Adrian Cola Rienzi

Last updated October 01, 2024

Adrian Cola Rienzi ORTT (born Krishna Deonarine on 19 January 1905, died Desh Bandu on 21 July 1972) was a Trinidadian trade unionist, civil rights activist, politician and lawyer.

Early life and education

Krishna Deonarine was born in Palmyra, Princes Town, Trinidad and Tobago to a Brahmin Indo-Trinidadian family whose original surname was Tiwari. His family originated from North India. His grandfather Chaithnath Tiwari had fled Bihar, India in order to escape British vengeance for participating in the Indian Rebellion of 1857. In Trinidad, his grandfather had married Lakshmi, the granddaughter of a general in the army of Babu Veer Kunwar Singh, who also had participated in the Indian Rebellion of 1857.^[1] His father, Deonarine Tiwari, squandered the inheritance from his grandfather and was forced to move the family to his grandmother's shop on Coffee Street in San Fernando. Krishna attended Naparima College, but his family's financial problems forced him to drop out during Form 3.^[2]

After leaving school, Deonarine took a job as a law clerk with the law firm of J.C. Hobson, a prominent lawyer, on Harris Promenade, in San Fernando. Hobson encouraged Deonarine to learn and lent him books from which he learned about Cola di Rienzo, fourteenth century Italian activist and patriot. Adrian Clarke, an English magistrate, also mentored Deonarine.^[2] Influenced by Hobson and Clarke, Deonarine decided to become a lawyer. This meant going to England to study; to avoid problems that his obviously Indian name might cause, Deonarine changed his name to Adrian Cola Rienzi in 1927. He chose the name Adrian after Adrian Clarke, and Cola Rienzi after Cola di Rienzo.^[1]

Rienzi studied at Trinity College in Dublin, where he joined the Irish section of the League Against Imperialism. He tried to go to India to work against imperialism, but was denied a visa to travel there. Unable to travel to India, Rienzo moved to London in 1931 where he entered the Middle Temple. In London, Rienzi became close with Shapurji Saklatvala, an Indian-born socialist and trade unionist who had served as a member of the British Parliament. Rienzi worked with Saklatava as part of the Indian Freedom League and the Indian Independence League, and maintained close ties with the Irish Republican Congress and the US-based Universal Negro Improvement Association.^[1]

In 1934, Rienzi was called to the Bar and returned to Trinidad. His application for admission to the local Bar was rejected because he was considered a "communist agitator", and it was only thanks to the intervention of British Labour politician Stafford Cripps that Rienzi was able to gain admission to the Bar.^[1]

After 1943, Cola Rienzi renamed to Desh Bandhu (National Patriot).^[2]

Career

Trade union leader

He founded both the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union and the All Trinidad Sugar Estates and Factory Workers Union, and was involved in the establishment of three other trade unions. In 1936, after breaking with Arthur Cipriani and his Trinidad Labour Party, Rienzi founded his own party, the Trinidad Citizens League, which was based on the workers in the sugar belt in mid and south Trinidad.^[3] He was also the first president of the Trinidad and Tobago Trades Union Council, from its foundation in 1938 until 1944.^[2]

Borough Council and Legislative Council

Rienzi also served four terms on the San Fernando Borough Council (three as Mayor of San Fernando) and represented Victoria on the Legislative Council from 1937 to 1944. He then worked in the public service as a Crown Counsel.^[2]

Advocate for Indo-Trinidadians

In addition to working for workers rights, Rienzi also worked for the rights of Indo-Trinidadians. He helped secure more employment of Indo-Trinidadians in the public service, the right to cremation, the recognition of Hindu and Muslim marriages and the establishment of schools by non-Christian religious groups.^[2]

Honours

The Rienzi-Kirton Highway in San Fernando is named partly in honour of him. The Rienzi Complex, former headquarters of the United National Congress and the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers' Trade Union, on the Southern Main Road in Exchange Village, Couva is named after him.^{[ citation needed ]}

Related Research Articles

This article is about the demography of the population of Trinidad and Tobago including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

Tubal Uriah "Buzz" Butler, was a Grenadian-born Spiritual Baptist preacher and labour leader in Trinidad and Tobago. He is best known for leading a series of labour riots between 19 June and 6 July 1937 and for forming a series of personalist political parties that focused its platform on the improvement of the working class.

San Fernando, officially the City of San Fernando, is the most populous city and second most populous municipality in Trinidad and Tobago, after Chaguanas. Sando, as it is known to many local Trinidadians, occupies 19 km² and is located in the southwestern part of the island of Trinidad. It is bounded to the north by the Guaracara River, the south by the Oropouche River, the east by the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway, and the west by the Gulf of Paria. The former borough was elevated to the status of a city corporation on 18 November 1988. The motto of San Fernando is: "Sanitas Fortis" - In a Healthy Environment We Will Find Strength. San Fernando is called Trinidad and Tobago's "industrial capital" because of its proximity to the Pointe-à-Pierre oil refinery and many other petrochemical, LNG, iron and steel and aluminium smelters in places such as Point Lisas in Couva, Point Fortin, and La Brea.

