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{{EngvarB|date=September 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ranadaprasad Shaha
| native_name = রণদাপ্রসাদ সাহা
| image = Ranada_Prasad_Saha.jpg
| image_size =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1896|11|15|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Savar]], [[Dhaka district]], [[Bengal Presidency]], [[British India]]
| death_date = {{death year and age|1971|1896}}
| death_place = Bangladesh
| occupation = Businessman
| nationality = Bangladeshi
}}

'''Ranadaprasad Shaha''' (also '''RP Shaha'''; 15 November 1896 – May 1971) was a Bangladeshi businessman and philanthropist.<ref name=Banglapedia>{{cite book |last=Huq |first=Muhammad Lutful |year=2012 |chapter=Saha, Ranada Prasad |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Saha,_Ranada_Prasad |editor1-last=Islam |editor1-first=Sirajul |editor1-link=Sirajul Islam |editor2-last=Jamal |editor2-first=Ahmed A. |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |edition=Second |publisher=[[Asiatic Society of Bangladesh]]}}</ref> He founded educational institutes like [[Bharateswari Homes]], [[Kumudini College]] and [[Government Debendra College|Debendra College]]. During the [[Bangladesh Liberation War]], he was picked up from home by the [[Pakistani army]] on 7 May 1971 and never returned.

== Early life ==
Saha was born on 15 November 1896.<ref name=legend>{{cite news|url=http://www.thedailystar.net/business/legend-philanthropy-1222222|title=A legend in philanthropy|date=12 May 2016 |last1= Rahman|first1= Md Atikur |last2=Shemul |first2=Iqbal Hossain |accessdate=12 May 2016|newspaper=The Daily Star}}</ref> Debendranath Podder, Saha's father, originated from [[Mirzapur]] in [[Tangail District|Tangail subdivision]] in [[Mymensingh District]]. Saha 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 day labourer, rickshaw-puller and hawker.<ref name=legend/>

== Career ==
Saha joined the Bengal Ambulance Corps and went to the [[World War I]]. He left Kolkata in 1915 for [[Mesopotamia]]. He earned a medal and citation from [[George V|King George the Fifth]] for his distinctive performance.
As a reward for his services rendered to the wounded, he was commissioned in 1916 in the newly formed Bengal Regiment. He got a job in the Indian Railway department as a war veteran. He received "Sword of Honour" award for saving some British officers from a camp fire. After serving for about five years, Shaha retired from the army and served British Railway as a ticket collector until 1931.<ref name=legend/>

In 1932, he started his coal business. He later acquired a dealership for coal business in [[Kolkata]]. In four years, he became a well-established coal businessman in Kolkata.
He diversified his business in different sectors including passenger launch, river transport, dockyard, food grain, and jute. He bought a ship named ''Bengal River''.<ref name=Banglapedia/> He 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.<ref name=Banglapedia/>

=== Philanthropy ===
In 1938, Saha founded a [[charitable hospital]] at his native village Mirzapur on the river Lauhajang. On 27 July 1944 the hospital which had 20 beds was opened by [[Richard Casey, Baron Casey]], the then [[Governor of Bengal]].<ref name=BP2>{{cite book |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Kumudini_Hospital |author=Hena Sultana |editor=Sirajul Islam|chapter=Kumudini Hospital|title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh|publisher=[[Asiatic Society of Bangladesh]]}}</ref> 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 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.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

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 to [[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 [[Government Debendra College|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.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

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 jute baling press and a river transportation business, being used to run the welfare activities.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

The full extent of his philanthropic activities is not known even by his own family. In 1944, he donated BDT {{formatnum:250000}} 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.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

== 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 Army|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 Ranadaprasad Saha remained a mystery as his body was never found, and neither was his son's.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Khairuzzaman|first1=Z.A.M.|title=Mayar Khela staged on Ranada's birthday|url=http://archive.thedailystar.net/newDesign/story.php?nid=63760|work=The Daily Star|accessdate=11 July 2022}}</ref>

== Awards and honours ==
In appreciation of his humanitarian work the British Government conferred on Saha the title of [[Rai Bahadur]].<ref name=Banglapedia/> In 1978, he was posthumously awarded the [[Independence day award]] by the Government of Bangladesh as a recognition of his social works.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110904002818/http://www.kumudinibd.org/ Kumudini Welfare Trust of Bengal (BD) Limited website]
* {{cite journal|journal=APPC Post|publisher=Asia Pacific Philanthropy Consortium|url=http://www.asiapacificphilanthropy.org/node/40/perspectives|volume=May 2007|title=In the Spotlight: The Kumudini Welfare Trust of Bengal, a sustainable philanthropy model}}

{{1971 Bangladesh genocide}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saha, Ranadaprasad}}
[[Category:1896 births]]
[[Category:1971 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Dhaka]]
[[Category:Bengali Hindus]]
[[Category:Bangladeshi Hindus]]
[[Category:Bangladeshi philanthropists]]
[[Category:People killed in the Bangladesh Liberation War]]
[[Category:Rai Bahadurs]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Independence Day Award]]
[[Category:20th-century philanthropists]]

Ranada Prasad Saha - Revision history

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