Rishi Sunak’s elevation as the first British Asian and non-Christian prime minister of the United Kingdom, the heart of Anglo-Saxon civilization and Protestant/Anglican Christianity, is indeed a historic moment with numerous connotations.
Sunak as prime minister of Great Britain will mean many things to different sections of people. To many, he will be the first non-English premier of Britain, the first Hindu to some, the first person of Indian origin and South Asian descent to a few others, the first person of colour to a fewer more and the first migrant to lead Britain to a some others who will wish to see it that way.
Whichever way people will want to see it, the definitive part about this moment is the realization that dawns upon Britishers and the rest of the world on how much the country has evolved, from an erstwhile imperial power to a nation to be ruled by someone with roots traced to one of its erstwhile colonies. That the longest-reigning queen of the post-war and post-colonial United Kingdom missed this epochal shift could be seen as a momentary glitch in course of history.
The epochal moment, rather, is more about the metamorphoses of the British nation from an Anglo-Saxon homeland to a multi-cultural, ethnically diverse society providing a template for the global democratic order to be anchored on egalitarian principles when it comes to racial equality. That Sunak’s selection to premiership comes just a few years after the historic Brexit vote, which not just embodied the parting from the European community but also echoed a demurred British voice against indiscriminate immigration into the country only underlines its significance.
Immigrants, particularly those of South Asian descent, have deeply assimilated and integrated with British society to the extent that their younger generations have the British cultural and linguistic traits ingrained in their ways of life and identity. South Asian immigrants, particularly those of Indian origin, like their compatriots in the United States of America (USA), have made a major mark and significant influence in the British economic, socio-cultural and political spheres.
The sheer number of South Asian parliamentarians, on both sides of the political aisle, might signify this sweeping social change in the United Kingdom as much as the presence and contributions they have made in other critical areas including healthcare and the economy. The welcoming sight of South Asians manning immigration counters at Heathrow and other airports in the UK if not a sufficient indicator of this social pattern, the dominant imprint of Indian-origin nurses and doctors in the National Health Service (NHS) and the Indian restaurants that crowd every nook and corner of the country could provide defining images of how Indians have made their mark in the British society.
Post-colonial Britain is here…
How has Britain come to this go is, however, the grand saga of its post-colonial evolution. Having reigned over numerous colonies across Asia and Africa for over two centuries, the empire had begun providing a roof to tranches of colonial immigrants even before its sunset.
While many first-generation elites of independent India had the legacy of British education empowering their trysts with and in various leadership roles of nation-building, the monarchy and parliamentary democracy of post-war Britain also takes the credit for being among the earliest European societies to receive immigrants much before others in the Western hemisphere woke up to the idea of receiving and assimilating adopted citizens, particularly from the third world.
In that course of history, it could only be natural that the first British-Asian to rise to the top office comes more than half a century after the colonies were given independence and post-war British society found its place in the global democratic order. Reasonable, it could then be, to argue that the ‘idea of Great Britain’, like the European abstract, espouses a society of high order, great tolerance and grand assimilation of peoples, ideas and cultures that propounds hopes for humanity and civilized societies.
On the other hand, the high standards being set for public office and the culture of accountability that has been exhibited in British public service, even if a reason for the current political crises and instability, are exceptional attributes that should inspire third-world parliamentarians and political cultures.
So too the colonial Indian
What do Sunak’s elevations say about Indians, in Britain and the rest of the world? As one of the largest ethnic groups globally, with roots in the country that is the second most populous, the global permeation of Indians is a phenomenon in itself. As an English-speaking and educated diaspora, Indians have found greater acceptance in western societies where they feel merit and talent fetch greater reward than what they experienced in their homeland.
In post-liberalisation India, governments have begun to revisit the value of mass immigration to western lands and the role of the diaspora as an essential character of globalization with inherent benefits for the homeland and its economy. This is a far cry from the days when the flight of citizens to greener pastures was seen as a ‘brain drain’ and loss of precious talent.
In recent years, governments both at the centre and of various states have begun providing institutional support to aspirant immigrants. A recent initiative by the NORKA (Department of Non-resident Keralite’s Affairs) through its ROOTS programme to tie up with the Wales government in the UK to facilitate recruitment and immigration of nurses and healthcare workers from Kerala is a case in example.
While such initiatives might provide succor for the lakhs of aspirants who queue up outside Western consular missions across Indian cities, the socio-cultural impact of large-scale immigration of educated talent from the country also needs to be examined closely. Though, on the one hand, this relocation of people to foreign lands could slightly rebalance the demographic disadvantages caused by an over-swelling populace, such mass migration, on the other, could also imply major fragmentation of the traditional familial systems, increase in neglected and vulnerable geriatric population with inherent socio-psychological implications, profound income disparities among peer communities and also the rise of generations of Indians in foreign lands with little cultural and linguistic connect to the homeland.
Even as we celebrate the diaspora and many Rishis and Kamalas striking it big in Western lands as a veritable post-colonial phenomenon, it also comes with an established belief taking root among many Indians that wealth, prosperity, success and quality of life can only be attained in a foreign land.
While the Britishers can take pride in how they have evolved into a culturally tolerant and racially inclusive polity, Sunak’s integration story can only be resolutely confirmed if he is elected by the British electorate in the next general elections. The reasons why he lost out to Liz Truss in the Tory elections may not find much relevance in the current quirk of fate that has brought him to the same office he was denied. Yet, one cannot ignore the racially-loaded murmurs in various, even if fringe, sections of British society on handing over the charge of this country to an immigrant.
One could recall the incident of a few years ago when a UK government agency rejected the application of a British Sikh family to adopt a White orphaned child and was instead asked to look for a suitable child from India. Whether Sunak’s elevation symbolizes the total assimilation of Indians in British society is, hence, something we will have to wait and see.
