Ranadaprasad Saha

Rai Bahadur Ranada Prasad Saha (, ; 15 November 1896 – May 1971), also known as R. P. Saha, was a Bengali businessman, entrepreneur, soldier, philanthropist, social worker, and humanitarian. He founded educational institutes like Bharateswari Homes, Kumudini College, Kumudini Hospital, and Debendra College. On 7 May 1971, the collaborators of the Pakistani army abducted RP Saha and his son Bhavani Prasad Saha from Mirzapur, and no news about their whereabouts has been unearthed till now.

Early life Shaha was born on 15 November 1896. Debendranath Podder, Shaha's father, originated from Mirzapur in Tangail subdivision of Mymensingh District. Shaha was born in his maternal uncle's house at Kachhur in Savar, near Dhaka. At the age of seven, he lost his mother, Kumudini Devi, who died of tetanus during childbirth. At the age of sixteen, he fled to Kolkata and initially worked as a canteen boy and hawker. Saha 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. During the famine of 1943–1944, he maintained 275 gruel houses to feed the hungry for 8 months. 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 doctors 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 Bharateswari Homes. It has 1200 seats as of 2010 and is renowned 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 Debendra College at Manikganj District in 1944 to commemorate his mother and father, respectively. He also set up the Mirzapur Pilot Boys' School, Mirzapur Pilot Girls' School, and Mirzapur Degree College.

In 1947, 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 a 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 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.

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. The death of Ranada Prasad Saha remained a mystery, as his body was never found, and neither was his son's.

Awards and honours In appreciation of his humanitarian work, the British government conferred on Saha the title of Rai Bahadur. In 1978, he was posthumously awarded the Independence Award by the government of Bangladesh as a recognition of his social works.

State honours