Lal Bihari, a farmer form Uttar Pradesh India, officially declared dead, fought with Indian Government and bureaucracy from 1976 to 2004 to prove that he is alive. One of his failed attempt included standing for election against Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India, in 1989. He lost the elections and remained officially dead. He founded ‘association of the dead’ that has over 20,000 members today. As of 2004, 4 of these members have been declared alive including Lal Bihari.
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.
