marathi
Marathi may refer to:
*Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India
*Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people
*Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece
See also
*
* ...
Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmin
Deshastha Brahmin is a Hindu Brahmin subcaste mainly from the Indian state of Maharashtra and northern area of the state of Karnataka. Other than these states, according to authors K. S. Singh, Gregory Naik and Pran Nath Chopra, Deshastha Bra ...
family in
Solapur
Solapur () is a city located in the south-western region of the Indian state of Maharashtra, close to its border with Karnataka. Solapur is located on major highway, rail routes between Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad, with a branch line ...
, Maharashtra, he had two brothers and five sisters. He studied medicine at the
Seth G.S. Medical College
King Edward (VII) Memorial Hospital and Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas Medical College, located in Mumbai, is one of the foremost teaching and medical care providing institution in India. It was founded in 1926; it is affiliated with Maharashtra Uni ...
of the
University of Bombay
The University of Mumbai is a collegiate, state-owned, public research university in Mumbai.
The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed ...
.
Indian medical mission
![Dr](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Dr._Kotnis_in_China.jpg)
In 1938, after the Japanese invasion of China, the communist General
Zhu De
Zhu De (; ; also Chu Teh; 1 December 1886 – 6 July 1976) was a Chinese general, military strategist, politician and revolutionary in the Chinese Communist Party. Born into poverty in 1886 in Sichuan, he was adopted by a wealthy uncle at ...
requested
Jawaharlal Nehru
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat—
*
*
*
* and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...
to send some physicians to China.
Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose
Subhas Chandra Bose ( ; 23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperi ...
, the President of the
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...
, made an appeal to the people through a press statement on 30 June 1938. He arranged 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 7–9 July. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose also wrote an article in Modern Review on Japan's role in the Far East and announced the assault on China. The key aspect of this mission was that it was a helping hand 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.
Dwarkanath Kotnis, born in a middle class Maharashtrian family from Sholapur on 10 October 1910, had then graduated from the Seth G S Medical College, Bombay and was preparing for post-graduation. He asked permission of his family to volunteer for service abroad. Dwarkanath's younger sister Manorama recalls that her brother wanted to travel around the world and practice medicine at different places. She said "most members of the family knew little about China at that time. We only knew that people used to come and sell Chinese silk," While his father Shantaram encouraged young Dwarkanath to venture out, his mother was very sad because he was going that far and worse, in a war zone.
A medical team of five doctors (Drs. M. Atal from Allahabad (who was also the leader of the mission), M. Cholkar from Nagpore, D. Kotnis from Sholapur, B.K. Basu and Debesh Mukherjee from Calcutta) was dispatched as the Indian Medical Mission Team in September 1938. All, except Dr. Kotnis, returned to India safely.
The team first arrived in China at the port of Hankou,
Wuhan
Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei, Hubei Province in the China, People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the List of cities in China ...
. They were then sent to Yan'an, the revolutionary base at the time in 1939, where they were warmly welcomed by Mao Zedong, Zhu De and other top leaders of the Communist Party, as they were the first medical team to come from another Asian country.
The 28-year-old Doctor came as a part of the five member team and stayed in China for almost 5 years working in mobile clinics to treat wounded soldiers. In 1939, Dr. Kotnis joined the
Eighth Route Army
The Eighth Route Army (), officially known as the 18th Group Army of the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China, was a group army under the command of the Chinese Communist Party, nominally within the structure of the Chinese ...
(led by
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
) at the Jin-Cha-Ji border near the
Wutai Mountain Area, after his efforts all across the northern China region.
![A statue of Dwarkanath Kotnis](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/A_statue_of_Dwarkanath_Kotnis.jpg)
His job as a battlefront doctor was stressful, where there was always an acute shortage of medicines. In one long-drawn out battle against Japanese troops in 1940, Dr. Kotnis performed operations for up to 72 hours, without getting any sleep. He treated more than 800 wounded soldiers during the battle. He was eventually appointed as the Director of the Dr
Bethune International Peace Hospital named after the famous Canadian surgeon
Norman Bethune
Henry Norman Bethune (; March 4, 1890 – November 12, 1939; zh, t=亨利·諾爾曼·白求恩, p=Hēnglì Nuò'ěrmàn Báiqiú'ēn) was a Canadian thoracic surgeon, early advocate of socialized medicine, and member of the Communist Party ...
.
In 1940, Dr. Kotnis met Guo Qinglan, a nurse at the Bethune Hospital. They first met at the inauguration of Dr. Norman Bethune's tomb and Guo was immediately attracted to the Indian doctor. Kotnis could write and speak Chinese, which amazed her. The couple got married in December 1941. They had a son on 23 August 1942, who was named Yinhua – meaning India (Yin) and China (Hua), at the suggestion of
Nie Rongzhen
Nie Rongzhen (; December 29, 1899 – May 14, 1992) was a prominent Chinese Communist military leader, and one of ten Marshals in the People's Liberation Army of China. He was the last surviving PLA officer with the rank of Marshal.
