Kolkata
Nearly 85 years after a five-member medical mission of doctors went to China, a new book throws a new light on the phenomenon and brings Indian scholars and Chinese diplomats on one platform.
During the launch of the book titled Indian Medical Mission to China earlier this month authored by historian Amalendu De, Chinese Consul General in Kolkata Zha Liyou described the team of five-member medical mission as “Chinese Generals from India” and “the bravest and heroic story across borders”.
In 1938 Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose joined hands to send the five-member Indian medical mission to China, to fight side by side with the People’s Liberation Army in China’s struggle for freedom. The book provides details on how the five doctors came to help the people of China.
“The medical mission of five Indian doctors fought alongside the Chinese Communist Party and one of them Dr. Dwarakanath Kotnis died on Chinese soil and in combat. The Indian Medical Mission to this day remains etched in the memory of Chinese people. Translating and publishing this book had been a great experience,” Sunandan Roy Chowdhury Publisher, SAMPARK publishing house, Kolkata, said.
Describing Dr Kotnis as a ‘great friend to the Chinese people’ and one of greatest sons of India the Consul General said that the ‘Chinese Edition’ of the book is in process.
The book does not only deal with the sacrifice of Dr. Kotnis but also about the contribution of other members of the team particularly Bijoy Kumar Basu who was part of the mission .Mrigendranath Gantait, who is president of Dwarkanath Kotnis Memorial Committee, West Bengal, said that after the India China border conflict of 1962 when relations between the two countries had hit the lowest, China had invited Bijoy Kumar Basu to learn acupuncture, an ancient practice of traditional Chinese medicine.
The author of the book Amalendu De has drawn from the diaries of Dr. Gantait, a student of Dr Basu about how after the visit of Bijoy Kumar Basu to China there was a fresh impetus in India China relations.
Dwarkanath Kotnis Memorial Committee, West Bengal organises year long activities in the city which includes observing the death of Dr. Kotnis on December 9 every year. The doctor from Maharashtra was only 32 years old on 9 December 1942, when he died in North China. A few years after his death in 1945 All India Kotnis Committee was set up by Bijay Kumar Basu. Dr. Kotnis was immortalised in 1946 in V. Shantaram’s movie Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani.
After it went defunct the Dwarkanath Kotnis Memorial Committee, West Bengal resurfaced in 1973. The publisher of the book Sunandan Roy Chowdhury pointed out that the Indian Medical Mission came about in 1938 with Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose joining hands to send five-member the mission to fight side by side with the People’s Liberation Army in China’s struggle for liberation. “The story and the book celebrates internationalism cherished by Rabindranath Tagore,” he said.
The Chinese Consul General in Kolkata described the mission as a ‘fateful connection’ between two countries and said, “We will tell the story of Dr. Kotnis and Dr. Basu to deepen people to people cultural exchanges and India China friendship”.
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