New Delhi
3 September 2006
The 92-year-old widow of Dr Dwarkanath Shantaram Kotnis is
expected to be a part of Chinese President Hu Jintao's entourage when he visits India in
November this year. Guo Qinglan, who has been conferred the honour of People's
Ambassador by China, lives in Shenyang province. She will travel to Solapur in
Maharashtra to meet with the family of Dr Kotnis.
"In coming days, Madam Kotnis will visit India as a part of President Hu Jintao's
delegation," Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Yuxi told this newspaper. Guo Qinglan's
visit will come 65 years to the month after she married Dr Kotnis. The Indian National
Congress party sent him to China in 1938 for offering medical treatment to the Chinese
people wounded in the fight against the Japanese invasion.
Ambassador Sun Yuxi said, "China and India have maintained long lasting friendship.
The two peoples extended sympathy and support to each other in the war against
invasion. Dr Kotnis is an outstanding representative of them." Incidentally, a book
written by Dr Kotnis' widow was released recently to mark the 2006 China-India
Friendship Year celebrations. It is titled "My Life with Kotnis".
In the book, Guo Qinglan talks about her first encounter with him, her marriage, the birth
of their child and later the demise of Kotnis and their son. A Chinese Embassy official
quoted Dr Kotnis' widow as saying, "The Yangtze river and the Ganga have witnessed
the longstanding friendship between our two countries. We [face] the common task of
maintaining world peace and promoting development."
Ambassador Sun Yuxi said President Hu's visit will symbolise the strategic partnership
between India and China in "international and regional affairs". He said that India
became an observer of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) soon after the signing
of the Strategic Cooperative Partnership for Peace and Prosperity in April 2005. China, in
turn, became an observer of SAARC in November last year.
"Recently our leaders met on the sidelines of the Group of Eight Summit in Russia. We
[have a] very close cooperation at the World Trade Organisation too," the ambassador
said. He added that a Chinese cultural week would be organised in Delhi in the run-up to
President Hu's visit. A food and cultural exchange programme is also planned in October
as part of the 2006 Friendship Year celebrations.
Dr Kotnis was born on October 10, 1910 at Solapur in Maharashtra. He married Guo
Qinglan on November 25, 1941. She was a nurse instructor at Bethune Health School in
Shanxi-Qahar-Hebei border region. On August 23, 1942 she gave birth to a boy who was
named Yinhua (yin stands for India and hua for China) to mark the India-China friendship.
Dr Kotnis died on December 9, 1942. He was 32 years old.
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