India’s ‘living dead’ fight back

TO GO WITH: India-crime-death-land, FEATURE by Jalees AndrabiIn this photograph taken on June 22, 2015, Indian farmer Ram Janam Mauriya (R), who is struggling to prove to authorities that he is still alive after being declared dead by his younger brother, speaks with activist Lal Bihari Mritak in the Azamgarh district of the state of Uttar Pradesh. For the last two years Ramjanam Mauriya has made countless journeys to Azamgarh magistrates office in northern India, laden with stacks of documents to prove he is not a ghost. The 65-year-old is one of hundreds of people from the giant state of Uttar Pradesh who have been classified as deceased in official records as part of a plot by unscrupulous relatives to grab their land. AFP PHOTO / SANJAY KANOJIA

NEW DELHI: For the last two years Ramjanam Mauriya has made countless journeys to Azamgarh magistrate’s office in northern India, laden with stacks of documents to prove he is not a ghost.

“It’s frustrating. I am alive, yet they say I am dead,” Mauriya said.