Researchers discover Kotnis’s ‘career card’ in Mumbai

Dr Dwarkanath Kotnis, the legendary physician who served Chinese soldiers in the Sino-Japanese war in 1938, seemed to have had interning experience in Mumbai in varied departments such as vaccinations and winter and summer infections.

Dr Dwarkanath Kotnis, the legendary physician who served Chinese soldiers in the Sino-Japanese war in 1938, seemed to have had interning experience in Mumbai in varied departments such as vaccinations and winter and summer infections.

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His career card, where all his internships in the city were recorded, was recently discovered by a team of researchers that documents Kotnis's life and work.

Kotnis's 100th birth anniversary is on Monday. Kotnis was one of the five Indian physicians dispatched to China to provide medical assistance to soldiers during the Second Sino-Japanese war in 1938.

He is revered in China and is regarded as an example for Sino-Indian friendship and collaboration. He died in 1942 in China. His younger sister Manorama lives in Vile Parle and is in her 90s. His youngest sister Vatsala passed away last year.

In June this year, a doctor of Indian origin based in Mauritius flew to Mumbai to give the research team, Dr Dwarkanath Kotnis Centenary Committee, Kotnis's career card. The four-member committee was formed on the request Kotnis' wife, Guo Qinglan in 2005. The committee is compiling three volumes on Kotnis's life.

"It came as a complete surprise to us. We thought it was not possible to get anything more on him," said Rajendra Jadhav, vice-president of the committee.