Cheddi Jagan
Encyclopedia
Cheddi Berret Jagan was a Guyanese
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...

 politician who was first elected Chief Minister in 1953 and later Premier of British Guiana
British Guiana
British Guiana was the name of the British colony on the northern coast of South America, now the independent nation of Guyana.The area was originally settled by the Dutch at the start of the 17th century as the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice...

 from 1961 to 1964, prior to independence. He later served as President of Guyana from 1992 to 1997.

Biography

The son of ethnic Indian sugar plantation workers, Jagan managed to attend Queen's College
Queen's College, Guyana
Queen's College is the top secondary school in Guyana;Situated at the South-Easterly Junction of Camp Street and Thomas Lands. Alumni can enter the school through the National Grade Six Assessment and at the Lower 6th Form Level if the academic performance of the student at the Caribbean Secondary...

 in Georgetown
Georgetown, Guyana
Georgetown, estimated population 239,227 , is the capital and largest city of Guyana, located in the Demerara-Mahaica region. It is situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the mouth of the Demerara River and it was nicknamed 'Garden City of the Caribbean.' Georgetown is located at . The city serves...

. He later studied at the Howard University
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...

 Dental School in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, and Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

 in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 before returning home in the early 1940s.

He was elected to the colonial legislative body, the Legislative Council, in November 1947 as an independent candidate from Central Demerara constituency. On January 1, 1950, the People's Progressive Party
People's Progressive Party (Guyana)
The People's Progressive Party is a political party in Guyana led by Bharrat Jagdeo. The party has been in power since the 1992 elections and currently holds 36 of the 65 seats in the National Assembly.-History:...

 (PPP) was founded, with Jagan as its Leader, Forbes Burnham
Forbes Burnham
Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham was the leader of Guyana from 1964 until his death, first as Premier from 1964 to 1966, then as the Prime Minister from 1966 to 1980 and finally as President from 1980 to 1985....

 as its Chairman and Jagan's wife Janet
Janet Jagan
Janet Jagan was an American-born socialist politician who was President of Guyana from December 19, 1997, to August 11, 1999. She previously served as Prime Minister of Guyana from March 17, 1997, to December 19, 1997....

 as its Secretary.

Jagan won in a colonially administered election in 1953, but was removed from power militarily by Britain. Churchhill was convinced Jagan was a crypto-communist and would allow the Soviet Union a foothold in Latin America. There was strong behind-the-scenes pressure from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and the CIA, asserted that he had ties to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. Jagan resigned as British Guiana prime minister after 133 days. However the USA did not participate directly in Jagan's removal, which was solely a British operation. Britain suspended the constitution and chose an interim government. Jagan's movements were restricted to Georgetown from 1954 to 1957.

After a PPP victory in the August 1961 election, Jagan became Chief Minister for a second time, serving for three years. In the December 1964 election, the PPP won a plurality of votes, but Burnham's party, the People's National Congress, and the conservative United Force were nevertheless invited to form the government.

Having broken off links with Burnham, Jagan was active in the government as a labor activist and leader of the opposition. After 28 years in opposition, he and the PPP won the October 5, 1992 election with about 54% of the vote, and Jagan became President.

Jagan suffered a heart attack in the morning of February 15, 1997 and was taken to Georgetown Hospital before being flown by U.S. military aircraft to Walter Reed Army Hospital in the U.S. capital, Washington, DC, later that day. He underwent heart surgery there and died in Washington on March 6, 1997. Prime Minister Sam Hinds
Sam Hinds
Samuel Archibald Anthony Hinds is a Guyanese politician who has been Prime Minister of Guyana almost continuously since 1992...

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

His presidential tenure was characterized by the revival of the union movement
Union Movement
The Union Movement was a right-wing political party founded in Britain by Oswald Mosley. Where Mosley had previously been associated with a peculiarly British form of fascism, the Union Movement attempted to redefine the concept by stressing the importance of developing a European nationalism...

 and a re-commitment to education and infrastructure improvement. Towards the end of his life, he began moving his country to greater economic deregulation.

He married Janet
Janet Jagan
Janet Jagan was an American-born socialist politician who was President of Guyana from December 19, 1997, to August 11, 1999. She previously served as Prime Minister of Guyana from March 17, 1997, to December 19, 1997....

 (née
NEE
NEE is a political protest group whose goal was to provide an alternative for voters who are unhappy with all political parties at hand in Belgium, where voting is compulsory.The NEE party was founded in 2005 in Antwerp...

 Rosenberg), an alleged former member of a communist youth organization, in 1943, and the couple had two children, Nadira and Cheddi Jr.
Joey Jagan
Dr. Cheddi 'Joey' Jagan Jr. is a doctor and a politician in Guyana.He is the son of the past presidents Cheddi Jagan and Janet Jagan .In politics, he is the co-founder of the Unity Party of Guyana, a pro-capitalist party seeking to bring more foreign investment to Guyana. -External links:*...

 (who in turn produced five grandchildren, Cheddi B. Jagan II, Vrinda Jagan, Avasa Jagan, Alex Brancier, Natasha Brancier). Mrs. 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
Bharrat Jagdeo is a Guyanese politician who has been President of Guyana since 11 August 1999. Prior to his presidency he was Minister of Finance and became President after Janet Jagan resigned for health reasons; subsequently he won two elections, in 2001 and 2006.Jagdeo was born in Unity Village...

 in 1999). The Cheddi Jagan Research Centre in the capital, Georgetown
Georgetown, Guyana
Georgetown, estimated population 239,227 , is the capital and largest city of Guyana, located in the Demerara-Mahaica region. It is situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the mouth of the Demerara River and it was nicknamed 'Garden City of the Caribbean.' Georgetown is located at . The city serves...

, celebrates Cheddi Jagan's life and work, complete with a replication of his office.

Jagan was also an important political author and speechwriter, and his publications include "Forbidden Freedom: The Story of British Guiana,1954, 1955,1994, 1998(Hansib)" "The West On Trial: My Fight for Guyana's Freedom,1966, 1967, 1972, 1975,1980, 1997, 2004(Harpy)" "The Caribbean Revolution, 1979(out of print)" "The Caribbean Whose Backyard, 1984(out of print)" "Cheddi Jagan, Selected Speeches 1992-1994, 1995(Hansib)" "The USA in South America,1998(Hansib)" "A New Global Human Order, 1999, 2001(Harpy)" "Cheddi Jagan Selected Correspondences 1953-1965, 2004(Dido Press).

External links

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