Ranadaprasad Saha
Encyclopedia
Ranadaprasad Saha (15 November 1896 – May 1971), also known as RP Saha and Ranoda Proshad Shaha, was a famous Indian
, Pakistani
, and Bangladeshi
businessman and philanthropist, who during the Bangladesh Liberation War
was picked up from home by the Pakistani
army on 7th May 1971 and never returned home.
Saha family to Debendranath Kumar and Kumudini Saha on 15 November 1896. His father Debendranath hailed from Mirzapur
in Tangail subdivision
in Mymensingh
district. However as per the Hindu
custom he was born in his maternal uncle's house at Kachhur in Savar
, near Dhaka
. At the age of seven he lost his mother who died of tetanus during childbirth. Being born into a poor family he didn't receive much of an education. At the age of sixteen he fled to Kolkata
in search of a new future.
and then in Karachi
. As reward for his services rendered to the wounded, Ranada Prasad was commissioned in 1916 in the newly formed Bengal Regiment. After the war was over, he met George V. He got a job in the Indian Railway department as a war veteran.
In 1932 he lost the job and started a small business in salt and coal in Kolkata
. He bought a ship named 'Bengal River'. Ranada Prasad was appointed one of the agents to buy food grains for the Government. He bought three powerhouses at Narayanganj
, Mymensingh
and Comilla
and owned the 'George Anderson Company' of Narayanganj that used to make jute bales. He also started a leather business.
, the then Governor of Bengal
. He named it 'Kumudini Hospital', after his mother Kumudini whose suffering from lack of medical care inspired him to establish a hospital for the poor, so that people, especially women, would not suffer the way his mother had. As of 2010, the hospital has 750 beds and continues to serve the poor, providing them with free beds, meals and treatment and charging only nominally for surgical procedures. If the hospital was flooded, Ranadaprasad made the doctor's treat the patients on the top floors. He didn't care about death rates as many hospitals did and made sure no one was ever turned back. The Maternity Wing of the Dhaka Combined Military Hospital was established with his financial support.
To spread female education he founded in 1942 a fully residential school at Mirzapur and named it 'Bharateswari Bidyapith' after Bharateswari Devi, his grandmother. In 1945 this institution was renamed 'Bharateshwari Homes'. It has 1200 seats as of 2010 and is rerenownd for producing well-rounded, socially responsible students who have gone on to excel in their respective fields. Founded the Kumudini College
at Tangail
in 1943 and the 'Debendra College' at Manikganj
in 1944 to commemorate his mother and father respectively. He set up the 'Mirzapur Pilot Boys' School', 'Mirzapur Pilot Girls' School', and 'Mirzapur Degree College'.
In 1947, R.P. Saha placed all his companies in a trust by the name of 'Kumudini Welfare Trust (KWT)', with the earnings from the income generating activities such as jute baling press and a river transportation business, being used to run the welfare activities.
The full extent of his philanthropic activities is not known even by his own family. In 1944, he donated BDT 2,50,000 to the Red Cross. His family often learns about them when they receive letters or calls from organizations informing them about some large donations he had made or some way in which he had helped them. He never told anyone.
. In 1978 he was posthumously awarded the Independence day award
by the Government of Bangladesh as a recognition of his social works.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Pakistani
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, and Bangladeshi
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
businessman and philanthropist, who during the Bangladesh Liberation War
Bangladesh Liberation War
The Bangladesh Liberation War was an armed conflict pitting East Pakistan and India against West Pakistan. The war resulted in the secession of East Pakistan, which became the independent nation of Bangladesh....
was picked up from home by the Pakistani
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
army on 7th May 1971 and never returned home.
Early life
Ranada Prasad was born in a Bengali HinduBengali Hindu
Bengali Hindus are an ethno-linguistic group, belonging to the Indo-Aryan family and are native to the Bengal region of the Indian Subcontinent. The Bengali Hindus along with other related ethno-linguistic groups constitute the vast majority of Hindus...
Saha family to Debendranath Kumar and Kumudini Saha on 15 November 1896. His father Debendranath hailed from Mirzapur
Mirzapur
Mirzapur is a city in the heart of North India, nearly 650 km between Delhi and Kolkata and also equidistant from Allahabad and Varanasi. Located in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Mirzapur has a population of a little over 205,264 and is renowned for its famous carpet and brassware industry...
in Tangail subdivision
Tangail District
Tangail is a district in central region of Bangladesh. It is a part of the Dhaka division. The population of Tangail zilla is about 3.2 million and its surface area is 3,414.39 km². The main town of Tangail District is the district town Tangail...
in Mymensingh
Mymensingh
Mymensingh , pronounced moy-mon-shing-haw, is a city of Bangladesh situated on the river Brahmaputra. It is the headquarters of the administrative unit Mymensingh District. Mymensingh is the anglicized pronunciation of the original name Momenshahi, referring to a ruler called Momen Shah. The cadet...
district. However as per the Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
custom he was born in his maternal uncle's house at Kachhur in Savar
Sävar
Sävar is a locality situated in Umeå Municipality, Västerbotten County, Sweden with 2,672 inhabitants in 2005.It is located by E4 about 15 km north of Umeå, Sweden. Sävar is mostly known for being the last battlefield of the Finnish War....
, near Dhaka
Dhaka
Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka Division. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, had a population of over 15 million in 2010, making it the largest city...
. At the age of seven he lost his mother who died of tetanus during childbirth. Being born into a poor family he didn't receive much of an education. At the age of sixteen he fled to Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
in search of a new future.
