Rishi Sunak has now taken charge as the new PM of the UK. It is a fact that he is the first non-white PM of the UK and the youngest PM to lead the UK in modern times but is Rishi Sunak truly Indian? If yes, how Indian is he and what is his connection with India? Let us get our facts right with NH Truth Box.
Rishi’s Indian Connection
Rishi Sunak was born in Southampton in 1980 to Yashvir and Usha Sunak. Both his parents though of Indian descent were born in Kenya formerly known as Colony and Protectorate of Kenya and Tanganyika which later became Tanzania.
Young Rishi with his parents
His original connection to India would be his grandparents who were born in the Punjab province in British India which is now a part of Pakistan. His grandparents migrated from East Africa with their families to the UK in the 1960s. His paternal grandfather, Ramdas Sunak, was from Gujranwala (present-day Pakistan) and moved to Nairobi, Kenya in 1935 to work as a clerk, where he was joined by his wife Suhag Rani Sunak from Delhi in 1937. His maternal grandfather, Raghubir Sain Berry MBE, worked in Tanganyika as a tax official and had an arranged marriage with 16-year-old Tanganyika-born Sraksha, with whom he had three children, and the family moved to the UK in 1966, funded by Sraksha selling her wedding jewellery. In the UK, Raghubir Berry joined the Inland Revenue, and as a collector, was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1988 Birthday Honours list.
His Indian in-laws
He met his wife, Akshata Murthy, the daughter of Infosys c0-founders Narayan Murthy and Sudha Murthy at Standford University, USA where she was pursuing his MBA and he was a Fullbright scholar. The duo got married in 2009 in Bengaluru in a simple wedding and have well-settled careers carved for themselves. They are even called one of the richest couples in the UK.
More aspects
As Chancellor of the Exchequer in Boris Johnson’s regime, Rishi Sunak lit Diwali diyas at his residence on Downing Street. Rishi Sunak often speaks of his Hindu heritage and how his family reminded him often about values and culture. Every time elected as MP, he swears by the Bhagavad Gita. Rishi Sunak visits Bangalore with his wife and two children often to meet his in-laws.
Conclusion?
His Indian connection is well refuted by many as any place he is associated with is not in India anymore.
But it is true that he has a strong Indian origin and in-laws from India. The bigger matter of concern for us should not be if he is strongly Indian enough or not but if his regime will bring the best of Indo-English relations or will be yet another run of the mill?
