Basdeo Panday

Basdeo Panday (25 May 1933 – 1 January 2024) was a Trinidadian and Tobagonian statesman, lawyer, politician, trade unionist, economist, and actor who served as the fifth Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago from 1995 to 2001.

He was the first person of Indian descent along with being the first Hindu to hold the office of Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago.

Basdeo Panday was born on 25 May 1933, in St. Julien Village, Princes Town, British Trinidad and Tobago into an Indo-Trinidadian family to Kissoondaye and Harry "Chote" Sookchand Panday.

He was the oldest of five children born to his parents and, through his father, he had two elder half-sisters and one younger half-sister.

His parents and grandparents were immigrants from British India who immigrated to Trinidad as indentured labourers under the Indian indenture system.

He later worked as a sugarcane weigher at the Williamsville Estate near Princes Town for one crop season in 1951.

He then worked as a primary school teacher at Seereram Memorial Vedic School in Montrose, Chaguanas, and at St. Clement Vedic School at the St. Clement Junction in St. Madeleine.

He was also a civil servant at the San Fernando Magistrate's Court where he took notes for Magistrate Churchill Johnson, Magistrate Errol Roopnarine, and Magistrate Noor Mohamed Hassanali, who would go on to be the President of Trinidad and Tobago during Panday's term as prime minister.

In 1957, Panday left Trinidad and Tobago to go to the United Kingdom to further his education.

He obtained a diploma in drama from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1960 and a degree in law in 1962 from Inns of Court School of Law where he was a member of Lincoln's Inn and was subsequently called to the bar.

He also appeared in several acting roles, including Nine Hours to Rama (1963), The Winston Affair (1964), and The Brigand of Kandahar (1965).

He also received a Bachelor of Science from the University of London as an external student in 1965, majoring in economics and minoring in political science.

While in the United Kingdom, Panday worked as a laborer on a building site, a clerk at the London County Council, and an electrician to support himself through university.

In 1965, he was awarded a Commonwealth scholarship to go to the Delhi School of Economics in India to pursue a post-graduate degree in economics and political science; however, he turned down the offer and returned to Trinidad and Tobago in 1965 to practice law because of family commitments and the changing political situation in the newly independent Trinidad and Tobago.

Panday's political career began in 1965, when he joined the Workers and Farmers Party and made an unsuccessful run for Parliament.

In 1972, he was appointed as an opposition senator for the Democratic Labour Party.

The following year he was recruited to the All Trinidad Sugar Estates and Factory Workers Union.

He staged an internal coup, becoming the union's President General and under him the union expanded to workers from a variety of industries and became the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers' Trade Union.

He served as leader of the ULF and UNC, and was President General of the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers' Trade Union from 1973 to 1995.

He was the chairman and party leader of the United National Congress.

On 8 February 1975, amidst the backdrop of labour struggles, Panday met with fellow union leaders George Weekes and Raffique Shah.

Together, they founded the United Labour Front.

All three were arrested on 18 March during an attempted march from San Fernando to Port of Spain, but were found not guilty on 22 April "on the charge of leading a public march without permission".

He was first elected to Parliament in 1976 as the Member for Couva North, Panday served as Leader of the Opposition four times between 1976 and 2010 and was a founding member of the United Labour Front (ULF), the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR), and the United National Congress (UNC).

Panday won the Couva North seat in the 1976 general election, becoming an MP and official opposition leader.

The next year the party split into two factions and Panday was ousted as party leader in favour of Shah.

He was reinstated in 1978 after Winston Nanan, who previously supported Shah, defected to Panday and Shah resigned.

Following a poor performance in the 1980 local elections, Panday co-founded the Trinidad and Tobago National Alliance with A. N. R. Robinson of the Democratic Action Congress and Lloyd Best of the Tapia House Group.

He retained his seat in the 1981 general election.

In 1984 the National Alliance became the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) and in 1985 merged with the Organisation for National Reconstruction.

They won a decisive victory in 1986.

Panday was named Minister of External Affairs and International Trade.

His maternal grandmother was from Laxmanpur, a farming village of the Azamgarh district in the Bhojpur region of the present-day state of Uttar Pradesh in the Hindi Belt of North India, which he visited on a state trip to India in 1997 and met with extended members of his family and donated INR₹1.5 million to help develop the village.

He attended New Grant Government School and

St. Julien Presbyterian School.

He was later enrolled in Presentation College, San Fernando with help from his father's uncle Jospeh Hardath Dube.

In 2005, he was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs.

In 2006, Panday was convicted of failing to declare a bank account in London and imprisoned; however, on 20 March 2007, that conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal.

On 1 May he decided to resign as chairman of the United National Congress, but the party's executive refused to accept his resignation.

He lost the party's internal elections on 24 January 2010, to deputy leader and now former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.