Simbhoonath Capildeo

<a href="/facts/The_Right_Honourable/SNvNwDdQ">The Rt Hon.</a> Simbhoonath Capildeo <a href="/facts/Chaconia_Medal/UgqMV4jd">CM</a> (pronounced [siⁿbʰunɑːt̪ʰə kəpiləd̪eːoː]; 1914-1990) was a prominent lawyer and politician in Trinidad and Tobago. He was the elder brother of <a href="/facts/Rudranath_Capildeo/owWknDvw">Rudranath Capildeo</a> and uncle of Nobel laureate <a href="/facts/V._S._Naipaul/auHPMEIJ">Sir Vidia "V. S." Naipaul</a> and <a href="/facts/Shiva_Naipaul/sl0eWylB">Shiva Naipaul</a>. He was father to two sons, Surendranath and Devendranath Capildeo and a daughter, Sita Capildeo. Capildeo was one of the founding members of the <a href="/facts/Democratic_Labour_Party_(Trinidad_and_Tobago)/wpET3J74">Democratic Labour Party</a> and a member of parliament from 1956 to 1966, becoming known as "the Lion of the Legislative Council". He served as the acting <a href="/facts/Leader_of_the_Opposition_(Trinidad_and_Tobago)/xqD9HuYx">Leader of the Opposition</a> for <a href="/facts/Bhadase_Maraj/D8WyJadY">Bhadase Sagan Maraj</a> and Rudranath Capildeo. Capildeo was also an important leader of the Hindu community in Trinidad and played in role in the foundation of the <a href="/facts/Sanatan_Dharma_Maha_Sabha/YxdpwXlu">Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha</a>. In 1989 he was awarded the <a href="/facts/Chaconia_Medal/UgqMV4jd">Chaconia Gold Medal</a> by the Trinidad and Tobago government, honoring his service to the country.
His father, <a href="/facts/Pandit/po3SxuGK">Pundit</a> Capildeo Dubey, an immigrant from the village of Mahadeva Dubey, Somra, <a href="/facts/Gorakhpur_division/0PbM9AC7">Gorakhpur</a>, Uttar Pradesh, India, built Anand Bhavan (the "Lion House") on the Main Road in <a href="/facts/Chaguanas/nXuqpKmz">Chaguanas</a>. The Lion House is arguably the most famous architectural icon representing the Indian heritage of Trinidad and Tobago. <a href="/facts/Pandit/po3SxuGK">Pundit</a> died on a trip to India in 1926, leaving Simbhoonath in the role of family patriarch at the age of 12. His mother, Soogee Capildeo, guided him, but Simbhoonath was an <a href="/facts/Autodidact/qCKsxtdc">autodidact</a>. His nephew, <a href="/facts/V.S._Naipaul/auHPMEIJ">V.S. Naipaul</a>, wrote about Simbhoonath's love for books in <a href="/facts/The_Mystic_Masseur_(novel)/TbVjj3Cw">The Mystic Masseur</a>. In his 9-line biographical sketch in the Indian Centenary Review (1845–1945) his hobby is listed as "Reading".
Capildeo studied <a href="/facts/Caribbean_Hindustani/T3NhogY0">Hindustani</a> and <a href="/facts/Sanskrit/ychfjhlx">Sanskrit</a> and became a local expert on <a href="/facts/Hinduism/oxV9YvQh">Hinduism</a>, and he also explored the philosophers of Western Civilization. He rapidly assumed intellectual leadership of the local Hindu society and in 1928 began creating the modern formal structure of <a href="/facts/Hinduism_in_Trinidad_and_Tobago/ejTMetrX">Hindu society in Trinidad and Tobago</a>. He was also the Secretary General of the <a href="/facts/Sanatan_Dharma_Maha_Sabha/YxdpwXlu">Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha</a>, preceding <a href="/facts/Satnarayan_Maharaj/mr6AT5km">Satnarayan Maharaj</a>.
Simbhoonath was married to Indradai Capildeo (née Ramoutar) and was the father of one daughter, Sita, born in 1936, and two sons: Devendranath, born in 1938, and Surendranath, born in 1940. Surendranath, also a lawyer, was the only child who followed his father into local politics: he served as a senator of the <a href="/facts/United_National_Congress/J9rNNz38">United National Congress (UNC)</a> party in the early 1990s.

Simbhoonath Capildeo open-in-new

Simbhoonath Capildeo