Personal
Profile of Mr. Rameswar Mukerjee
Mr.
Rameswar Mukerjee was born in the Hooghly district off Kolkatta
in the early 1910s. He received a basic and a modest education
that led him to seek "unconventional" Brakmin paths
such as sales. He came across Netaji and the Congress party
network in his teens and he acted devotedly in the district,
a key Congerss centre.
Coincidentally,
he came across the Bata Shoe recruiting team that was looking
for young candidates to receive training in the current Czech
Republic where Batas was headquartered. He left India as a
selected trainee in his very young years where over the years
he met a Slovak, Ms Marie Jakubkova that led to an unconventional
marriage cross race and religious lines.
It is during his second world war years that Mr. Mukerjee
met Netaji Subhash Bose in Italy, who personally recruited
his "Bengali" to join the Indian National Army in
Berlin, Germany.
Mr
Mukerjee spent over four years in the government in exile
performing vatried daily independence struggle functions overseas.
In the frame of the enemy and the allied powers, he spent
times in jail, depending on which side he found himself. With
Netaji's mysterious disappearance, he returned to India with
his Slovak wife and his only son, Roman to eventually hail
India's independence.
He
went on to work with Bata's India to rise to Chief of sales
in varied districts. Family life was profoundly intercultural
and inter-religious where Czech, Bengali and Hindi were fluently
spoken and where both Christian and Hindu faiths practised.
Down to the food habits, Europe and Asia were together in
this unique Mukerjee family. This followed a similar path
of Netaji and his Austrian life partner.
Over
the past five years, Mr Rameswar Mukerjee has left the Netaji
Subhas Chandra Bose airport, Kolkatta to join his son and
family in Ottawa Canada.
It is interesting to note that the India Canada Association
gave him a public recognition with a Special Volunteer Services
Award, a year after his arrival in Canada.
In
addition, the two recent High Commisioners have come to personally
pay respect to him in the home. He is a true Indian in Canada,
Jai Hind. O Canada.
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About
the Speaker: Mr. Rameswar Mukerjee
was
in the Azad Hind movement of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in
Europe over the critical World War II period. He will share
how active he was with the Berlin based independence network
in the company of Netaji and his sound leadership. This was
quite a unique and a living experience that he carries in
memory till this day — See his