The first Indo-Trinidadian Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago — and the first Indian-origin head of government anywhere in the English-speaking Caribbean. Grandson of Bhojpuri indentured labourers, son of cane-cutters in the Couva district. Earned his law degree in London on a sugar workers' union scholarship in the 1960s. Returned home to lead the union, then the political movement that emerged from it. Founded the United National Congress in 1989. Won the 1995 general election against the establishment People's National Movement, governed until 2001, and spent the next two decades as the elder statesman of the Indo-Caribbean political tradition. The Girmitiya story's first Caribbean prime ministerial endpoint. Died in San Fernando on 1 January 2024, age ninety. A state funeral followed. The country is still arguing about him, which is the right level of public engagement to have with the figure who broke a four-decade political monopoly.