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Indian man fights 18 years to prove he's alive

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October 25, 2000 

LUCKNOW (AP) - Lal Behari threw leaflets into the state legislature, ran in parliamentary elections, staged a kidnapping and got himself arrested - all to prove he was, in fact, alive.

For 18 years, Behari battled the courts, government, and his relatives to show he was not dead. But government authorities would not take his physical presence as evidence enough.

While fighting his case, Behari found at least 100 other people in the region were in the same predicament. He established the "Uttar Pradesh Association of the Dead" in 1980, and the group appealed to the Allahabad High Court and the National Human Rights Commission for help.

Behari was declared officially alive by the district magistrate of his hometown, Azamgarh, in 1994. "It took nearly two decades to make the authorities accept that he was in fact alive and that his land could not be taken away, treating him as dead," the Human Rights Commission said in a report on Behari's case.

Sixteen other cases were redressed by state authorities acting under the court's order. But several dozen people are still fighting to prove they are alive.

The problem usually arises in property disputes, when relatives or others connive with local officials to alter records, declaring that a property owner is dead. Widows have traditionally been victimized by their husbands' families in such cases. Under India's ponderous bureaucracy it can take years, and lots of money, to get the records corrected.

Until 1975, Behari ran a thriving business selling silk saris, the traditional attire of Indian women. But a year later, a family dispute erupted over property and Behari discovered that he had been pronounced dead in official records. His cousin had arranged with officials to alter land revenue documents showing Behari had died, and the cousin had inherited the family property.

All efforts to correct the wrong failed.

"I even kidnapped my own cousin, asked my wife to claim the widow allowance, threw leaflets into the Uttar Pradesh assembly on Sept. 9, 1986. Even though I was arrested, the revenue records remained the same," he said in an interview.

Once his land was restored, however, Behari said he gave it back to the cousin.

"It was a slap in the face," Behari said. "I did not fight for land but against the system. Through the association I am fighting for a common cause and the fight goes on."

Paltan Yadav, whose relatives forged revenue records to declare him dead, was carried through town last year by four other members of the association in a mock funeral procession. At intervals, Yadav would rise up and shout "Save me. I'm alive."

A banner blaming the land revenue department hung next to Yadav's bier. Behari says the plan worked, and local officials were embarrassed into correcting Yadav's records.

Many of those who manage to have themselves declared alive still must fight to regain physical control of their property.

Computerizing land records would stop local officials from falsifying documents in small towns, said Punkaj Agarwal, the senior official in the state's Department of Electronics. He said the process had begun and would extend to the entire state - "which will stop all this nuisance."