Saha, Ranadaprasad (1896-1971) entrepreneur, philanthropist and patron of learning. Better known as RP Saha, he hailed from Mirzapur under Tangail district. He was born on 15 November 1896 at his maternal uncle's house at Kachhur under Savar. Son of Debendranath and Kumudini Saha, Ranadaprasad came of a very poor family and could not have much education. He lost his mother at the age of seven and in his tender age had to suffer much. He fled home to Calcutta at the age of 16.

At the outbreak of the First World War he joined the Bengal Ambulance Corps and went first to Iraq and then to Karachi. As reward for his services rendered to the wounded, Ranadaprasad was commissioned in 1916 in the newly formed Bengal Regiment. After the war was over, he got an opportunity to meet George V. He, as war veteran got a service in the Indian Railway department. He, however, lost the job in 1932 and started a small business in salt and coal in Calcutta. Out of the profit he bought a ship named 'Bengal River'. Ranadaprasad was appointed one of the agents to buy food grains for the Government. He bought 3 powerhouses at Narayanganj, Mymensingh and Comilla and owned the 'George Anderson Company' of Narayanganj that used to make jute bales. He also started a leather business.

Ranadaprasad, now a fairly rich man, dedicated himself to the service of the suffering humanity. During the famine, 1943 he maintained 275 gruel houses to feed the hungry for 8 months. He established a charitable hospital at his native village Mirzapur on the river Lauhajang. On 27 July 1944 Mr Kessy, the Governor of Bengal, formally opened the 750-bed Kumudini Hospital.

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 'Bharateshwari Homes'. He also founded the 'Kumudini College' at Tangail in 1943 and the 'Debendra College' at Manikganj in 1944 to commemorate his mother and father respectively. Subsequently he set up the 'Mirzapur Pilot Boys' School', 'Mirzapur Pilot Girls' School', and 'Mirzapur Degree College'. The Maternity Wing of the Dhaka Combined Military Hospital was established with his financial support. In appreciation of his bounteousness the British Government conferred on RP Saha the title of 'Ray Bahadur'.

After the partition of 1947, RP Saha donated his entire property in the name of the 'Kumudini Welfare Trust' for the realisation of his ideal 'Education-Service-Unity-and-Peace'. On 7 May 1971 he was killed along with his son by the Pakistani occupation army. [Mir Shamsur Rahman]