Bhadase Maraj  Bhadase Sagan Maraj MP (; February 19, 1919 – October 21, 1971) was a Trinidadian and Tobagonian politician, Hindu leader, wrestler, businessman, and author. He founded the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha in 1952, which grew into the major Hindu organization in Trinidad and Tobago. He also founded the Caroni East Indian Association, which he was the president of. Bhadase Sagan Maraj was born in Caroni Village in the county of Caroni in central Trinidad. His father, Matthew Sagan Maraj, was a devout Hindu and a leader in the Hindu community of central Trinidad. At the time there was much tension between Hindu and Muslim Indo-Trinidadians in Caroni, and when Maraj was thirteen years old his father had been shot and killed by a Muslim gang while he was on his hammock on the porch of his home reading the "Bhagawad Gita". His uncle was also killed when a Muslim gang had tied him to a stone and threw him into the Caroni River. After his father's death, Maraj went to live with his paternal grandmother. Many attempts were made on Maraj's life, so he took up wrestling and by the age of twenty he became an accomplished wrestler. He had attended the Caroni Canadian Mission School and the Pamphylian High School in Tunapuna. Maraj started off to his first million dollars by digging sand for construction purposes in the Caroni River. This was only the beginning, for soon the young Maraj had bought a truck and was in the transport business. The advent of the Second World War and the arrival of the American Armed Forces in the British colony threw Maraj into the big league. He was one of the biggest contractors on the American naval base at Chaguaramas and when the order came for the Americans to pull out their task force 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. This was a real rags to riches story. From then on there was no stopping him, for Maraj was now equipped to fight the Hindu and Indian cause. 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. In early 1952, the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha was formed and this organisation was given permission to build and operate their own schools and with his typical bravado, Bhadase declared "By September, we will have six: schools."