Biography ...
.
Dr. Kotnis wrote letters to his family regularly. "He sounded very happy in the letters. People used to come to thank him for his help. He was telling the good part," says Manorama. Every place he went in China, he described it in detail in his letters home. The whole family found them to be great fun because what he described was so different from the life in India.
The hardship of the stressful job as a front-line doctor finally started to take its toll on him and severely affected his health. Only three months after the birth of Yinhua,
epilepsy
Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrical ...
struck Dr.Kotnis. A series of
epileptic seizures
An epileptic seizure, informally known as a seizure, is a period of symptoms due to abnormally excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. Outward effects vary from uncontrolled shaking movements involving much of the body with los ...
killed him on 9 December 1942, leaving behind his widow Guo Qinglan, and the baby son.
Dr. Kotnis was buried in the Heroes Courtyard in Nanquan Village. At that time, 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."
It is said that he joined the Communist Party of China on 7 July 1942, just before his death, but could not be verified.
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 director of the Dr
Bethune International Peace Hospital, Yan'an.
Tribute
![The tomb of Dwarkanath Kotnis](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/The_tomb_of_Dwarkanath_Kotnis.JPG)
Upon his death in 1942,
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
mourned his death by observing that:
Madame
Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen (; also known by several other names; 12 November 1866 – 12 March 1925)Singtao daily. Saturday edition. 23 October 2010. section A18. Sun Yat-sen Xinhai revolution 100th anniversary edition . was a Chinese politician who serve ...
said, 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."
The Martyr's Memorial park in Shijiazhuang city of the Northern Chinese province of Hebei is a famous attraction point. The north and south sides of the park are dedicated to the veterans of the Korean and the Japanese wars. The west side is dedicated to Dr. Norman Bethune, who fought for the Chinese, and the South side to Dr Kotnis. There is a great statue in his honour. A small museum there has a handbook of vocabulary that Kotnis wrote on his passage from India to China; some of the instruments that the surgeons used 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.
Memorial in Solapur, Maharashtra
![Dr](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Dr._Kotnis_memorial_at_Solapur.jpg)
A memorial of Dwarkanath Shantaram Kotnis is installed in his birthplace in
Solapur
Solapur () is a city located in the south-western region of the Indian state of Maharashtra, close to its border with Karnataka. Solapur is located on major highway, rail routes between Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad, with a branch line ...
on 1 January 2012. The memorial, at his old residence, has been built by Solapur Municipal Corporation with efforts of
Sushilkumar Shinde
Sushilkumar Sambhaji Shinde (born 4 September 1941) is an Indian politician from the state of Maharashtra. He was the Minister of Home Affairs, Minister of Power in the Manmohan Singh government, and the Leader of the House in Lok Sabha until ...
, who was Union Power Minister during the installation ceremony. Maharashtra Chief Minister
Prithviraj Chavan
Prithviraj Chavan () (born 17 March 1946) is an Indian politician who was the 17th Chief Minister of Maharashtra, a state in Western India. Chavan is a graduate of the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani and University of Cali ...
was present at the function.
Family
In November 1941, about a year before his death, Kotnis married Guo Qinglan, (, born 15 September 1916 in
Fenyang County
Fenyang (), formerly as Fenyang County () before 1996, is a county-level city under the administration of Lüliang prefecture-level city, in Shanxi Province, China.
Fenyang is located in the wide valley of the Fen River, some 20-plus kilometers we ...
, Shanxi Province) a nurse at the Bethune International Peace Hospital. Kotnis and Guo had a son on 23 August 1942. At the suggestion of
Nie Rongzhen
Nie Rongzhen (; December 29, 1899 – May 14, 1992) was a prominent Chinese Communist military leader, and one of ten Marshals in the People's Liberation Army of China. He was the last surviving PLA officer with the rank of Marshal.
Biography ...
they named the boy "Yinhua" combining the Chinese characters for "Yin" () for India and "Hua" () for China. Yinhua died aged 24 in 1967 shortly before he was to graduate from medical college.
[Sahay, Neha (16 November 2006]
"The Legend Lives on"
''The Telegraph'', Calcutta, India. His death has been attributed to medical negligence.
People's Daily. 2 June 2000. In 1949, Guo remarried to a Chinese man with whom she had a son and a daughter.
Guo Qinglan has been an honoured guest at many high-level diplomatic functions between China and India, such as the banquet Dalian Mayor
Bo Xilai
Bo Xilai (; born 3 July 1949) is a Chinese former politician who was convicted on bribery and embezzlement charges. He came to prominence through his tenures as Mayor of Dalian and then the governor of Liaoning. From 2004 to November 2007, ...
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
Hu Jintao (born 21 December 1942) is a Chinese politician who served as the 16–17th general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 2002 to 2012, the 6th president of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 2003 to 2013, an ...
on a state visit to India. She died on 28 June 2012 at the age of 96 in
Dalian
Dalian () is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China. Located on the ...
