Indian-origin British PM Rishi Sunak symbolises white acceptance

Renu Sud Sinha

Growing up in the late 1970s and early 1980s England in an atmosphere of rampant racism, Sukhraj Barhey (60) never imagined that “someone who look liked me would get the top job in UK in my lifetime”. A chartered accountant, Barhey owns a consultancy firm in Warwickshire. “My father was a carpenter as most white-collared jobs were not open to Indians then. Life at school was difficult, racist slurs of smelly-skin, garlic-eaters were constant. Who could imagine then that 40-50 years down the line, an Indian guy will head the government?”

When Rishi Sunak became the first brown-skinned child of the ‘empire’ to occupy 10 Downing Street, there were celebrations among those of his ilk across the UK that in the words of Sherlock Holmes were “understandable but unnecessary”.

Barhey’s daughter Kiran (29) is a barrister. “She may feel more British than Indian but at the end of the day, she is a brown girl in a profession that’s still male-dominated, hierarchal and old-fashioned where these men would prefer only people like themselves in top positions,” says Barhey.

“Our festivals and cultural symbols are not given prominence or understood by the British. When Sunak celebrated Diwali at 11 Downing Street, a couple of years back, all newspapers carried the photos. It may be a small thing but these symbols are important, that it’s not such an outlandish, non-British thing to do. Racism would still be around but his elevation has lent the next generation more confidence and self-belief.”

Daughter of an IAF martyr of the 1971 war, London-based Deepti Arora nee Sachdeva, finance director at the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, volunteers with the Royal Air Force Association. The viral joke about aspirational Indian parents telling kids to not just be lawyers or bankers but to be PM now does hold kernels of truth, says the mother of two Cambridge-educated girls. “Everyone is celebrating — not just about an Indian Hindu becoming the PM, but also that if you put your mind and heart to it, you can be anything. Rishi has opened new playing fields for our younger generation. My white colleagues, however, are not too happy: ‘An Indian is going to rule us?’ But for Asians who work hard and follow rules, this is a moment of validation that hard work pays,” adds Arora.

Though on the opposite side of the political spectrum, Varinder Sharma, a Labour MP from Ealing, Southall, calls Conservative Sunak’s elevation a breaking-the glass-ceiling moment. “British society has moved from Enoch Powel’s ‘Rivers of blood’ speech and those reactionary, anti-black feelings to accepting that people of different colour or ethnicity are part and parcel of British society and can safeguard the economic and political interests of the country in leadership roles.”

This change, he says, gives confidence to the minorities that British society is now accepting them and not just tolerating them. “Life may not become easier for the next generation, but this moment will give them more confidence. Rishi is a role model now — if he can, they can too,” says the longest serving British-Indian MP.

A third-generation Indian, Rajinder Dudrah is a professor of cultural studies and creative industries at Birmingham City University. His grandparents arrived in the 1960s. “I am a child of the ’70s and ’80s. It was a very different environment, one of discrimination. White kids openly called us Pakis in school, jeering about curry smells. Racism was rife in the job place which my father experienced first-hand. Luckily, we lived in a multi-racial area. My mum and dad worked in factories. I was the first from my family to go to university. There were only a handful of brown and black faculty members in the predominantly white academia when I started. We experienced racism in terms of what other white academicians thought of Asian and Indian culture. We had to fight for our space. It’s changing slowly, particularly after Black Lives Matter.”

Sunak coming through the white ranks and now holding the highest office in land, it’s absolutely a momentous moment, a cultural moment, says Prof Dudrah. “For the next generation, it means change is possible and hope is real and we can, as brown people, as Indians, as people of diaspora, as people of Asian origin or as black people, also aspire to the high office. However, people like me who have held positions of power are cautious, because once you come to that position, the struggles are very different. Am I listened to at that top table? Are their micro-aggressions passive racism? Decolonising the curriculum is a big thing in higher education, ‘why my professor is white and not black’ is a movement. Some institutions are really struggling with that. That colonial mindset is still there and it needs work.”

Sunak’s elevation, he says, may not bring the desired change and acceptance. “We have seen this with Barack Obama. What it brings is the possibility of hope. If he stays the course, he will leave a trail of leadership that other brown/black people can aspire for. It shows a model that leadership is possible irrespective of your colour,” adds the former visiting scholar at Wolfson College, Oxford, who has served in leadership roles in the universities of Manchester and Portsmouth.

