from that country, Maraj was able to buy out large areas of the base that were being deactivated. Maraj was not yet 30 when he counted his first million dollars. When Maraj was elected to the Legislative Council in 1950 there was no Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha. Hindu schools were only a dream and illiteracy among Hindus was about 50%. Maraj's guru was Pundit Basdeo Misir. Civil society activism In early 1952, the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha was formed and this organisation was given permission to build and operate their own schools and Bhadase declared "By September, we will have six: schools." The cynics laughed because Maha Sabha did not even have a plan for a school but September saw the establishment of six Hindu Schools. Hindu schools were mushrooming everywhere to the charge that Bhadase was building cowshed schools, which were unhealthy and physically unfit for children to be educated, he declared, "It is better to have a child receive an education in a cowshed than none at all". The then government arranged to assist and fund the building and operations of Hindu and other religious schools in Trinidad and Tobago. Politics He was elected to the Legislative Council in 1950, founded the People's Democratic Party in 1953, and later merged it into the Democratic Labour Party in 1957, which he led between 1957 and 1960 (when he lost control of the party to Rudranath Capildeo). Bhadase (as he was most widely known) continued to be active in politics until his death, often opposing Capildeo and other members of the DLP. After Capildeo's Chaguanas seat was declared vacant in 1967 Bhadase won the seat in a by-election boycotted by the DLP. In 1958 Bhadase Maraj won the Federal Election with his newly formed Democratic Labour Party. He also led a sugar union, All Trinidad. However, Bhadase soon succumbed to ill health. The strenuous battle of the 1958 Federal Election had by then taken its toll. In 1959, the cry was soon heard, "Bhadase is dying." Bhadase was able to survive this first bout of illness but he was never again the same driving and dynamic Hindu force. And when he finally died on 21 October 1971 the headlines said, "WILL THE MAHA SABHA SURVIVE BHADASE?" When the DLP boycotted the 1971 general elections Bhadase organised the Democratic Liberation Party to contest 21 seats in the election. He ran for