Shastri Boodan
Freelance Correspondent
Chaguanas Mayor Faaiq Mohammed says relatives of Suren Capildeo, SC, who inherited the historic Lion House, have reached out to the National Trust to initiate discussions about the building’s future.
“We are going to have a meeting next week with the National Trust and members of the Capildeo family,” Mohammed said in an interview with Guardian Media earlier this week.
“The family has reached out, and meeting with them is the most important step. Many people wrongly believe that Government can simply intervene even though the property is privately owned. We want to have a discussion with the family and take it from there.”
Capildeo, who was a politician, legal luminary and advocate, was the grandson of Pundit Capildeo, who constructed Lion House. He was also the cousin of late Nobel Laureate VS Naipaul, who immortalised Lion House in his novel a House for Mr Biswas after he lived there for a time.
Mohammed, who has been lobbying for the building’s restoration since 2020, revealed that on Thursday, the Disaster Management Unit of the Chaguanas Borough Corporation began clearing bushes from the exterior of Lion House. He explained that the corporation received permission to clear vines and external vegetation but was not authorised to enter the building to remove debris or rubbish, some of which may have been left by homeless individuals who sought shelter inside.
Mohammed said he intends to work alongside the business community and other stakeholders to secure funding for the restoration.
“Restoration depends on funding,” he noted.
The Lion House, located in Chaguanas, is the ancestral home of the Capildeo family and is regarded as the only structure of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. It was built by the late Pundit Capildeo, a former indentured labourer who rose to become a respected Hindu priest in Trinidad.
According to the National Trust, the building stands as a lasting symbol and memorial to the thousands of Indian indentured immigrants who arrived in Trinidad between 1845 and 1917.
Born in 1873 in Mahadev Dubey, a village in the state of Uttar Pradesh, East-Central India, Pundit Capildeo broke the bonds of indentureship and became a leading spiritual figure in the Hindu community. In 1924, he began constructing the Lion House, which was completed in 1926 and named Anand Bhavan, meaning Mansion of Bliss. That same year, he left for India on one of his many trips and sadly passed away during the visit, never returning to Trinidad.