Shri Mrigendra Mohan Guha
Shri Mrigendra Mohan Guha was a humanist par excellence. Known as Guhada to his close associates he was a source of inspiration for all who came to know him. He was born on 1 March 1926 in Mayamansinha Zilla of the undivided Bengal.
After a troubled childhood, owing to his father’s death and the partition, he joined the Bank of India at the age of twenty. He found the employees unorganized and victims of whimsical decisions of the authority and realized the need to create a platform from where they could raise their voices of protest. The union was formed in spite of the threats of the authority. Guhada took up the mammoth task of organizing them at the grass-root level. He was offered the post of the secretary of the All India Bank of India Employees Federation which he denied as the main office was in Mumbai and he felt that the secretary must be a local employee to work better. Yet he remained the most important leader of the movement. It was through his efficient planning and indomitable courage that the union was finally able to achieve a fixed salary structure for the employees.
Guhada was not only a good leader but also a prudent banker. From 1946 to 1986 he worked relentlessly for the federation. Under his able guidance, the federation achieved new heights of organizational expertise having an army of young men who would lead the union for the years to come. Nothing could dissuade him from his work, not even his personal tragedy. Even after the accidental death of his youngest son, he went to Mumbai to join the meeting with the authority where he fought for the temporarily suspended workers and forced the authority to reinstate them to their office. Late at night, he would walk all the way from south Calcutta to his home in Dumdum just to save the expenses of the union.
On 25 November 2008, he left us forever. What we know of him is just too insignificant to gauge the magnificence of this leader. Looking back at his eventful life we can only realize the immensity of the struggle called life.
Visit the list on Celebration of Birth Anniversary of Late Mrigendra Mohan Guha on 1st March
