Seepersad Naipaul

Seepersad Naipaul (; 1906–1953) was a Trinidadian writer. He was the father of writers V. S. Naipaul, Shiva Naipaul and Savi Naipaul Akal, and married into the influential Indo-Trinidadian Capildeo family.

Early life Born to a poor Indian family in rural Trinidad, one generation away from indenture, Seepersad Naipaul largely educated himself. Sent to live with extended family, he would help rear goats and cows in the mornings, and then walk to school without shoes. He was only allowed to attend elementary school;

Though Naipaul was only in school a few years, he taught himself to read and write, and wished to become a writer. His role models were O. Henry and William Somerset Maugham.

Career Despite his limited formal education, Naipaul became the Central correspondent for the Trinidad Guardian, where he was the paper's first Indo-Trinidadian journalist. Professor Aaron Eastley, of Brigham Young University in Utah, describes Naipaul's as "a voice that was creative, often sensational, and certainly dramatic". Guardian sales reportedly rose during his employ.

In 1976, 23 years after the elder Naipaul's death, the collection was re-edited and republished as The Adventures of Gurudeva, and Other Stories (Andre Deutsch). V. S. Naipaul opted to omit some stories for this second edition, including a story in which his father satirised himself through a character called Gopi. According to publisher and Caribbean scholar Jeremy Poynting, V. S. declined the option to republish the book a second time.

Despite its limited time in print, Gurudeva and Other Indian Tales has been called "a landmark in Indian diasporic fiction" by N. Jayaram

Though out of print for several decades, Gurudeva and Other Indian Tales is due to be republished in 2025, as part of Peepal Tree Press' Caribbean Modern Classics series. The new edition will include new stories, originally broadcast on the BBC World Service's Caribbean Voices programme or published in Caribbean periodicals, as well as those stories removed from the 1976 second edition.

In a review of the book, James Woods notes Seepersad Naipaul's dedication to his seven children and the combination of humour and pathos in his letters. Though the elder Naipaul describes feeling "trapped" in his day job, which does not let him write as much as he would like, he takes joy in his son's accomplishments.

Seepersad Naipaul, Amazing Scenes: Selected Journalism 1928–1953 (2024) Edited by Aaron Eastley, Brinsley Samaroo, Kenneth Ramchand and Nivedita Misra, Seepersad Naipaul, Amazing Scenes: Selected Journalism 1928–1953 (Leeds: Peepal Tree Press, 2024) covers 25 years of Naipaul's columns and articles in the T&T Guardian. Naipaul was initially charged with reporting on the lives of the East Indians on the island. The articles often reflect on topical issues of the day but are notable for their humour.

The incidents described in book often highlight the parallels between the elder Naipaul's career in journalism and V. S. Naipaul's character of Mohan Biswas in his novel A House for Mr Biswas. Shortly after, he receives a threatening letter. The letter warns him of a deadly curse, which can only be undone if he sacrifices a goat to Kali Mai. He initially responds with humour, when he writes: "Briefly and explicitly, I say bunkum."

Despite this initial flippancy, Naipaul was eventually persuaded by his friends and family to perform the sacrifice of a goat in 1933. He was reportedly distressed that he had been forced to do something he did not believe in and, according to his son V. S. Naipaul and others, this triggered a mental breakdown a few months later.

Death On 2 February 1953, after their father had a heart attack, Kamla Naipaul wrote to her brother Vidia, who was still in Oxford. She demanded that, in order to save their father's life and the lives of their siblings, he send an encouraging letter to Seepersad urgently, and that he find a London publisher for The Adventures of Gurudeva, and Other Stories. Writing in the T&T Guardian, Shereen Ali noted that the "older, more sympathetic Naipaul" also used many of the features lauded in the work of V. S. "a generation before his son did". Seepersad Naipaul's own career in journalism inspired the titular character from A House for Mr Biswas. Vidia was particularly inspired by his father reading from Booker T. Washington's Up From Slavery.

In 2000, an act of Parliament established the Friends of Mr Biswas, an organisation led by Professor Kenneth Ramchand, to manage the property. As a result, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago bought and restored 26 Nepaul Street in 2002 — a year after V. S. Naipaul won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

As well as running Naipaul House and Literary Museum, the Friends of Mr Biswas also works to support and promote Trinbagonian writers through its ongoing programme of activities.

The Naipauls of Nepaul Street In 2018, Savi Naipaul Akal published her memoir, The Naipauls of Nepaul Street (Leeds: Peepal Tree Press). The book explores family life at Naipaul House, including the sacrifices made by Seepersad Naipaul and his wife, Droapatie, to raise their seven children. For example, she explains how her mother coped with her father's early death, succeeding in sending all seven children to university (including all five daughters), and how she and Seepersad imparted a sense of independence in the girls from a young age.

The book also details the family estrangements and emigrations, including V. S. Naipaul's move to Oxford. Akal writes of the reason so many Naipauls moved away, and the impact of this emigration on the family, as well as the impact of a second premature death — that of her brother, Shiva Naipaul. This later developed into the anthology Seepersad and Sons: Naipaulian Synergies, published by Peepal Tree Press in 2019. Contributors to the anthology include Eastley, Ramchand, J. Vijay Maharaj, Nicholas Laughlin, Arnold Rampersad, Andre Bagoo, Sharon Millar, Keith Jardim, Raymond Ramcharitar, and others.