Cheddi Jagan

Who is Cheddi Jagan?

Cheddi Berret Jagan was a Guyanese politician and dentist who became the first democratically elected Premier of British Guiana in 1953 and later served as President of Guyana from 1992 until his death in 1997. Born in Port Mourant to Indian-Guyanese sugar plantation workers, he studied dentistry in the United States, where he met his American-born wife and lifelong political partner Janet Jagan. Together they founded the People's Progressive Party (PPP) in 1950, campaigning for labor rights, self-government, and an end to colonial rule. His 1953 election victory was cut short within months when British forces intervened and suspended the colony's constitution, citing Cold War fears that Jagan's left-leaning politics would align British Guiana with the Soviet bloc. He remained the central figure of Guyanese opposition politics for nearly four decades, repeatedly sidelined by colonial and later domestic rivals, before winning the presidency in Guyana's first free and fair national election in 1992, ending 28 years of rule by the rival People's National Congress. He is widely remembered in Guyana as the "Father of the Nation" for his decades-long struggle for independence and democracy.

Sources: Jagan, Cheddi, The West on Trial: My Fight for Guyana's Freedom (1966; rev. ed. 1997) · Palmer, Colin A., Cheddi Jagan and the Politics of Power: British Guiana's Struggle for Independence (2010) · Government of Guyana — official presidential biographies