The Borough of Chaguanas is the largest municipality and fastest-growing town in Trinidad and Tobago. Located in west-central Trinidad, south of Port of Spain, north of Couva and San Fernando, and named after the indigenous tribe who originally settled there, it grew in size due to its proximity to the Woodford Lodge sugar refinery. It remained a minor town until the 1980s when it began to grow rapidly as it drew people for its bargain shopping and moderately priced housing. Its rapid growth has seen property values increase dramatically, however.

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 during the period of colonization.

The Democratic Labour Party was the main opposition party in Trinidad and Tobago from 1957 till 1976. That party was the party which opposed the People's National Movement (PNM) at the time of Independence. After several splits brought about by leadership struggles, the party lost its hold on the Indo-Trinidadian community in the 1976 General Elections and was displaced in parliament by the United Labour Front under the leadership of Basdeo Panday, a former DLP senator. The party was the representative of the ethnic Indian community in the country; however Indian Muslims and Christians were said to be less loyal to the party than Indian Hindus.

Princes Town is a town within an eponymous region, located on south-Central Trinidad island in Trinidad and Tobago. The population of the town is 28,335.

Couva is a town 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 area includes the Point Lisas industrial estate and the port of Point Lisas. It is one of the fastest-growing towns in the country. Couva's southern boundary is at the village of California and Point Lisas, and to the north Couva stretches to McBean. To the east of Couva is Preysal. To the west of Couva is the road to Waterloo and Carli Bay, which are located on the Gulf of Paria. Couva was part of the Caroni County. Couva is considered a major power base for the United National Congress, whose headquarters was previously located here.

The Oilfields Workers' Trade Union (OWTU) is one of the most powerful trade unions in Trinidad and Tobago. Currently led by Ancel Roget, the union was born out of the 1937 labour riots, the union was nominally led by the imprisoned TUB Butler but was actually organised by lawyer Adrian Cola Rienzi.

Hinduism in Trinidad and Tobago is the second largest religion. Hindu culture arrived to Trinidad and Tobago in 1845, with the arrival of the first Indian indentured laborers, the overwhelming majority of which were Hindu. According to the 2011 census there were 240,100 declared Hindus in Trinidad and Tobago.

All Trinidad Sugar Estates and Factory Workers Union, founded by Adrian Cola Rienzi was the major sugar workers' trade union and the predominant Indo-Trinidadian voice in organised labour in Trinidad and Tobago between the 1930s and 1970s. Leadership of the trade union passed from Rienzi to the Vice President, McDonald Moses, then Bhadase Sagan Maraj, and later to Krishna Gowandan.

The National Union of Freedom Fighters (NUFF) was an armed Marxist revolutionary group in Trinidad and Tobago. Active in the aftermath of the 1970 Black Power Revolution, the group fought a guerrilla warfare campaign to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Eric Williams following the failed Black Power uprising and an unsuccessful mutiny in the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment.

Tiwari, from Sanskrit 'tripāṭhin', is a Hindu surname found in India and Nepal. Alternative spellings include Tiwary and Tewari.

The All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers' Trade Union (ATSGWTU) is a trade union in Trinidad and Tobago. It was founded in 1937 to represent workers in the sugar industry, but expanded its scope in 1978 to include workers in a variety of sectors.

Deshbandhu means "friend of the nation" in Hindi and Bengali, and may refer to:

Faris Al-Rawi is a Trinidadian and Tobagonian politician. He was the former Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago from 2015 to 2022. He is also a Member of the House of Representatives for the constituency of San Fernando West.

Stella Piari Abidh (1903–1989) was a Trinidad and Tobago public health physician. She served as the Medical Officer of Health for San Fernando and as medical supervisor of schools in south Trinidad. She is believed to be the first Indo-Trinidadian woman to become a doctor.

References

1 2 3 4 Basdeo, Sahadeo; Samaroo, Brinsley (16 September 2008). "Indo-Caribbean Political Leaders During the Twentieth Century". In Raghuram, Parvati; Sahoo, Ajaya Kumar; Maharaj, Brij; Sangha, Dave (eds.). Tracing an Indian Diaspora: Contexts, Memories, Representations. SAGE Publications. pp. 96–122. ISBN 978-81-321-0039-3.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Samaroo, Brinsley (2005). "East Indian - West Indian: The Public Career of Adrian Cola Rienzi". UWI Today. Archived from the original on 24 May 2005.
↑ Anthony, Michael (1997). Historical Dictionary of Trinidad and Tobago. London: Scarecrow Press. p. 480. ISBN 0-8108-3173-2.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[Basdeo-1] 1 2 3 4 Basdeo, Sahadeo; Samaroo, Brinsley (16 September 2008). "Indo-Caribbean Political Leaders During the Twentieth Century". In Raghuram, Parvati; Sahoo, Ajaya Kumar; Maharaj, Brij; Sangha, Dave (eds.). Tracing an Indian Diaspora: Contexts, Memories, Representations. SAGE Publications. pp. 96–122. ISBN 978-81-321-0039-3.

[Samaroo_2005-2] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Samaroo, Brinsley (2005). "East Indian - West Indian: The Public Career of Adrian Cola Rienzi". UWI Today. Archived from the original on 24 May 2005.

[3] Anthony, Michael (1997). Historical Dictionary of Trinidad and Tobago. London: Scarecrow Press. p. 480. ISBN 0-8108-3173-2.

[1]

[2]

[3]