Ilford-based Ravi Bhanot’s family has a similar trajectory as Sunak’s. It came from Kenya in 1971. “The initial years were full of confusion. In Kenya, we were the buffer between the whites and blacks. There was acceptance and Indians were in good positions and professions. From there, we came to an atmosphere of extreme racism. We would get beaten up in school regularly, with teachers turning a blind eye. We would move in groups and did not go out at night. Ours was a typical Indian family, working hard all seven days of the week. My father taught history and English in school and my mother opened a sweetshop. They ensured we got a good education. I acquired a degree in pharmacy and eventually opened my own pharmacies,” says the philanthropist, who received an MBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) last year for exemplary charity work during Covid. His charity Sewa Day, which started in the 1980s, has expanded to 10 countries now.

“There was a shift in attitudes of whites as Indians prospered and became employers. But after Rishi, the feeling among whites seems to be that they have underestimated the Indians. There’s apparently more respect, acceptance and Indians will be taken more seriously,” adds Bhanot, who has authored five books on Ayurveda and has also trained over 6,000 therapists.

Writer Amarjit Chandan feels seeing ‘apna banda’ being the Prime Minister would give some comfort to an average Punjabi. “Sunak shares his ancestral place Gujranwala with Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Surely, he’s not of ‘low calibre’ the way Winston Churchill once described all Indian leaders. But it would be too much to expect from an Indian-origin PM to grapple with the unresolved issues of the colonial past such as the Koh-i-Noor and an apology for Jallianwala Bagh.”

Poet Mona Arshi has a difference perspective. “Forgive me if I sit with a certain conflict with this news because just a glance at Sunak’s policies and his voting record make me wince. It’s fair to say we are allowed to mark the occasion of the first UK PM of colour, it’s a moment none of us thought we would ever see, but let’s not get blinded with the optics of representation and concentrate on his policies.”

As a British-Indian first, rival Labour MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi from Slough is quick to acknowledge, “Representation matters. It is a landmark moment but after the dust settles, his policies and politics will determine whether Sunak is a good Prime Minister, or not.”

London-based Debarshi Pandit, senior VP (international business and head of multicultural business), Sky Network, and a father of two kids, calls it a moment of pride and comfort. “Rishi has opened a lot of doors and given more dreams to Indians. I wish his own party rallies around him and he stays the course given that class-racism exists, otherwise he should have been selected in the first round itself,” says Pandit, referring to the now infamous LBC radio show incident, where a Tory member refused to accept Sunak as British and had to be shut down.

Dr Virinder Kalra, head of the sociology department, University of Warwick, is “surprised, happy and excited at something so unimaginable”. Kalra, whose family moved to England in 1962, says, “People of my generation can’t believe that the British premier is an Indian. It is huge thing, but is not going to have any impact on the lives of British-Indians,” says the cautious academician, referring to Sunak’s elite background.

“His elevation may just prove to be an empty symbol and harden the views of those opposed to him. There was a news report that said 85 per cent of voters are white and how does he represent them?” adds Kalra.

Harjit Gill, former mayor of Gloucester, the first Asian to occupy the coveted post, is more hopeful though due to Sunak’s track record during Covid, particularly the furlough scheme and government-guaranteed £50,000 loan for small business. The Conservatives, too, hope that voters, whether white or not, remember this when the General Election comes.

‘Part & parcel of society’

Rishi is a role model. British society is accepting that people of different colour or ethnicity are its part and parcel and can safeguard the interests of the country in leadership role. Varinder Sharma, labour MP

‘A more diverse britain’

Sunak’s elevation is a landmark moment. Britain has got more diversity in Parliament now. Other nations can see that we can have a better democracy if we give everyone a chance. Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, labour MP

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If we think of all the degradation my parents lived under in ‘British’ East Africa and the racist slurs they encountered coming to England, I know even as life-long Labour voters, my parents would really value this moment as do I!

— Gurinder Chadha OBE @GurinderC

When I first went to the UK as a student, Indians were most likely seen sweeping the floors at Heathrow. Or corner shops. My friends randomly called me Abdul, and I was beaten up because I dared to go out with a white girl. Thank you #RishiSunak, you are part of a huge global shift.

— Shekhar Kapur@shekharkapur

Some people are still perplexed about why Rishi Sunak’s race matters. It matters because of the imperial context. As I explain in #Empireland, Britain systematically excluded Indians from top jobs. Sikhs, for instance, were not trusted to drive trains....

— Sathnam Sanghera@Sathnam

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