, in Northeastern China.
["Hu Jintao's team has an Indian connection"](_blank)
Rediff News. 8 November 2006.
In film
* The story of his life was the subject of a
Hindi film
Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...
with the title ''
Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani'' (1946, English: ''The Immortal Story of Dr. Kotnis''), scripted by
Khwaja Ahmad Abbas
Khwaja Ahmad Abbas (7 June 1914 – 1 June 1987) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, novelist, and journalist in Urdu, Hindi and English. He won four National Film Awards in India. Internationally, his films won the Palme d'Or (Golden ...
, and directed by
V. Shantaram
Shantaram Rajaram Vankudre (18 November 1901 – 30 October 1990), referred to as V. Shantaram or Shantaram Bapu, was an Indian filmmaker, film producer, and actor known for his work in Hindi and Marathi films. He is most known for films such ...
, who also portrayed Kotnis in the film.
* His life was also the subject of a
Chinese film
The cinema of China is one of three distinct historical threads of Chinese-language cinema together with the cinema of Hong Kong and the cinema of Taiwan.
Cinema was introduced in China in 1896 and the first Chinese film, '' Dingjun Mountain'' ...
''Kē Dì Huá Dài Fū'' (1982, ''Dr. D.S. Kotnis''), with a screenplay by Huang Zongjiang.
Honours
![Dwarkanath Kotnis 1993 stamp of India](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Dwarkanath_Kotnis_1993_stamp_of_India.jpg)
Both China (1982 and 1992) and India (1993) have honoured 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
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
by:
* the then Premier
Zhou En-lai
Zhou Enlai (; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman and military officer who served as the first premier of the People's Republic of China from 1 October 1949 until his death on 8 January 1976. Zhou served under Chairman Mao ...
in 1950
* the then President
Jiang Zemin
Jiang Zemin (17 August 1926 – 30 November 2022) was a Chinese politician who served as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1989 to 2002, as chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2004, and as pres ...
visited India in 1996, he sent flowers to the Kotnis family.
* the then Premier
Li Peng
Li Peng (; 20 October 1928 – 22 July 2019) was a Chinese politician who served as the fourth Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1987 to 1998, and as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Chi ...
in 2001
* the then Premier
Zhu Rongji
Zhu Rongji (; IPA: ; born 23 October 1928) is a retired Chinese politician who served as Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1998 to 2003 and CCP Politburo Standing Committee member from 1992 to 2002 along with the Chinese Communist ...
in 2002
* the then President
Hu Jintao
Hu Jintao (born 21 December 1942) is a Chinese politician who served as the 16–17th general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 2002 to 2012, the 6th president of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 2003 to 2013, an ...
in 2006
* the then Premier
Li Keqiang
Li Keqiang (born 1 July 1955) is a Chinese politician who is the outgoing premier of China. An economist by profession, Li is head of China's executive branch as well as one of the leading figures behind China's Financial and Economic Affai ...
in 2013
* The current President
Xi Jinping
Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, s ...
– who also holds the positions of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, making him China's paramount leader – met Dr Kotnis' sister Manorama during Sept 2014.
Dwarkanath Kotnis is commemorated together with Dr. Bethune, and Scottish missionary and athlete,
Eric Liddell
Eric Henry Liddell (; 16 January 1902 – 21 February 1945) was a Scottish sprinter, rugby player and Christian missionary. Born in Qing China to Scottish missionary parents, he attended boarding school near London, spending time when p ...
in the Martyrs' Memorial Park (Lieshi Lingyuan) in
Shijiazhuang
Shijiazhuang (; ; Mandarin: ), formerly known as Shimen and romanized as Shihkiachwang, is the capital and most populous city of China’s North China's Hebei Province. Administratively a prefecture-level city, it is about southwest of Beijin ...
, 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.
In 2017, China presented
University of Mumbai
The University of Mumbai is a collegiate university, collegiate, State university (India), state-owned, Public university, public research university in Mumbai.
The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the un ...
a restored handwritten condolence note written by
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
to Dr. Kotnis' family in 1950 upon his death.
China presents University with Mao note
Timesofindia.indiatimes.com (8 January 2017). Retrieved on 2018-12-02.
References
Further 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,
* 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.
* Sheng Xiangong et al. "An Indian Freedom fighter in China: A Tribute to Dr. D. S. Kotnis", Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1983, p. 174.
* 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
* ttp://www.peacehospital.com/ Bethune International Peace Hospital
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kotnis, Dwarkanath
Kotnis, Dwarkanath S.
Kotnis, Dwarkanath S.
Indian military medical officers
Kotnis, Dwaraknath
Kotnis, Dwaraknath
Kotnis, Dwaraknath
University of Mumbai alumni
People from Solapur
20th-century Indian medical doctors
Medical doctors from Maharashtra
Eighth Route Army surgeons