Rudranath Capildeo was born on 2 February 1920 into a Brahmin Hindu Indo-Trinidadian family at Anand Bhavan (translation: Mansion of Eternal Bliss; aka Lion House) on the Main Road in the city of Chaguanas in Caroni County in the then British-ruled Trinidad and Tobago.

His conduct of the last pre-independence electoral campaign, in 1961, was also unusual, beginning with his declaration that because he understood Einstein he could "compress the time" necessary to undo what the sitting government had done.

Not only did Capildeo produce many significant mathematical theories and a book on Vector Algebra and Mechanics in 1967, he also studied law in London in 1956.

He founded and led the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) in 1960, and became Leader of the Opposition in the Trinidad & Tobago Parliament (1960–67).

The Rudranath Capildeo Learning Resource Centre (RCLRC) is located in McBean Village, Couva, Trinidad.

He was the younger brother of Simbhoonath Capildeo, brother-in-law of Seepersad Naipaul, uncle of Nobel Prize-winning author V.S.