Rudranath Capildeo (; 2 February 1920 – 12 May 1970) was a Trinidadian and Tobagonian politician, mathematician and barrister. He was a member of the prominent

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

Indo-Trinidadian Indo-Trinidadians and Tobagonians or Indian-Trinidadians and Tobagonians, are people of Indian origin who are nationals of Trinidad and Tobago whose ancestors came from India and the wider subcontinent beginning in 1845. Indo-Trinidadians and ...

Capildeo family The Capildeo family () is an Indo-Trinidadian and Tobagonian family of Hindu pundits, politicians, and writers. The most notable members are 2001 Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul and mathematician and politician Rudranath Capildeo. The ancestral ho ...

. Capildeo was the leader of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) from 1960 to 1969 and the first Leader of the Opposition in the

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

of the independent

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

from 1962 to 1967. He was also a faculty member at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, eventually holding the position of

Reader A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to: Computing and technology * Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader * Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application * A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...

of Mathematics. He was awarded the

Trinity Cross The Trinity Cross (abbreviated T.C.) was the highest of the National Awards of Trinidad and Tobago, between the years 1969 and 2008. It was awarded for: "distinguished and outstanding service to Trinidad and Tobago. It was awarded for gallantry ...

, the nation's highest award, in 1969.

Early years and education

Rudranath Capildeo was born on the 2nd of February 1920 into a

Brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (gur ...

family at Anand Bhavan (translation: Mansion of Eternal Bliss; aka Lion House) on the Main Road in the city of

Chaguanas The Borough of Chaguanas is the largest municipality (83,489 at the 2011 census) and fastest-growing
– Afra ...

Caroni County Caroni County was a historic county of Trinidad and Tobago. It occupies in the west central part of the island of Trinidad, the larger island in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It lies south and southwest of Saint George County, west of N ...

in the then British-ruled

."Rudranath Capildeo - Mathematician"
Caribbean Icons in Science, Technology and Innovation. Niherst Profile. His father was Pundit Capil Deo Dubey, an indentured laborer who emigrated from Mahadeva Dubey Village, Maharajganj,

Gorakhpur Gorakhpur is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, along the banks of the Rapti river in the Purvanchal region. It is situated 272 kilometers east of the state capital Lucknow. It is the administrative headquarters of Gorakhpur dis ...

North-Western Provinces The North-Western Provinces was an administrative region in British India. The North-Western Provinces were established in 1836, through merging the administrative divisions of the Ceded and Conquered Provinces. In 1858, the nawab-ruled kingdo ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

(present-day Mahadeva Dubey, Maharajganj,

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

) in 1894, and his mother was Soogee Capildeo (née

Gobin Gobin may refer to: * Gobin de Reims, 13th-century poet-composer *Gabriel Gobin (1903–1998), Belgian film actor *John P. S. Gobin (1837–1910), American politician and Union Army officer during the Civil War * John Gobin (polo), American polo p ...

)."Dr. Rudranath Capildeo (1920-1970)"
NALIS. Capildeo was the youngest child of the prominent

. He was educated at

Queen's Royal College Queen's Royal College ( St.Clair, Trinidad), referred to for short as QRC, or "The College" by alumni, is a secondary school in Trinidad and Tobago. Originally a boarding school and grammar school, the secular college is selective and noted for it ...

in Port of Spain where he won an island

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholars ...

in 1938. He attended the University of London where he obtained his

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

in Mathematics and

Physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

in 1943, his MSc in Mathematics in 1945, and his PhD in

Mathematical Physics Mathematical physics refers to the development of mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The '' Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the developme ...

in 1948, his thesis being entitled "The flexure problem in elasticity".

Career

Capildeo held lectureships at the University of London, including at both

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

and at

Westfield College Westfield College was a small college situated in Hampstead, London, from 1882 to 1989. It was the first college to aim to educate women for University of London degrees from its opening. The college originally admitted only women as students and ...

. He also taught briefly at Queen's Royal College (1945) and was Principal of the Polytechnic Institute in Port of Spain in 1959. Capildeo's entry into politics in the late 1950s was because the political figures who entered the DLP in 1957 did not trust each other, and could only agree on him. Though he left Trinidad in 1939 to study medicine, he changed his course of study, focusing on applied mathematics and physics. He was committed to understanding the nature of space and time, and this sparked his interest in understanding Einstein's

Theory of Special Relativity In physics, the special theory of relativity, or special relativity for short, is a scientific theory regarding the relationship between space and time. In Albert Einstein's original treatment, the theory is based on two postulates: # The laws ...

