By Raffique Shah
May 31, 2018
Sat Maharaj can manufacture a controversy in the calmest situation. He knows that the fundamental rule for staying alive in public life, and more importantly looking lively even though you may be half-dead is to get embroiled in “kuchoor”, as Indians would say, and do the most outrageous things to command media attention.
Continue reading Sat still stirring religious intolerance
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
June 13, 2016
Last Sunday, in this newspaper, Sat Maharaj mentioned casually (or perhaps not so casually) that he couldn’t possibly be a racist since I was his best friend and Desmond Hoyte was a close friend. Most of my friends were aghast that Sat should consider me to be among his best friends and, even if we are, they asked, why should he use our friendship to camouflage his racism?
Continue reading Is Sat Really a Racist?
PM must say if she agrees
By Richard Lord
June 02, 2014 – guardian.co.tt
Former head of the public service, Reginald Dumas, is taking issue with a claim by the secretary general of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, Satnarayan Maharaj, that generations of People’s National Movement (PNM) supporters were planted in the public service to prevent any non-PNM government from getting a second term. Maharaj made the claim during an Indian Arrival Day function hosted by the Maha Sabha in Debe on Friday.
Continue reading Sat’s public servants comment upsets Dumas
By Kim Boodram
January 15, 2014 – trinidadexpress.com
Satnarayan Maharaj, secretary general of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS), yesterday blamed the death of Pennywise stores heiress, Dian Paladee, at the hands of her former husband, on an “anger” that has settled on the country.
Continue reading Sat blames Dian’s death on ‘anger’ in T&T
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 30, 2012
I want to congratulate my East Indian compatriots for the achievements they have made over the 167 years they have spent in Trinidad and Tobago and the enormous efforts they have made to carve out a space in these two beautiful islands in the West Indies. I also wish to congratulate Sat Maharaj for the herculean efforts he has made to improve the educational standards of his people and his determination to ensure that his people receive their rightful share of the national pie. When the history of the second half of the twentieth century is written I am certain he will take his place as one of the more outstanding Trinbagonians of the era.
Continue reading The Cowshed Fable
By Alana Lalman
May 30, 2012
I was well poised to begin writing for an article on Indian Arrival Day in Trinidad and Tobago when I coincidentally stumbled over Satnarayan Maharaj’s commentary about Indian Arrival in the Guardian newspaper that day. Sat Maharaj is the secretary general of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) organization which is the major Hindu organization in Trinidad and Tobago. It operates 150 mandirs and over 60 schools. It was formed in 1952 when Bhadase Sagan Maharaj merged the Satanan Dharma Association and the Sanatan Dharma Board of Control.
Continue reading 167 Years of Indian “Arrival”: Are Indians Still Arriving?
By Ria Taitt
November 11, 2011 – trinidadexpress.com
People’s National Movement (PNM) MP Patricia McIntosh has slammed the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) for its conduct at the Tunapuna Hindu Primary School in denying equal opportunities to pupils of different denominations, particularly black children who reside within the catchment area.
Continue reading Sat Blocked Black Children
By Sean Douglas
October 23, 2011 – newsday.co.tt
MINISTER of Gender, Youth and Child Development, Senator Verna St Rose-Greaves, on Friday hinted at an end to the marriage of underage girls as now allowed by law for certain religious groups.
While the age of sexual consent is 16 years old, St Rose-Greaves said that girls are allowed to marry at age 12 or 14 years old, in allusion to special allowances made for Hindu and Muslim marriages.
Continue reading Verna wants end to under-age marriage
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 13, 2011
Sometimes I don’t understand why so many false dichotomies pervade the thinking of my compatriots, Africans as well as Indians. If I write about how East Indians think (I call it an Indian narrative) I am accused of being racist. If I support the aspirations of Africans it suggests I am anti—Indian. If I favor the candidacy of a particular PNM member for the chairmanship of the party, my friends respond that I am out of touch with the thinking of those on the ground and so it goes ad infinitum.
Continue reading Stop ‘Sampating’ Africans
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 06, 2011
The racial inanity that gushed out of Nizam Mohammed’s heart ought not to be seen as an aberration; the unfortunate comments of an ill-informed man. It can and should be seen as a part of what I call the Indian narrative that informs the behavior of many East Indians in our society; the reflection of a view that lay in abeyance while they were out of political power only to reveal itself once they came into power.
Continue reading The Indian Narrative