[4] Cheddi Berret (Anglicized corruption of "Bharat") Jagan was born on 22 March 1918 in Ankerville, Port Mourant, a rural village in the county of Berbice (present-day East Berbice-Corentyne).

His father had worked his way up to become head driver on the estate, but it did not amount to much change in pay, and he had to retire at 50 due to ill health.

Upon graduation, Jagan found his employment options in Guyana limited to agricultural work or converting to Christianity and becoming a teacher, so his father sent him to the United States to study dentistry[7] with $500, the family's life savings, so that he would not end up in the cane fields and he would not have to compromise his Hindu faith.

[11][7] On 27 April 1953, Jagan won the 1953 British Guiana general election, with his PPP party winning 18 of 24 seats.

Jagan encouraged strike action against important sugar company Booker, refused to send a delegation to the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, repealed a law on "undesirable publications" passed by the colonial government, and repealed another law banning immigration of politically left-leaning individuals from the West Indies.

[11] Taking place in the middle of Second Red Scare and McCarthyism, Jagan's actions and policies led to British worries about a possible communist revolution in Guyana.

"[11] Declassified documents from MI5 show that the intelligence service concluded that the party were "not receiving any financial support from any communist organisation outside the country".

On 9 October, a contingent of Royal Welsh Fusiliers arrived in Georgetown on HMS Superb, and Jagan was dismissed from his position[11] and arrested.

Jagan appealed to British Labour leader Clement Attlee, who responded "Regret impossible to intervene.

[20] During his time in the United Kingdom, both Jagan and Burnham were subject to covert surveillance by American[21] and British intelligence services.

[14] During this period of time, colonial police would routinely raid the residences of senior members of the party to seize subversive literature.

In 1954, Jagan was sentenced to 6 months in prison with hard labour for violating a restriction on his movement, travelling to the countryside and as a result leaving Georgetown.

[11] Senior member of the party Forbes Burnham split with Jagan politically in 1955, dividing the PPP into two separate factions named "Burnhamite" and "Jaganite".

However, the split was not entirely racial; prominent Afro-Guyanese politician Sydney King remained in the Jaganite faction, and Indo-Guyanese J.B. Lachmansingh supported Burnham.

[23] However, Sydney King and Afro-Guyanese Martin Carter and Rory Westmaas would both leave the party one year later due to being "ultra-leftist".

Following this outcome, the Burnhamite faction split entirely from the PPP, and Burnham founded the People's National Congress (PNC).

[25] The PPP government did not have possession of the Ministries of Finance, Foreign Affairs or Administration, and power resided mostly with the Governor, Ralph Grey.

Similarly, Burnham merged the PNC with the United Democratic Party to consolidate his grip on middle class Afro-Guyanese support.

Advised by economist Nicholas Kaldor, on 31 January 1962 the PPP government proposed an increase in tax and import duty which was opposed by opposition parties.

British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan summoned the three main Guyanese political leaders (Jagan, Forbes Burnham and Peter D'Aguiar)[31] to London[7] where Colonial Secretary Duncan Sandys announced the holding of fresh elections[31] (previously the agreement was that independence would be granted before any further elections were called),[7] a delay in the date of independence from 1963 to 1964, and a change in the electoral system from first-past-the-post to proportional representation.

[31] Jagan agreed to elections in 1964 under proportional representation, but John Prados posits that this was only because he received assurances from Forbes Burnham that a coalition between the two parties would be acceptable.

[7] Starting in 1975, the PPP began a period of closer collaboration with Burnham's PNC, offering "critical support" when the PNC pushed for pro-socialist policies and was under the pressure of Venezuelan border claims, as well as proposing a national government with the PPP forming part of the ruling party in 1977.

Influenced by Jimmy Carter, Hoyte would put forward electoral reforms which would lead to the 1992 elections being internationally recognised as free and fair.

[24] Political rival Forbes Burnham in 1957 classified Jagan and his allies as "dogmatists whose aim is communism and who abuse everyone with whom they do not agree".

[3] Jagan and his wife shared a lifelong friendship with Billy Strachan, a leading British communist and a pioneer of black civil rights in Britain.

Clem Seecharan characterised Jagan as a man of integrity, "who did not steal and never construed the political vocation as a means of amassing wealth".

However, Seecharan would also accuse Jagan of ideological inflexibility and an "apparent inability to comprehend or empathise with African insecurities".

Prime Minister Sam Hinds succeeded him as president and declared six days of mourning, describing Jagan as the "greatest son and patriot that has ever walked this land".

[citation needed] He had a state funeral in Georgetown and his cremation was at the Babu John (Jan) Crematorium in his hometown of Port Mourant.

[63][64] In contrast, PNC member and at the time Minister of Social Cohesion Amna Ally in a 2015 speech named Forbes Burnham the "Father of the Nation".