Britain gets first PM of colour and first Hindu at 10 Downing Street

Rishi Sunak is a practising Hindu with his ancestral roots in Gujranwala, Pakistan

In a surprising turn of events in the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, a son of Kenyan origin Indians migrated from Gujranwala and a pronounced Hindu, becomes the first prime minister of colour at the world famous 10 Downing Street. The arch-rivals India and Pakistan are on the cusp of history to share a collective pride.

It is an unprecedented moment that simply was unthinkable even a decade or two ago. Actually, it was the son of a Pakistani origin bus driver, a financial wizard Sajid Javed who was tipped to be the first prime minister of colour by British prime minister David Cameron in 2012.

However, Sajid’s bid for Tory Party leadership crashed in July 2022 when Boris Johnson ran into political turbulence. Rishi Sunak emerged as a strong candidate due to his prowess in fixing the economy and steering the financial ship during the turbulent waters during the pandemic.

The sense of comradery was well-established between Sajid Javed and Rishi Sunak due to similar lines of economic thinking. Both former bankers, with South Asian roots, the pair ended up in the British Treasury together after the 2019 election landslide. Sajid Javed rose to the position of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Sunak took up as Chief Secretary to the Treasury under Sajid Javed. Sunak once described his boss at the time as ‘Master Jedi’.

Unlike, Sajid Javed, who is a pronounced atheist, Rishi Sunak is a pronounced Hindu. Sunak's grandparents originated from British India, but their birthplace Gujranwala lies in modern day Pakistan's Punjab province. The Sunaks are a Punjabi Khatri family from Gujranwala, now in Pakistan. Ramdas Sunak, Rishi's paternal grandfather, left Gujranwala to work as a clerk in Nairobi in 1935.

Born in Southampton in 1980 to Hindu parents of Punjabi Indian descent, Sunak repeatedly during the last leadership campaign spoke of helping his mum, who ran a pharmacy, with the books, doing payroll and accounts.

Also read: Rishi Sunak: What you need to know about UK’s new PM

He had a privileged education – he went to an elite fee-paying school and is the latest prime minister to have studied politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University, following David Cameron and his predecessor, Truss.

It is also going to be the first time in history that the occupants of No 10 Downing Street will be richer than the monarch in Buckingham Palace – and at a time when millions of Britons are struggling with a cost of living crisis.

Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty, are sitting on a combined fortune of about £730m – roughly double the estimated £300m-£350m wealth of King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort.

Rishi Sunak has been open about his Hindu faith. When he became an MP in 2015 for Richmond in North Yorkshire, he took his oath at the House of Commons on the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Hindu text.

Mr Sunak lit ceremonial diyas on the steps of 11 Downing Street when he was chancellor to mark Diwali — an occasion that could coincide with his anointing as Tory leader. The former investment banker and his wife, Akshata Murthy — the daughter of wealthy Indian businessman Narayana Murthy — are bringing up their two daughters as Hindus and pray as a family.

Rishi Sunak is facing profound economic challenges as British prime minister. 2022 became the year of two monarchs and three prime ministers. The year when the British constitution was tested to the limit yet again.

Sunak has inherited an array of crises: from soaring energy prices and ‘stagflation’, to a rising tide of industrial action. Revolutionary explosions impend. In the United Kingdom, from the bus stops, the canteens, the working-class pubs and clubs, the hairdressers and corner shops – the conversations are the same: the price of food and energy bills; deteriorating public services; and the spiralling cost of living.

Today, YouGov has released new polling suggesting that the Labour leader Keir Starmer is seen as likely to make the best prime minister by voters in three times as many constituencies as Rishi Sunak.

In my view, having met Rishi Sunak multiple times, his approach towards Pakistan will be more cordial compared to Liz Truss, who, initially coughed up merely 1.5 million sterling in aid after the devastating floods in Pakistan. We are not going to see any watershed moments in Pakistan UK relationship as both countries are embroiled in political and economic uncertainties.