Li to meet relatives of Dr Kotnis in Mumbai

Premier Li travels to Mumbai on Tuesday where he will meet business leaders and visit a facility of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). He is also scheduled to meet relatives of Dwarkanath Shantaram Kotnis, an Indian doctor who treated Chinese victims during the second Sino-Japanese War in 1938.

Kotnis was one of five Indian physicians sent to China to provide medical assistance. Besides being known for his dedication and perseverance, he has also been regarded as an example for Sino-Indian friendship and collaboration.

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 Rs22,000 (Dh1,466) on All-Indian China Day and China Fund days on July 7–9.

Kotnis was one among the medical team of five doctors which was dispatched as the Indian Medical Mission Team in September 1938. He stayed in China for almost five years working in mobile clinics to treat wounded soldiers. He later died from the stresses that were especially relevant to front-line doctors who often had to work for over 72 hours at a stretch. He died of epilepsy in 1942 at the age of 32, and was buried in the Heroes Courtyard, Nanquan Village. All the other physicians returned to India safely.

— Compiled from agencies