Career
Ranada Prasad joined the Bengal Ambulance Corps and went to the War He was first posted in MesopotamiaIraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and then in Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
. As reward for his services rendered to the wounded, Ranada Prasad was commissioned in 1916 in the newly formed Bengal Regiment. After the war was over, he met George V. He got a job in the Indian Railway department as a war veteran.
In 1932 he lost the job and started a small business in salt and coal in Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
. He bought a ship named 'Bengal River'. Ranada Prasad was appointed one of the agents to buy food grains for the Government. He bought three powerhouses at Narayanganj
Narayanganj
Narayanganj is a city in central Bangladesh. It is located in the Narayanganj District, near the capital city of Dhaka and has a population of 220,000. The city is on the bank of the Shitalakshya River. The river port of Narayanganj is one of the oldest in Bangladesh...
, Mymensingh
Mymensingh
Mymensingh , pronounced moy-mon-shing-haw, is a city of Bangladesh situated on the river Brahmaputra. It is the headquarters of the administrative unit Mymensingh District. Mymensingh is the anglicized pronunciation of the original name Momenshahi, referring to a ruler called Momen Shah. The cadet...
and Comilla
Comilla
Comilla is a city in south-eastern Bangladesh, located along the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway. It is the administrative center of the Comilla District, part of the Chittagong Division. The Eastern Wing of Bangladesh Highway Police is located in Comilla....
and owned the 'George Anderson Company' of Narayanganj that used to make jute bales. He also started a leather business.
Philanthropy
Ranada Prasad, now a fairly rich man, dedicated himself to the service of the suffering humanity. In 1938 he opened a charitable hospital at his native village Mirzapur on the river Lauhajang. During the famine of 1943-44 he maintained 275 gruel houses to feed the hungry for 8 months. On 27 July 1944 the hospital which had 20 beds was opened by Richard Casey, Baron CaseyRichard Casey, Baron Casey
Richard Gardiner Casey, Baron Casey KG GCMG CH DSO MC KStJ PC was an Australian politician, diplomat and the 16th Governor-General of Australia.-Early life:...
, the then Governor of Bengal
Governor of Bengal
From 1690, a governor represented the British East India Company in Bengal, which had been granted the right to establish a trading post by the local rulers, the nawabs of Murshidabad, who were nominal vassals of the Mughal emperor in Delhi....
. He named it 'Kumudini Hospital', after his mother Kumudini whose suffering from lack of medical care inspired him to establish a hospital for the poor, so that people, especially women, would not suffer the way his mother had. As of 2010, the hospital has 750 beds and continues to serve the poor, providing them with free beds, meals and treatment and charging only nominally for surgical procedures. If the hospital was flooded, Ranadaprasad made the doctor's treat the patients on the top floors. He didn't care about death rates as many hospitals did and made sure no one was ever turned back. The Maternity Wing of the Dhaka Combined Military Hospital was established with his financial support.
To spread female education he founded in 1942 a fully residential school at Mirzapur and named it 'Bharateswari Bidyapith' after Bharateswari Devi, his grandmother. In 1945 this institution was renamed 'Bharateshwari Homes'. It has 1200 seats as of 2010 and is rerenownd for producing well-rounded, socially responsible students who have gone on to excel in their respective fields. Founded the Kumudini College
Kumudini College
Kumudini College is a women's college affiliated by the national university. It is located in Paradise Para, Tangail. The college runs under the Kumudini Welfare Trust. Kumudini College was regarded to be the third girls' college of East Bengal after Eden Girls' College and Sylhet Girls' College...
at Tangail
Tangail
Tangail is a town in Tangail District located in central region of Bangladesh. It consists of 5 corporations, 8 municipalities, 72 wards, 211 mahallas. It is located on the banks of Louhajang River, and is part of the Dhaka Division.-Education:...
in 1943 and the 'Debendra College' at Manikganj
Manikganj District
The district of Manikganj consists 3575 mosques, 160 temples, 10 churches, five Buddhist temples and a pagoda.-Literacy and education:Literacy and educational institutions Average literacy 26.9%; male 33.7%, female 20.1%...
in 1944 to commemorate his mother and father respectively. He set up the 'Mirzapur Pilot Boys' School', 'Mirzapur Pilot Girls' School', and 'Mirzapur Degree College'.
In 1947, R.P. Saha placed all his companies in a trust by the name of 'Kumudini Welfare Trust (KWT)', with the earnings from the income generating activities such as jute baling press and a river transportation business, being used to run the welfare activities.
The full extent of his philanthropic activities is not known even by his own family. In 1944, he donated BDT 2,50,000 to the Red Cross. His family often learns about them when they receive letters or calls from organizations informing them about some large donations he had made or some way in which he had helped them. He never told anyone.
Death
In April 1971, during the Liberation War of Bangladesh, despite a good working relationship with the Pakistani authorities as well as all preceding and successive governments, Saha, with his 26 year old son Bhavani Prasad Saha, was picked up by the Pakistani occupation army. They returned home after about a week, but were picked up again a day later on 7 May, after which they were never heard from again. Saha's daughter-in-law, Srimati Saha, was widowed at the age of 20, four years into her marriage. Her only child, son Rajiv, was three years old at the time.Awards and honours
In appreciation of his humanitarian work the British Government conferred on RP Saha the title of Ray BahadurRao Bahadur
Rao Bahadur was a title of honour issued in British India to individuals who had performed great service to the nation....
. In 1978 he was posthumously awarded the Independence day award
Independence Day Award
The Independence Day Award , also termed Independence Award , is the highest state award given by the government of Bangladesh. Introduced in 1977, this award is bestowed upon Bangladeshi citizens or organizations in recognition of substantial contribution to one of many fields, including the War...
by the Government of Bangladesh as a recognition of his social works.