Background
Bhadase Maraj was born in Trinidad & Tobago in 1919. he was the son of a leader of a Hindu faction in the sugar belt.
Bhadase Maraj was born in Trinidad & Tobago in 1919. he was the son of a leader of a Hindu faction in the sugar belt.
Was only minimally educated, but he amassed a fortune after World War II through disposal of surplus war goods from American military bases on the island.
He was first elected to political office in 1950, as an independent. In 1953 he formed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and by 1955 it was the best organized and most powerful political organization in the country. In 1953 Maraj became president general of the Federation of Sugar Workers and Cane Farmers, which represented the sugar workers of the country, the majority of whom were Hindus.
Postponement of general elections from 1955 to 1956 allowed the formation and consolidation of the Peoples National Movement (PNM) under Dr. Eric Williams. The emergence of this party, the economically and politically conservative policies of Maraj, and his strong Hindu identity resulted in deteat of the PDP in the elections of 1956.
Cognizant of his narrow political base. Maraj agreed to enter into an alliance for the 1958 elections for the West Indies Parliament. This effort, initiated by Sir William Alexander Bustamante of Jamaica, was a confederation of national parties within the Parliament of the West Indies Federation. Maraj entered the new Trinidadian unit, the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), of the confederal coalition.
Maraj left the DLP in 1971 to form the Democratic Liberation Party. He decided to contest the elections called in 1971 by a government recovering from a period of intense civil opposition, when almost all the rest of the political opposition called for a boycott of the elections. Maraj’s political demise was made evident when his new party garnered support from only 4.22 percent of registered voters.