Dead On Paper

the hard way. His name was Lal Bihari. In nineteen seventy seven, he was twenty two years old and getting ready to expand his small hand loom business. In order to apply for the bank loan, he traveled to his birth city to collect proof of identity. But when he met with his local village officer who controlled the documents, he got some shocking news. Lal Bahari was dead. The bureaucrat told him the official registry indicated that he had died just the previous year. When the surprise wore off,

Bihari started asking questions. This wasn't a joke and it wasn't an innocent clerical error either. Bihari would soon learn that he was the victim of a bizarre and sinister form of fraud. His own uncle had bribed public officials to falsely record Bihari's death, allowing Bihari's cousins to inherit a plot of ancestral land that should have gone to him.

The young businessman could accept the loss of the tiny plot of land, which didn't even amount to an acre, but being dead, just even on paper, presented a serious problem. If Bihari couldn't prove that he was in fact alive, he couldn't get the loans or licenses that he needed, and his business would never have a chance at success. As it turned out, getting the government to correct the records was more difficult than Bihari could have ever dreamed.

For several years, his letters to public officials went ignored, but rather than giving up, he became more determined to get the government to acknowledge his existence. So he started to cause trouble. Bihari interrupted a meeting of state legislators and had to be dragged out by guards. He intentionally got himself arrested and then ran for public office, all in an attempt to get his name on official records,

but none of that worked. Bihari threw himself a funeral and added the Hindi word for departed to his name. He also applied for widow's pension for his wife, but was denied without explanation. Bihari eventually became so frustrated that he resorted to kidnapping his cousin, the child of that uncle who had defrauded him. For five days, he took the boy to the movies, then waited to be arrested,

but the police never came. Bihari considered sending his uncle the boy's shirt soaked in goat's blood as a scare tactic, but he lost his nerve and sent his cousin home instead. Almost a decade after his crusade began, Bihari's cheeky spectacles finally got the attention of a journalist. His story was published in a state newspaper, but the government still did not act. Lal Bahari remained legally dead to the world. By this point, he learned that he was not alone

in his plight. He had met countless others who had been recorded dead in fraud schemes, usually by family members like his to champion their cause, he created the Association of Dead People. Under Bihari's leadership, the organization continued to organize protests and exert political pressure on the state government to address the epidemic of the living dead. For Bihari, at least, the story has a happy ending. In nineteen ninety four, the government finally hurt his complaints, changing its

registry to record him as alive. His ancestral land was officially returned, but Bihari decided to let his uncle's family keep it. It never had been about the land for him anyway. Bihari had been fighting for his life. He had lost almost two decades to the crusade, though, but he wasn't done yet. For years to come, Bihari continued to lead the Association for Dead People to raise awareness

for the organization. He actually ran for a seat in Parliament and did surprisingly well, and in two thousand and three he received these satirically named Ignobel Prize, honoring those who quote make people laugh and then make them think. Most recently, Bihari's life has become the subject of a Bollywood film, turning him into something of a celebrity. Not bad for a man who spent two decades dead on paper.

There's nothing like receiving the perfect gift. When a friend or loved one gets us something that really speaks to us, it makes us feel seen and appreciated. It doesn't matter if the gift was made by hand or bought in a store. It could be something as original as a handwritten poem or as classic as a fruit basket. But in nineteen sixty eight, some factory workers in China received

a gift unlike anything they had gotten before. This present took on such importance a cult soon emerged to venerate it. People bled and died for it. What was the gift Mangoes? It all started in nineteen sixty six, when Mao Zetung launched his Cultural Revolution, calling for workers and students to overthrow the bourgeois academic authorities across the country. Students banded

together in paramilitary groups known as the Red Guards. While the many factions that made up the Red Guards were loyal to Mao, they did not get along with each other. As the revolution took off, skirmishes between the groups became increasingly violent. Then, in the spring of nineteen sixty eight, the in fighting came to a head. At Singua University, fighting broke out between two rival Red Guard groups. Students

hurled spears, stones, and even acid at each other. The fighting wore on for several months before July twenty seventh, when Mao got fed up. He summoned thirty thousand Beijing factory workers and so them to intervene. The student Red Guards immediately turned on the workers, and the fierce battle broke out. The workers great numbers eventually prevailed, but not before five of their members were killed and over seven hundred were injured. The next day, Mao responded by officially

disbanding the Red Guards for good. To show his appreciation for the factory workers, he sent them a box of forty mangoes, which he had recently received as a gift from the Foreign Minister of Pakistan. Now, clearly, forty mangoes split between thirty thousand people might not seem like the most sincere thank you gift, especially after what the workers had been through, But the fruit wasn't common in China at that point, and few of the workers had ever

seen them before, let alone tasted them. They may even have believed that the mangoes were peaches of immortality, an important fruit from Chinese legends. One of their most memorable appearances comes from the Journey to the West, where the mischievous Monkey King steals and consumes an orchard full of the magical peaches, causing his power to increase many times over. The workers were amazed by the gift and responded by

praising Chairman Mao's limitless generosity. Rather than attempting to divide the mangoes up amongst themselves, they decided to preserve the fruit so that everyone could appreciate them. The mangoes were submerged in formaldehyde, taken through the country, and paraded through the streets. Within months, mangoes took on a cult like status across China. Wax replicas were created and distributed. Images of mangoes began to appear in communist artwork. A massive

mango adorned float became the centerpiece of the National Day parade. Meanwhile, anyone who disrespected the mangoes were severely punished. One dentist was executed for simply suggesting that they looked like boring old sweet potatoes. Eventually, the mango mania dwindled, then died when Mao passed away in nineteen seventy six, but for a brief period, mangoes served as an unexpected but potent

symbol for the promises of the Cultural Revolution. For centuries, China's emperors had been viewed as semi divine figures, benevolent envoys of heaven who had stepped out of myth to rule over mortals. By calling back to the peaches of immortality, Mao had once again transformed myth into reality, only this time the power of heaven had been handed over to the common people. It's hard to say for sure whether

Mao expected the extreme reaction to his gift. Supposedly he disliked mango's which would explain why he regifted the fruit. Most likely, he never guessed that by sending them to the workers, he would effectively transform ancient Chinese myth into communist propaganda. And it just goes to show the impact that a single sweet gesture can make. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the

show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. This show was created by me Aaron Manke in partnership with how Stuff Works, I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show and you can learn all about it over at Theworldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.