Bhadase Maraj

Bhadase Sagan Maraj was born into a Brahmin Hindu Indo-Trinidadian family in Caroni Village in the county of Caroni in central Trinidad. His parents were Baboonie and Matthew Sagan Maraj. His father, Matthew Sagan Maraj, was a devout Hindu, the mukhiya (village head) of Caroni Village, and a leader in the Hindu community of central Trinidad.[11] At the time there was much tension between Hindu and Muslim Indo-Trinidadians in Caroni, and when Maraj was thirteen years old his father had been shot and killed by a Muslim gang while he was on his hammock on the porch of his home reading the Bhagawad Gita.[12][13] His uncle was also killed when a Muslim gang had tied him to a stone and threw him into the Caroni River. After his father's death, Maraj went to live with his aaji (paternal grandmother). Many attempts were made on Maraj's life, so he took up wrestling and by the age of twenty he became an accomplished wrestler. He had attended the Caroni Canadian Mission School[14] and the Pamphylian High School in Tunapuna.[15][16]

Maraj started off to his first million dollars by digging sand for construction purposes in the Caroni River.

This was only the beginning, for soon the young Maraj had bought a truck and was in the transport business. The advent of the Second World War and the arrival of the American Armed Forces in the British colony threw Maraj into the big league.

He was one of the biggest contractors on the American naval base at Chaguaramas and when the order came for the Americans to pull out their task force from that country, Maraj was able to buy out large areas of the base that were being deactivated. Maraj was not yet 30 when he counted his first million dollars. This was a real rags to riches story. From then on there was no stopping him, for Maraj was now equipped to fight the Hindu and Indian cause. When Maraj was elected to the Legislative Council in 1950 there was no Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha. Hindu schools were only a dream and illiteracy among Hindus was about 50%.

Maraj's guru was Pundit Basdeo Misir.[17]

In early 1952, the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha was formed and this organisation was given permission to build and operate their own schools and with his typical bravado, Bhadase declared "By September, we will have six: schools." The cynics laughed because Maha Sabha did not even have a plan for a school but Bhadase was as good as his word. September saw the establishment of six Hindu Schools. The story did not end there for Bhadase had the Hindus mobilised and on the move.

Hindu schools were mushrooming everywhere to the charge that Bhadase was building cowshed schools, which were unhealthy and physically unfit for children to be educated, he declared, "It is better to have a child receive an education in a cowshed than none at all". The then government arranged to assist and fund the building and operations of Hindu and other religious schools in Trinidad and Tobago.

He was elected to the Legislative Council in 1950, founded the People's Democratic Party, and later merged it into the Democratic Labour Party, which he led between 1958 and 1960 (when he lost control of the party to Rudranath Capildeo). Bhadase (as he was most widely known) continued to be active in politics until his death, often opposing Capildeo and other members of the DLP. After Capildeo's Chaguanas seat was declared vacant in 1967 Bhadase won the seat in a by-election boycotted by the DLP.

The year 1958 saw Bhadase Maraj at the pinnacle of his glory. He had just won the Federal Election with his newly formed Democratic Labour Party. His sugar union, All Trinidad, was strong and vibrant. The Hindus were now riding high. But the mighty physique of Bhadase soon succumbed to ill health. The strenuous battle of the 1958 Federal Election had by then taken its toll. In 1959, the cry was soon heard, "Bhadase is dying." His supporters deserted him and his opponents rejoiced.

Bhadase was able to survive this first bout of illness but he was never again the same driving and dynamic Hindu force. And when he finally died on 21 October 1971 the headlines screamed, "WILL THE MAHA SABHA SURVIVE BHADASE?"

When the DLP boycotted the 1971 General Elections Bhadase organised the Democratic Liberation Party to contest the election, but all of his candidates were defeated when the DLP leadership brought out their supporters to vote for the People's National Movement candidates rather than see Bhadase's party win. He died several months after the election. His son-in-law, Satnarayan Maharaj succeeded him as the de facto leader of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha.

Bhadase Maraj was first married at the age of fifteen to Vijanti Maraj, however the marriage did not last long because Vijanti Maraj's father took her back home fearing for her life due to the constant threat on Bhadase Maraj's life. Maraj was married two more times. He had a total of seven children, including his daughter Shanti Maharaj who was married to Satnarayan Maharaj, who went on to succeed him as the leader of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha. After Satnarayan Maharaj's death in November 2019, Vijay Maharaj, who was the son of Satnarayan Maharaj and grandson of Bhadase Maraj, took over as the acting leader of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha.[18]

Today after his death, the Maha Sabha to which he devoted so much of his life and personal wealth still lives on trying to provide the Hindu leadership which Maraj gave them during the nineteen-fifties. The greatest obituary to Big Bhadase came from Augustus Ramrekarsingh who wrote in the Trinidad Express on 21 October 1971 "More than any other single individual, Bhadase made the Indians proud of their heritage in a society which was Christian and Afro-Saxon, hence hostile to them."

• Sam Pope Brewer (11 February 1955). "Race Issue Curbs West Indian Ties; Parley of the British Colonies in Caribbean to Study Factor Hampering Federation". The New York Times.
• Robert M. Hallett (1 February 1957). "'Learning to Be West Indians' – Intermarriage Banned". The Christian Science Monitor. (via ProQuest archive)