Rash Bihari Lal Mandal

Raja Rash Bihari Lal Mandal (1866-1918) was a zamindar (Indian feudal lord) and a leader of Indian Independence Movement. He wrote a book named 'Bharat Mata Ka Sandesh' during the Bang Bhang (Partition of Bengal, present-day Bengal is divided between the independent state of Bangladesh or East Bengal and the Indian state of West Bengal) Movement 1905.

Biography He was born in 1866 as the only son of Raghubar Dayal Mandal, a Ahir zamindar of Murho Estate. He was only a few years old when his parents died. After which he was brought up by his maternal grandmother in Ranipatti. He studied till 11th standard and had knowledge of Hindi, Urdu, Maithili, Sanskrit, Persian, English, and French. At young age, he took control of the zamindari estate of Murho. He was married to Sitavati Mandal, they had three sons, Bhuvaneshwari Prasad Mandal, Kamleshwari Prasad Mandal and Bindheshwari Prasad Mandal.

Mandal was one of the founding members of the Congress Party in Bihar and had been an elected member of the Bihar Provincial Congress Committee and the All India Congress Committee from 1908 to 1918.

Rashbihari Lal was one of the few zamindar of Bihar to launch an attack on the British. He participated in many agitations against the British, due to which more than 120 cases were filed against him by the British. Despite being anti-British, In 1911, Rash Bihari Lal Mandal was given a prestigious place in the Delhi Durbar of Emperor George V's coronation in India.

In 1911, he founded the Gop Jatiya Mahasabha. Later the All-India Yadav Mahasabha was formed by merging the Gop Jatiye Mahasabha and other regional organization of Ahirs.

He died of illness on 26 August 1918 in Banaras, at the age of 52.