The election of Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister represents a very important step for the immigrant community, more specifically the Indian one, in the countries of the United Kingdom. Historically relegated to menial or second-rate jobs, Indians have struggled for at least five decades against racism and prejudice — issues that are rarely discussed in depth in the British political environment.
Indians have for decades represented the largest racial community of non-whites living in the country. According to a 2019 study (the last census was carried out in 2011) by the Office of National Statistics, Indians now make up 2.9% of the British population, and, importantly, about half of them were born in the country, like the new prime minister.
Rishi Sunak was born in 1980 and is one of the first great generations of Indians born in the UK. Although there are records of immigrants from India for more than a century, it was only in the 1960s that migration took on an air of diaspora. The 1971 census indicated a community of 375,000 Indians in the country, almost five times as many as had been recorded ten years earlier. In 2011, the group already totaled 1.5 million people.
The profound racism these immigrants and their children were subjected to on the islands led to the creation of organizations such as the Hindu Council in 1994 and the Oxford University Center for Hindu Studies three years later.
Sunak was born in Southampton, a coastal town in southern England, the son of a general practitioner and a pharmacy manager who saved money to send their children to elite schools. “In terms of cultural education, on the weekend I would be at the temple – I’m Hindu – but I could also go to Southampton Stadium to watch a football game,” Sunak told the BBC in 2019.
He says he is lucky not to have experienced many moments of prejudice, but he told the British network about an episode that marked him: “I was a teenager and I was with my younger brothers in a fast food restaurant. There were people sitting nearby and it was the first time i saw some saying really nasty things [sobre a origem da família]. It hurt, and I still remember. It stuck in my memory.”
Of course, the community celebrates the fact that one of its members rises to the top of the British government. But just as the election of Barack Obama did not end racism in the United States, there is little hope that Sunak’s moment will bring about any kind of profound transformation.
Last week, for example, Bloomberg columnist Pankaj Mishra published a piece whose headline asked “What’s not on Sunak’s to-do list?” And the columnist himself replied: “Ending racism”.
Despite being proud of his roots, they were never central to Sunak’s political platform. And the fact that he is terribly rich and that he has had an education that many of his people do not have access to end up detaching the prime minister from the majority of the Indian community in the kingdom.
Sunak supported Brexit because he believed it would make the UK “freer, fairer and more prosperous”. And he said the change in immigration rules, which were tightened, was another important reason for the vote to leave the economic bloc. “Immigration can benefit our country, but we must have control of our borders,” he defended at the time, expressing a position he still maintains.
To Sunak’s rise to the UK’s top political office must be added Sadiq Khan’s election to London Mayor in 2016 and his re-election in 2021. Like Sunak, Khan was born in England but, unlike the prime minister, has Pakistani origins. and came from a Muslim family.
The two religions have everything to do with the birth and independence of these countries in Asia in the last century. India has been a British colony since the 18th century, but direct control ended after World War II (1939-1945).
In 1947, great India was divided into three on the basis of the religiosity of its populations. To the northwest, West Pakistan was created, with a Muslim majority, with 30 million people; to the east, East Pakistan, also Muslim, with another 30 million; in the middle was India, of Hindu and Sikh religions and its then 330 million inhabitants. Later, in 1971, East Pakistan became Bangladesh.
These two communities, Pakistani and Bangladeshi, also have large representations in the UK. Pakistanis and their descendants, such as the Mayor of London, make up 2.4% (1.2 million) of the British population, second only to Indians and tied with Africans as the nation’s second largest community. Bangladeshis are 1.1% (500,000 people).
The partition of India along religious lines has led to unprecedented population migrations and inter-ethnic massacres with unprecedented violence in the region, with figures ranging from 200,000 to 2 million dead.
More than half a century later, these differences have not healed and reached the UK. The Indian and Pakistani communities aren’t exactly flesh and blood, and every now and then an episode brings the rivalry back into focus.
That’s what happened a few weeks ago in Leicester, central England, when India beat Pakistan in a cricket Asian Cup match. Pakistani gangs took to the streets and vandalized Indian businesses, homes and cars, as well as terrorizing community members, including stabbing attempts. The confusion lasted for days and, in response, the Indian community organized boycotts of Pakistani businesses and restaurants to “choke them economically”.
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
