All eyes in the UK PM race are on Rishi Sunak, who is of Punjabi ancestry, an Oxford graduate, and a “proud Hindu”

PAROMITA DAS

Many Indians occasionally experience self-doubt about their ethnicity. They are constantly looking for an occasion to disparage India. They lack empathy for their nation or its history.

Rishi Sunak, who is of Indian descent, is currently leading the race for the position of Prime Minister in Britain, which has, on the other hand, become more competitive. If Rishi is elected PM, that will be history in and of itself. If the experts are to be believed, Rishi can succeed Prime Minister Boris Johnson even though the latter may not like him.

On Monday, Rishi won the third round of voting among Parliamentary members of the Conservative Party. Rishi would be the first person of Indian descent to hold the position of prime minister of Britain if he wins this race. On September 5, the final decision will be made public.

Boris Johnson has gained additional attention as a result of claims that his resignation as the British Chancellor of the Exchequer was what ultimately led to his downfall.

From Punjab, travel to Africa and the UK

A Punjabi Khatri family from Gujranwala who now reside in Pakistan is the Sunaks. In 1935, Rishi’s maternal grandfather Ramdas Sunak moved from Gujranwala to Nairobi to work as a clerk.

A decline in Hindu-Muslim relations, according to Michael Ashcroft, Rishi’s authorised biographer, was a factor in the decision to relocate to Nairobi.

Suhag Rani Sunak, the wife of Ramdas, and her mother-in-law first relocated to Delhi from Gujranwala before making their way to Kenya in 1937.

Ramdas was an accountant who later rose to the position of administrative officer with the Kenyan colonial government, claims a source familiar with the family. Three sons and three daughters out of six children born to Ramdas and Suhag Rani.

One of them was Yashveer Sunak, the father of Rishi, who was born in Nairobi in 1949. Yashveer moved to Liverpool in 1966 and enrolled at the University of Liverpool to study medicine. Now, he resides in Southampton. All three of Ramdas and Suhag Rani’s daughters went to school in India.

Punjab is where Rishi’s maternal grandparents are from. Raghubir Berry, his maternal grandfather, was born and raised in Punjab before working as a railway engineer in Tanzania. He wed Sraksha Sunak, who was born in Tanzania.

Ashcroft claims that Sraksha traveled to the UK in 1966 on a one-way ticket she acquired by selling her wedding jewelery. Berry followed soon after and spent a significant amount of time working for the UK’s Inland Revenue department. In 1988, he received the MBE, or Member of the Order of the British Empire, which honors individuals who have made noteworthy contributions to society.

Usha, one of the couple’s three daughters, is the mother of Rishi. In 1972, Usha graduated with a degree in pharmacology from Aston University. Usha and Yashveer, the parents of Rishi, were wed in Leicester in 1977 after meeting in the UK.

Universities Winchester College, Stanford, and Oxford

Rishi was born in Southampton in 1980 and went to Winchester College, a prestigious private school. He worked part-time as a waiter at Southampton Curry House over the summer. Later, he went to Oxford University to study politics, philosophy, and economics.

“My parents made significant sacrifices so that I could go to a good school. I had the good fortune to attend Winchester College, Oxford, and Stanford University,” he reportedly said.

Sunak met his future wife, Akshata Murthy, a billionaire heiress, while pursuing his MBA at Stanford University in the US on a Fulbright scholarship. Akshata is the daughter of Narayana Murthy, the CEO of the IT services behemoth Infosys. Two of Rishi and Akshata’s daughters.

From 2001 to 2004, Rishi was employed by Goldman Sachs as an analyst. According to a UK government website, he later went on to become a partner in two hedge funds where he used his experience to aid the expansion of small and innovative British businesses.

After serving as a Conservative MP for Richmond in Yorkshire since 2015, he was appointed as a junior minister in Theresa May’s administration. Johnson appointed him chief secretary to the Treasury in 2019 and gave him a promotion to chancellor in February 2020.

Rishi resigned this month despite always being an outspoken supporter of Johnson’s policies, claiming that his own method of handling the economy was “fundamentally” different from that of the PM.

Additionally, Rishi has been openly identified as a “proud Hindu.” He has claimed that, despite referring to himself as “thoroughly British,” his religious and cultural heritage is “Indian,” just like that of his wife, and that “he is open about being a Hindu.” He had previously mentioned his religious reasons for abstaining from beef as well as the fact that he keeps a Ganesha idol on his desk.