Lal Bihari

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For the Hindustani author, see Bihari Lal.
Lal Bihari
Born 1955 (age 58–59)[1]
Amilo, Azamgarh district
Other names Lal Bihari Mritak; लाल बिहारी (in Devanāgarī)
Occupation farmer, activist
Known for Activist against wrongly recording people as dead, 2003 Ig Nobel Prize winner

Lal Bihari (or Lal Bihari Mritak, लाल बिहारी “मृतक”; born 1955) is an Indian farmer and activist from Amilo, in Azamgarh district, Uttar Pradesh, who was officially dead between 1975 and 1994. He fought with Indian bureaucracy for 19 years to prove that he is alive. Meanwhile, he added Mritak (deceased) to his name, and founded Mritak Sangh, the Uttar Pradesh Association of Dead People in Uttar Pradesh, India, to highlight other cases like his.[2]

Biography

An inhabitant of Amilo in Azamgarh district in eastern Uttar Pradesh, when Lal Bihari tried to apply for a bank loan in 1975, he visited revenue office at district headquarters, Azamgarh to get a proof of identity, here he found out that he was officially dead: his uncle had bribed a government official to register him as dead, so that he would get the ownership of Bihari's ancestral land at Khalilabad, which measured less than an acre.[1]

Bihari discovered at least 100 other people in a similar situation, being officially dead. He formed Mritak Sangh, Uttar Pradesh Association of Dead People, in the Azamgarh district. He and many other members were in danger of being killed by those who had appropriated their property. Currently the association has over 20,000 members from all over India. By 2004 they had managed to declare four of their members alive.

Over the years Bihari tried to attract attention to his situation by various means. He organized his own funeral and demanded widow's compensation for his wife. In 1980 he added the word "mritak" ("dead") to his name and signed his letters "late Lal Bihari". He stood for election against Rajiv Gandhi in 1989 and lost, to prove that he is alive. In 1994 he managed to have his official death annulled after a long legal struggle.

Bihari was awarded the Ig Nobel Peace Award in 2003.[3] In 2004 he ran for a seat in the parliament of Lal Ganj.

Bihari continues to support other people in similar situations. In 2004 he sponsored fellow Mritak Sangh member Shivdutt Yadav when he contested election against Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Film-maker Satish Kaushik will be making a movie about his life and "death",[4] titled Mritak.[5]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Azamgarh Journal; Back to Life in India, Without Reincarnation". New York Times. October 24, 2000. 
  2. ↑ "Plight of the Living Dead". TIME magazine. July 19, 1999. 
  3. ↑ Debroy, Bibek (2004). India, redeeming the economic pledge. New Delhi: Academic Foundation. pp. 133–4. ISBN 8171883486. 
  4. ↑ "A movie on Lal Bihari Mritak". Oneindia Entertainment (Lucknow). UNI. April 10, 2006. Retrieved 19 October 2012. 
  5. ↑ "Satish Kaushik trains his camera on the 'living dead'". DNAIndia. Mar 13, 2011. Retrieved 19 October 2012. 

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