Cheddi Berret Jagan (22 March 1918-6 March 1997) was Chief Minister and Premier of British Guiana from 30 May 1953 to 9 October 1953 and from 5 September 1961 to 12 December 1964, preceding Forbes Burnham, as well as President of Guyana from 9 October 1992 to 6 March 1997 (succeeding Desmond Hoyte and preceding Sam Hinds). He was the leader of the socialist PPC/R party.
Biography[]
Cheddi Jagan was born in Ankerville, Berbice, British Guiana in 1918 to an Indian family with origins in Awadh (now Uttar Pradesh). He studied dentistry in the United States (where he married an American, Janet Rosenberg) before establishing a practice in Georgetown in 1943, and he became involved with sugarcane workers' trade unions before co-founding the Political Affairs Committee in 1946. The PAC merged with the British Guiana Labour Party in 1950 to form the People's Progressive Party/Civic, gaining a mass following among both Indians and Blacks. Jagan's party won the 1953 general election, and, as Chief Minister, Jagan encouraged strike action against British companies and allowed leftists from the Caribbean to seek refuge in his country. The British government responded by dispatching troops to Guyana and deposing the Guyanese government, which was replaced by an unelected legislative council. Jagan failed to win support from the Labour Party leader Clement Attlee or from Indian National Congress leader Jawaharlal Nehru, and he and his wife were kept under house arrest in Georgetown from 1954 to 1957. In 1957, Burnham's faction of the PPP split and formed the People's National Congress Reform, and Guyanese politics polarized between the Indian-backed PPP and the African-backed PNC. In 1961, the PPP won a new round of elections, and Jagan became Premier of Guyana. He adopted austerity measures that significantly impacted the African community, resulting in 1962 race riots. The 1964 elections were marked by similar violence, and the PNC won a minority of the vote and a majority of seats, forcing Jagan into opposition. He led the opposition from 1964 to 192 as the PNC established a dictatorship, and he took part in communist summits, further reinforcing the perception that he was a Marxist-Leninist. During the 1970s, his party allied itself with the PNC as Burnham adopted socialist policies similar to those of the PPP. Jagan's party won the free and fair 1992 elections seven years after Burnham's death, and Jagan governed the country as a democratic socialist and not as a communist. He died in office in 1997.