. This work led to several new theories, which had practical implications in aerodynamics and space. They included "The Flexure Problem in Elasticity" (Ph.D. thesis) and his study on the "Theory of Rotation and Gravity" named Capildeo's Theory, which had applications in early outer-space expeditions in the 1960s and 1970s. His political career was unusual, since he was active only during election campaigns (in 1961 and 1967) and during the summer months. His conduct of the last pre-independence electoral campaign, in 1961, was also unusual, beginning with his declaration that because he understood Einstein he could "compress the time" necessary to undo what the sitting government had done. Not only did Capildeo produce many significant mathematical theories and a book on Vector Algebra and Mechanics in 1967, he also studied law in London in 1956. Two years later he was admitted to practice as a barrister-at-law in Trinidad. He founded and led the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) in 1960, and became Leader of the Opposition in the Trinidad & Tobago Parliament (1960–67). With

Eric Williams Eric Eustace Williams (25 September 1911 – 29 March 1981) was a Trinidad and Tobago politician who is regarded by some as the " Father of the Nation", having led the then British Colony of Trinidad and Tobago to majority rule on 28 October ...

as Prime Minister, both men laid the foundation for an independent Trinidad and Tobago. Capildeo was also responsible for having the freedom of worship included in the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago and Service Commissions because he felt that service commissions would ensure equality and fairness in the appointment of people to public office. The Rudranath Capildeo Learning Resource Centre (RCLRC) is located in

McBean Village Couva is an urban town (48,858 in 2011 census) in west-central Trinidad, south of Port of Spain and Chaguanas and north of San Fernando and Point Fortin. It is the capital and main urban centre of Couva–Tabaquite–Talparo, and the Greater ...

Couva Couva is an urban town (48,858 in 2011 census) in west-central Trinidad, south of Port of Spain and Chaguanas and north of San Fernando and Point Fortin. It is the capital and main urban centre of Couva–Tabaquite–Talparo, and the Greate ...

, Trinidad.

Personal life

He was married Ruth Goodchild in 1944 and they had one son named Rudy Capildeo. He also has a daughter, Anne Saraswati Gasteen Capildeo, born was in 1959. He was the younger brother of

Simbhoonath Capildeo Simbhoonath Capildeo (; 1914-1990) was a prominent lawyer and politician in Trinidad and Tobago. He was the elder brother of Rudranath Capildeo and uncle of Nobel laureate Sir Vidia "V. S." Naipaul and Shiva Naipaul. He was father to two son ...

, brother-in-law of

Seepersad Naipaul Seepersad Naipaul (; 1906–1953) was an Indo-Trinidadian writer. He was the father of V. S. Naipaul, Shiva Naipaul, Kamla Tewari (''née'' Naipaul), and Sati Bissoondath (''née'' Naipaul), and married into the influential Hindu Indo-Trinidadian ...

, uncle of

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

-winning author V.S. Naipaul, Shiva Naipaul, and Surendranath Capildeo, uncle-in-law of Nadira Naipaul, and grand uncle of

Vahni Capildeo Vahni Anthony Ezekiel Capildeo (born Surya Vahni Priya Capildeo; born 1973) is a Trinidad and Tobago-born British writer, and a member of the extended Capildeo family that has produced notable Trinidadian politicians and writers (including V. S. ...

and

Neil Bissoondath Neil Devindra Bissoondath (born April 19, 1955, in Arima, Trinidad and Tobago) is a Trinidadian-Canadian author who lives in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. He is a noted writer of fiction. He is an outspoken critic of Canada's system of multicultur ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Capildeo, Rudranath 1920 births 1970 deaths 20th-century mathematicians Academics of University College London Academics of Westfield College Alumni of Queen's Royal College, Trinidad Alumni of the University of London Recipients of the Trinity Cross Democratic Labour Party (Trinidad and Tobago) politicians Members of the House of Representatives (Trinidad and Tobago) Trinidad and Tobago people of Indian descent Trinidad and Tobago Hindus Trinidad and Tobago scientists