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Amid tensions with India, China holds event to remember Indian doctor Kotnis
The event on Saturday saw the release of short documentaries on Kotnis to mark his 110th birth anniversary and a discussion on the Indian doctor’s legacy.
University students from India and China participated in an online event hosted by a Chinese association with close links to the government to mark the birth anniversary of Dwarkanath Kotnis, an Indian doctor who died in China during the Sino-Japanese war in 1942.
In 1938, a medical team of five doctors comprising M Atal, M. Cholkar, Kotnis, BK Basu and D. Mukerji came to China as part of the Indian medical mission team’ uring the war with Japan to aid Chinese soldiers. Among the five, all, except Kotnis, returned to India.
Hosted by the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), the event on Saturday saw the release of short documentaries on Kotnis to mark his 110th birth anniversary and a discussion on the Indian doctor’s legacy.
It was held in the backdrop of the ongoing India-China border tension in eastern Ladakh, which has plunged bilateral ties to its worst levels.
Speaking on the occasion, CPAFFC chairperson Lin Songtian, who until March was China’s ambassador to South Africa, said there have been temporary difficulties in Sino-Indian relations recently, but the young students of the two countries did not stop making the documentaries because of this.
Instead, they incorporated their deep hope for peace and friendship between China and India into short video works, using their own way to commemorate Kotnis, he added.
Students and professors from two Indian universities, the Doon University and the Central University of Gujarat besides several Chinese universities including Peking University, which co-organised the event, Beijing Foreign Studies University and Communication University of China took part in the event.
A senior diplomat from the Chinese embassy in New Delhi, Ma Jia, participated.
The CPAFFC describes itself as a “national people’s organisation engaged in people-to-people diplomacy of the People’s Republic of China…In launching its activities, it has support from the government and assistance from all sectors of the society.”
A separate webinar was held on Friday in Mumbai where the Chinese consul general Tang Guocai spoke on the Indian doctor’s impact on ties.
Speaking at the webinar organised by Dr. Kotnis Memorial Committee, Tang remembered Dr. Kotnis’s contribution that exemplified India and China’s friendship tradition.
“The culture and tradition of India and China have several commonalities just as Dr Kotnis is seen as an Indian in China and as Chinese in India,” Tang was quoted as saying by the official news agency, Xinhua.
He also called upon China and India to join hands in vaccine research and manufacturing as well as in the public health field for the benefit of their people and the world as a whole.
In August, Chinese official media had announced that a bronze statue of Kotnis erected outside a medical school named after him in north China’s Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei’s province, was to be unveiled later in the year.
