Bhadase Sagan Maraj

Bhadase Sagan Maraj (pronounced [bʰəd̪eːsə səɡənə mərəɟə]; 29 February 1920 – 21 October 1971) was a Trinidad and Tobago politician, Hindu leader, civil rights activist, trade unionist, landowner, businessman, philanthropist, wrestler, and writer.

He founded the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha in 1952, which grew to be the largest and most influential Hindu organization in Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean.

[14] Maraj's paternal grandparents were Jasoda and Ramsubhag Misir, who were from the village of Chateya in Basti district in the then North-Western Provinces in the Awadh and Bhojpuri regions of the Hindi Belt in North India (in present-day Uttar Pradesh, India).

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.

The then government arranged to assist and fund the building and operations of Hindu and other religious schools in Trinidad and Tobago.

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.

In 1958 Bhadase Maraj won the Federal Election with his newly formed Democratic Labour Party.

His son-in-law, Satnarayan Maharaj succeeded him as the de facto leader of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha.

[24] 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 Shri Bhadase Sagan Maraj Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College is named after him.