Two-day camp to mark anniversary of IMA’s China mission

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 30

To commemorate the 80th anniversary of sending the Indian Medical Association (IMA) Mission to China, Dr Kotnis Acupuncture Hospital, Salem Tabri, will hold a two-day free acupuncture and dental check-up camp on the hospital premises on September 1 and 2.

Discussing the history behind the event, Dr Inderjit Singh Dhingra, Director, Dr Dwarkanath Kotnis Memorial Acupuncture Hospital, said, “In 1937-38, Japanese aggression became very terrible. Chinese peoples’ resistance was going on. Intellectuals of the world became vocal against this attack. The International China Aid Committee was formed in New York. The Indian National Congress expressed solidarity in favour of attacked countries such as Spain and China and also gave a call of boycotting Japanese goods. Rabindranath Tagore condemned Japan’s militarism.”

“In that wretched condition of China, on the advice of American journalist Agnes Smedly, Commander Zhu De of the Eighth Route Army fighting against Japan sent an appeal letter to Indian National Congress leader Jawaharlal Nehru to send medical help to China. At the initiative of President Nehru at Haripura session of the National Congress, a resolution was accepted to send a medical team to China. China Day was observed in India. A team of five doctors were formed with Dr Madanmohanlal Atal (Allahabad, leader), Dr MR Cholker (Nagpur), Dr Ranen Sen (Kolkata), Dr Dwarkanath Kotnis (Maharashtra) and Dr Debesh Mukherjee (Kolkata),” he said.

“By this time, Subhas Chandra Bose became the Congress president. At the last moment, the British government did not allow Dr Ranen Sen to go to China as he was a communist. With suggestion from Dr Sen, Subhas Chandra Bose selected Dr Bejoy Kumar Basu and sent him to Bombay. Members of the Medical Mission left for China from Bombay on September 1, 1938,” he added.

“The Medical Mission had worked hard in different areas of China. Within two years, Dr Mukherjee, Dr Cholekar and Dr Atal came back due to health and other reasons. But Dr Basu and Dr Kotnis stayed in China, joined the liberation movement of the Chinese people and eventually became members of the Communist Party of China. Dr Kotnis died in China on December 9, 1942, at the age of 32 years. Dr Kotnis had married his Chinese nursing instructor colleague Guo Qinglan. They had a son who was named In-Hua, meaning India-China. At last, after almost five years, Dr Basu returned India in July 1943,” he recalled.

After returning to India, Dr Basu engaged himself in social service activities. In 1958, Dr Basu went to China and had learnt acupuncture therapy.

In 1959, he introduced acupuncture therapy to India in Kolkata. After 1962 India-China border conflict, the relation between the two countries was strained. In 1973, Dr Basu was invited to visit China to learn acupuncture anaesthesia. His visit to China began to melt the frigid relation between India and China. At that time, in a section of media, Dr Basu’s visit to China was called as ‘Acupuncture Diplomacy’. Dr Basu had established Dr Dwarkanath Kotnis Memorial Committee (DKMC) in 1973 to propagate the ideals of the Medical Mission through services to people. The DKMC has been working for the people for last 45 years.

In China, Indian Medical Mission Memorial Museum has been set up in Schichiachuang town in 1988. Youths and students are taught there how foreign friends came to China to help their liberation movement.

“The glorious tradition of Indian people in helping China during their bad days should not be forgotten,” signs off Dr Dhingra.