Cheddi Berret Jagan (22 March 1918 – 6 March 1997) was a Guyanese politician and dentist who was first elected

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

in 1953 and later Premier of British Guiana from 1961 to 1964. He later served as

President of Guyana The president of Guyana is the head of state and the head of government of Guyana, as well as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Republic, according to the Constitution of Guyana. The president is also the chancellor of the Or ...

from 1992 to his death in 1997. Jagan is widely regarded in Guyana as the ''

Father of the Nation The Father of the Nation is an honorific title given to a person considered the driving force behind the establishment of a country, state, or nation. (plural ), also seen as , was a Roman honorific meaning the "Father of the Fatherland", best ...

''.Larry Rohter
"Cheddi Jagan, Guyana's Founder, Dies at 78"
''The New York Times'', 7 March 1997. In 1953, he became the first

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

and person of Indian descent to be a

head of government The head of government is the highest or the second-highest official in the executive branch of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, ...

outside of the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

Early life

Cheddi Berret (Bharat) Jagan was born on 22 March 1918 in Ankerville,

Port Mourant Port Mourant is a town on the Atlantic coast in East Berbice-Corentyne, Guyana. It is the birthplace of the late president Cheddi Jagan as well as many of Guyana's most famous cricketers. Port Mourant was originally a sugar estate. Many residents ...

, a rural village in the county of Berbice (present-day

East Berbice-Corentyne East Berbice-Corentyne (Region 6) is one of ten regions in Guyana covering the whole of the east of the country. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the north, the Nickerie District and Sipaliwini District of Suriname to the east, Brazil to the so ...

). He was the eldest of 11 children. His parents were

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

s who were

Kurmi Kurmi is traditionally a non-elite tiller caste in the lower Gangetic plain of India, especially southern regions of Awadh, eastern Uttar Pradesh and parts of Bihar. The Kurmis came to be known for their exceptional work ethic, superior til ...

Hindus Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

that emigrated from

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

to British Guiana as indentured labourers. They were both from the

Basti district Basti district is one of the districts of Uttar Pradesh state, India, and a part of Basti Division. Basti city is the district headquarters. Origin of name and history Basti was originally known as Vaishishthi. The origin of the name Vaishi ...

in the then

North-Western Provinces The North-Western Provinces was an administrative region in British India. The North-Western Provinces were established in 1836, through merging the administrative divisions of the Ceded and Conquered Provinces. In 1858, the nawab-ruled kingdo ...

in the

Awadh Awadh (), known in British historical texts as Avadh or Oudh, is a region in the modern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, which was before independence known as the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. It is synonymous with the Kośāla region of ...

and

Bhojpuri region The Bhojpuri region or Bhojpur is an area encompassing parts of the Indian states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand, and the Madhesh, Gandaki and Lumbini provinces of Nepal, where the Bhojpuri language is spoken as a mother tongue. His ...

s of the

Hindi Belt The Hindi Belt, also known as the Hindi Heartland, is a linguistic region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern and western India where various Central Indo-Aryan languages subsumed under the term 'Hindi' (for example, by the ...

North India North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...

(in present-day

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

). His mother Bachaoni came to British Guiana as a child with her mother, while his father Jagan also came as a child with his mother and brother. Both his mother's and father's family immigrated to British Guiana aboard the ''Elbe'' in 1901; his father being 2 years old and his mother 18 months when they arrived. His father's family were indentured to Albion Estate and his mother's family was indentured to Port Mourant Estate.https://jagan.org/Biography/CJ%20Bio/cj_biography3.html The Jagan family lived in rural poverty, working in the cane fields to support themselves. His mother had worked on the estate till Jagan was nine years old. His father had worked his way up to become head driver on the estate, but it didn't amount to much change in pay, and he had to retire at fifty due to his health. When Jagan was fifteen years old, his father sent him to Queen's College in the capital city of Georgetown (about away) for the next three years. In Georgetown, Jagan saw life differently, as he came from a different background than that of his schoolmates. After he graduated from high school, Jagan realized that finding a non-

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

job would be impossible. Finally, his father sent him to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

to study dentistry with $500, the family's life savings.

Education and early career

Jagan left for the United States in September 1936 with two friends, and did not return to British Guiana until October 1943. He lived in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

for two years, enrolled in a pre-dental course at

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

. To cover his expenses, Jagan took a job as an

elevator operator An elevator operator (North American English), liftman (in Commonwealth English, usually lift attendant), or lift girl (in British English), is a person specifically employed to operate a manually operated elevator. Description Being an effec ...

. During the summers, he worked in New York as a

door-to-door Door-to-door is a canvassing technique that is generally used for sales, marketing, advertising, evangelism or campaigning, in which the person or persons walk from the door of one house to the door of another, trying to sell or advertise a pro ...

salesman. Jagan's performance helped him to win a scholarship for his second year at Howard. In 1938, he was admitted to the four-year dental program at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Political career

Early political career

Jagan co-founded the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) in 1946, and was subsequently elected to the Legislative Council in November 1947 as an independent candidate from Central Demerara constituency. On 1 January 1950, the People's Progressive Party (PPP) was founded by a merger of the PAC and the British Guiana Labour Party (BGLP), with Jagan as its leader, former BGLP leader

Forbes Burnham Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham (20 February 1923 – 6 August 1985) was a Guyanese politician and the leader of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana from 1964 until his death in 1985. He served as Prime Minister of Guyana, Prime Minister from 1964 ...

as its chairman and Jagan's wife Janet as secretary.History of the PPP
PPP website.

