Parents wanted me to speak without accent to ‘fit in’: Rishi Sunak

PTI

London, February 4

Rishi Sunak, the UK's Indian-origin Prime Minister, has said that he experienced “racism” when he was a child and his parents sent him for extra drama lessons so that he could “speak properly” without an accent to “fit in”.

In 2022, Sunak scripted history when he was appointed by King Charles III as Britain's first Indian-origin Prime Minister after being elected unopposed as the new leader of the governing Conservative Party on Diwali.

The 43-year-old former Chancellor of the Exchequer, a devout Hindu, is the youngest British PM in 210 years. He is also the first Hindu PM of Indian heritage in the UK.

Speaking to a TV channel, Sunak shared how his parents were so determined he should fit in and speak without an accent that he was sent for extra drama lessons. “You are conscious of being different,” he said.

“It's hard not to be, right, and obviously I experienced racism as a kid.” Sunak also recalled the pain of hearing slurs directed at his younger siblings, adding that racism “stings” in a way that other things don't”. He felt what he experienced would not happen to his children now. Sunak said his parents were keen for him and his siblings – a brother and sister – to “fit in and not for it to be, in any way, shape or form, a barrier”.

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