China to unveil statue of Dr. Dwarkanath Kotnis, the most celebrated Indian doctor in China
He hailed from Sholapur in Maharashtra, and arrived at China in 1938 as part of a five-member team of doctors sent by the Indian National Congress to help the Chinese during the World War II. While his contemporaries returned, he remained in the country, joined the communist party and continued to tend to the wounded soldiers. He passed away in December 1942.
According to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) archives, Kotnis arrived in Yan'an in January 1939. He moved on to an anti-Japanese base area in North China, where he acted as the physician-in-charge of the surgical department of the Eighth Route Army General Hospital. He joined the communist party in July 1942, later taking on the post of the first president of the Bethune International Peace Hospital.