Head of State of Guyana

Jagan won

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative ...

in 1953. However,

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

expressed alarm creating baseless fears that Jagan was a Marxist-Leninist, and also claimed Jagan could allow the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

a foothold in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

. In fact, there is no evidence whatsoever that Jagan had any ties to any foreign communist or revolutionary groups. But still, the fears prompted a British military intervention only days after his victory. Jagan resigned as

after 133 days. Britain suspended the constitution and installed an

interim government A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, or a transitional government, is an emergency governmental authority set up to manage a political transition generally in the cases of a newly formed state or f ...

. Jagan's movements were restricted to Georgetown from 1954 to 1957. After a PPP victory in the August 1961 elections, Jagan became Chief Minister for a second time, serving for three years. In the December 1964 elections, the PPP won a plurality of votes, but Burnham's party, the People's National Congress, and the conservative United Force held a majority of seats and were invited to form the government. However, Jagan refused to resign, and had to be removed by

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Richard Luyt Sir Richard Edmonds Luyt (8 November 1915 – 12 February 1994) was the colonial Governor of British Guiana in 1964–66. He installed Forbes Burnham of the People's National Congress (PNC) as premier of a coalition government with a small bu ...

. Nohlen, D (2005) ''Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I'', p355 Having broken off links with Burnham, Jagan was active in the government as a labour activist and leader of the opposition. He was elected as Leader of the Opposition and Minority Leader 1966-1973 and 1976-1992.Historical information events and dates on the Parliament of Guyana from 1718 to 2009
Parliament of Guyana After 28 years in opposition, the PPP won the 5 October 1992 elections with about 54% of the vote, and Jagan became President. Contrary to earlier foreign fears, he governed as a

democratic socialist Democratic socialism is a left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within ...

and not a Marxist–Leninist.

Personal life

After graduating from dental school in 1942, Jagan met Janet Rosenberg, a student nurse. They married in 1943, and had two children: Nadira and Cheddi Jr. (who in turn produced five grandchildren). Janet Jagan followed her husband's footsteps and held the positions of prime minister and president in 1997 (succeeded as president by

Bharrat Jagdeo Bharrat Jagdeo (born 23 January 1964) is a Guyanese politician who has been serving as Vice President of Guyana since 2020, in the administration of President Irfaan Ali. He had previously also held the office from 1997 until 1999, during the pr ...

in 1999).

Death and legacy

Jagan suffered a heart attack on 15 February 1997 and was taken to Georgetown Hospital before being flown by U.S. military aircraft then by U.S. Air Force helicopter from Andrews Air Force Base"In the Americas", ''The Miami Herald'' (nl.newsbank.com), 16 February 1997. to

Walter Reed Army Hospital The Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC)known as Walter Reed General Hospital (WRGH) until 1951was the U.S. Army's flagship medical center from 1909 to 2011. Located on in the District of Columbia, it served more than 150,000 active and ret ...

, later that day. He underwent heart surgery there and died in Washington on 6 March 1997, 16 days before his 79th birthday. Prime Minister

Sam Hinds Samuel Archibald Anthony Hinds (born 27 December 1943) is a Guyanese politician who was Prime Minister of Guyana almost continuously from 1992 to 2015. He also briefly served as President of Guyana in 1997. He was awarded Guyana's highest nat ...

succeeded him as President and declared six days of mourning, describing Jagan as the "greatest son and patriot that has ever walked this land". The Cheddi Jagan Research Centre in Georgetown celebrates his life and work, complete with a replication of his office. The centre is located in the Red House which served as Jagan's official residence from 1961 to 1964. The Cheddi Jagan International Airport, the largest and primary international airport of the country, has been renamed after Jagan.

Selected publications

Jagan was also an important political author and speechwriter, and his publications include: * ''Forbidden Freedom: The Story of British Guiana'' (Hansib, 1954) * ''The West On Trial: My Fight for Guyana's Freedom'' (Harpy, 1966) * ''The Caribbean Revolution'' (1979) * ''The Caribbean: Whose Backyard?'' (1984) * ''Selected Speeches 1992–1994'' (Hansib, 1995) * ''The USA in South America'' (Hansib, 1998) * ''A New Global Human Order'' (Harpy, 1999) * ''Selected Correspondences 1953–1965'' (Dido Press, 2004)

References

External links

Cheddi Jagan Research Centre
an informational site maintained by Jagan's daughter, Nadira Jagan-Brancier.

at marxists.org
Cheddi Jagan Timeline
Posted at Center for Cooperative Research
"An Appreciation of Dr. Cheddi Jagan"
Indo Caribbean World, 12 March 1997. {{DEFAULTSORT:Jagan, Cheddi 1918 births 1997 deaths Alumni of Queen's College, Guyana Guyanese democracy activists Guyanese Hindus Howard University alumni Indo-Guyanese people Leaders of political parties People's Progressive Party (Guyana) politicians Guyanese politicians of Indian descent Presidents of Guyana Foreign ministers of Guyana Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Recipients of the Order of the Companions of O. R. Tambo People from East Berbice-Corentyne Northwestern University Dental School alumni