My dad was in Dudkindi, India with the Army Air Corps during WWII, and
I'm trying to find out exactly where this town/village was/is. It may
have been in the Province of W. Bengal, because he got malaria & was
hospitalized at Kalaikunda, which is near Calcutta & in this Province.
Can you help? Thanks Jean Johnson
iowaykids@yahoo.com.sg

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Request for Question Clarification by robertskelton-ga on 20 Aug 2002 19:25 PDT

Are you sure of the spelling? I cannot find any place names in India
that end in "kindi", and only 5 that end in "indi".

The closest matches I found to Dudkindi are: Dundi, Dondi, Dandi,
Dhondi  Devankundi.

There was an airforce base actually in Kalaikunda.

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Request for Question Clarification by waldo-ga on 21 Aug 2002 11:25 PDT

jeanrand:

I think I have found it, however the spelling is different;
'Dudhkundi'. Take a look at the following site to determine if this
was the battle group your father was in.
http://www.armyairforces.com/dbgroups.asp?Group=256

If so, I will find the location of the village for you.

Waldo

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Clarification of Question by jeanrand-ga on 21 Aug 2002 22:58 PDT

Yes, I do know about Kalaikunda airbase (my dad was treated for
malaria there) - it is apparently about 60 miles from Calcutta. I
would love to find it located on a map, but realize that many
countries don't show their military sites. I suspect that Dudhkundi
(the correct spelling) was near to it and also in the West Bengal
province because it was the base he was actually working at, but again
- would like to see where it is actually located on a map. If you can
find that I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks for your help.

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Request for Question Clarification by leli-ga on 25 Aug 2002 05:54 PDT

I have found a document which I think has the latitude and longitude
for Dudhkundi, but no map.  (Also for Kalaikunda) Would you be
interested in an answer which gives you latitude and longitude and
points to its approximate location on a map, even though we could then
only say something like it must be/have been near the letter 'x' in
another placename?

jeanrand -

I believe that my answer is sufficiently different from Leli's
proposal to justify posting it.

The Central Bank of India has a branch at a "P.O.Dudhkundi" in Tehsil
Jhargram.  You can find it by going to
http://www.centralbankofindia.co.in/new/index1.htm , then clicking on
"Network", "Branch Networks", "Regional Offices" for Kolkata,
"Branches" for Durgapur, and finally "Details" for Balibhasa.

A recent academic study of sacred sites describes Dudhkundi as a
village in the Midnapore district of West Bengal.

"Biodiversity Conservation and Ethics: Sacred Groves and Pools", by
K.C. Malhotra, Shashi Stanley, N.S. Hemam, and Ketaki Das (2000)
Eubios Ethics Institute
University of Tsukuba
http://www.biol.tsukuba.ac.jp/~macer/asiae/biae338.html

A good map of the Midnapore -- or Medinipur or Midnapur -- District of
West Bengal is found at:

"Medinipur District Map - West Bengal"
Maps of India
http://mapsofindia.com/maps/westbengal/districts/medinipur.htm

You may notice Jhargram on this map, west of Medinipur city.

The coordinates for Dudhkundi Army Air Corps base was N22 20 E087 07,
while the coordinates for Kalaikunda were N22 20 E087 13 -- very
close-by.

"Pre 1973 stations info from Neal Lott, NCDC"
U.S. AFGWC Station (Surface and Upper Air) Library
Data Support Section, Scientific Computing Division, National Center
for Atmospheric Research
http://dss.ucar.edu/datasets/ds900.0/data/pre73

While Kalaikunda is not on the Maps of India map, it is on the Global
Gazetteer (home page http://www.calle.com/world/ ).  You can compare
the relative positions of Medinipur and Kalaikunda (at a slightly
different position from the coordinates given above) by comparing the
maps or the coordinates on these pages:

"Medin¿pur, India Page"
http://www.calle.com/info.cgi?lat=22.4333&long=87.3333&name=Medin%bfpur&cty=India&alt=78

"Kala¿kunda, India Page"
http://www.calle.com/info.cgi?kind=illum&lat=22.3500&long=87.2500&name=Kala%bfkunda&cty=India&alt=137&zoom=

As you can see, Kalaikunda is west and south of Medinipur,
corresponding to the empty space on the Maps of India map between
Medinipur and Jhargram.  Dudhkundi is west of Kalaikunda.

Unfortunately, neither Dudhkundi nor Jhargram appear to be listed on
the Global Gazetteer.  However, it seems safe to say -- from all of
the evidence collected above -- that Dudhkundi is part of Tehsil
Jhargram, and is best indicated on the Maps of India map by the town
of Jhargram.

Please let me know if you need further information.

- justaskscott


Search terms used:

Dudhkundi
Kalaikunda
Midnapore
Medinipur
Midnapur
Jhargram
tehsil
city
town

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Clarification of Answer by justaskscott-ga on 25 Aug 2002 21:37 PDT

I should note how I determined that Dudhkundi is west of Kalaikunda. 
According to the coordinates in the "Pre 1973 stations info" (which,
incidentally, are found about 1/8 the way down that web page),
Kalaikunda is at the same latitude as Dudhkundi, but 7 minutes of
longitude to the east.

Thanks to everyone who answered - especially justaskscott -- I now
have enough information and appreciate everyone's help. Great
attention to detail and I can go on with my family history. Thanks a
million. Jean

Hi Jean

As you've probably found out for yourself, searching for "Dudkindi" on
the internet isn't particularly fruitful. There are at least two
reasons for this.

Firstly the name is almost certainly an English transliteration of a
local word written in a different alphabet. Transliterations can vary
quite widely, especially for lesser-known words, so perhaps other
people may have written the name of this place as (for example)
Dudkhindi, Dodkindi, Dadkindee, Dhadkhindi, etc.

Secondly a number of places on the Indian subcontinent have been
officially renamed since the Second World War -- remember at that time
the whole region was still part of the British Empire. As part of the
(still ongoing) attempt to move away from that period of their history
the Anglicised form of many place-names are slowly being eroded. For
example Bombay is now known officially as Mumbai, and Calcutta has
become Kolkata.

With these two factors in mind, it's likely to prove extremely
difficult to track down the exact place your father stayed at without
either good local knowledge, or further information. If you're unable
to get anything else about the place from your father, any of his
comrades-in-arms, or any wartime memorabilia of theirs, you might need
a researcher familiar with the West Bengal region of India to locate
it.

Good luck, however, and I hope someone manages to find this
information for you!

Regards
iaint-ga