How the Descendants of Former British Colonies Has Altered the UK’s Political Landscape

The descendants and children of immigrants from the former colonies, which were occupied by the United Kingdom, leave their mark remarkably and increasingly in British politics, as their involvement in the political landscape has increased significantly in recent times.

Last October, Rishi Sunak, 43, assumed the post of British Prime Minister as the youngest prime minister, and he is of Indian origin, succeeding Liz Truss.

The same event was repeated recently with Humza Yousaf, 37, after winning the position of First Minister of Scotland.

This makes them (Sunak and Yousaf) the first two ministers in the history of the UK of Pakistani and Indian origin.

On the other side, there is the Prime Minister of the Republic of Ireland, Leo Varadkar, who is of Indian origin, to add to the excitement of the historical event, which witnesses the domination of South Asian power in Britain and Ireland.

People with South Asian origin, some of whose roots can be found in the former British Empire, have advanced in the UK political system. Their rise is related to census data showing that as Muslim and Hindu populations increased, Britain became less Christian and white than it had been a decade earlier.

 

A New Generation of Leaders

The arrival of the new Scottish Prime Minister is part of the latest wave of a new generation of immigrant children and descendants reaching leadership positions in the UK.

On March 28, 2023, Humza Yousaf, the new leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), became the first-ever ethnic minority leader in a devolved government in the UK.

Yousaf comes from an immigrant Muslim family. His paternal grandparents came from Pakistan 60 years ago. He praised them at the moment of his victory by saying: “When his grandparents migrated to Glasgow in the 1960s, unable to speak English, they could not have imagined in their wildest dreams that their grandson would one day lead Scotland.”

“It reminds us that we should celebrate immigrants who make such a significant contribution to our country,” he added, in an outspoken criticism of the British government’s desire to tighten its asylum conditions.

Rishi Sunak’s victory as prime minister in October 2022 represented an important event in Britain as the youngest and first non-white prime minister, of Asian-Indian origin, in addition to being a politician and businessman who excelled in investing.

This political involvement of children of immigrants is also evident through the appointment of figures of diverse ethnic backgrounds to key positions, such as Secretary of State James Cleverly and Home Office Secretary Suella Braverman.

London-born Priti Patel, Braverman’s predecessor in the Boris Johnson government, is also of Indian heritage. Patel was an architect of the UK government’s controversial plan to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda, a policy Braverman is in charge of now.

There are similar stories elsewhere at the highest level of British politics as well, including Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, a British Muslim politician of Pakistani origin and a member of the Labour Party.

Humza Yousaf’s biggest political rival in the Scottish Parliament is Anas Sarwar, who heads the Labour Party and is a Muslim of Pakistani origin.

Last year, Hamza Taouzzale, of Moroccan origin, achieved a historic achievement by imitating the position of Mayor of Westminster, one of the most prestigious and richest areas in the capital, London, at the age of 21.

Baron Tariq Mahmood Ahmad, who is of Pakistani immigrant parents, also emerged after he was appointed Minister of State Foreign Commonwealth and Development Affairs Office in 2017.

Sunak’s predecessor Liz Truss won plaudits for having the most diverse cabinet in UK political history. Truss, who was in power for just 49 days in 2022, nominated seven people of color for her cabinet.

Before Truss in 2019, Johnson selected six people from ethnic minority backgrounds. They represented 18% of the cabinet, according to equality charity Diversity UK.

There were a handful of people from ethnic minority backgrounds in the UK parliament in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and then none until 1987 when four were elected for Labour. The number overall rose to 65 in the 2019 general election, about 10% of the House of Commons.

That’s just shy of the approximately 14% of the UK population who identify as ethnic minorities.

With a population of 68 million, the UK is home to approximately 1.8 million citizens of Indian-origin and 1.6 million of Pakistani-origin.

 

Real Stress Test

On March 28, 2023, The Conversation website published an article by political professors Parveen Akhtar and Timothy Peace, in which they said that for the first time in the history of the UK, the country had a Hindu PM in Westminster (Rishi Sunak) and a Muslim PM in Scotland (Humza Yousaf).

The authors also referred to what Yousaf said in his victory speech: “We should all be proud of the fact that today we sent a clear message, that the color of your skin and your religion are not an obstacle to leading the country that we all call home.”

The article commented by saying: “These two men, children of immigrants who came to the UK in search of a better life, apparently embody the dream that opens the way for immigrants and their children to reach major positions in society through hard work.”

The term migrant has become so divisive that it is harming support for the issues it is meant to highlight. And ironically, some of the politicians who are opposed to more immigration to the UK are also those who benefited from the system.

“Many of these politicians are the children and descendants of immigrants who came to the UK in the 1950s and 1960s who emigrated for economic reasons from former colonies such as India, Pakistan, and Africa,” the article added.

“Indeed, it is rare to hear him described as a Muslim minister or a Scottish-British-Asian MP. The same applies to others who preceded or followed him and is a measure of how far the UK has come in relation to minorities in public life,” it noted.

“It is important to note that neither Yousaf nor Sunak faced the real stress test. They both became leaders on the back of a closed party selection process, so they have not yet had to run as leaders in a general election,” it continued.

“This will be the true measure of the extent to which the wider British public accepts the changing face of national politics. It remains to be seen if their race becomes a factor in the public debate about their policies,” the article concludes.

On her part, author Emma Duncan published in The Times on March 30, 2023, an article entitled Empire strikes back in rise of Sunak and Yousaf.

The author said that she noticed an unusual development in Britain, where three, or perhaps five, became the most important politicians in the country with origins in the Indian subcontinent.

She asked, “What could the imperialists have done about this rise of the people of the former colonies? What about the theories of racial superiority that provided the moral justification for colonialism?

The author suggested that these developments occurred in part because Britain, despite its history of colonialism and slavery, is relatively non-racist, as she claims.

In this context, lawyer Bassam Tablieh explained that “the arrival of minorities or descendants of ancient British colonies is the result of the existence of democratic and legal rules that do not determine the religion or race of a person, but rather determine his competence. So it is only natural that after several decades these young people who were born and raised in the UK would reach leadership positions.”

In an interview with Al-Estiklal, Mr. Tablieh pointed out that “it is no secret that there is a deep state that intervenes in the joints of the UK and prevents any person or movement from deviating from the customs and laws that exist in the Kingdom and obliges him to take into account the economic interests of giant companies. In other words, even if members of minorities reach high positions, their powers are limited, and they must follow a consistent political and economic approach.”

Mr. Tablieh pointed out that “ethnic diversity has become a new normal at the British policy table. In the past years, we have seen several ministers from ethnic minorities in successive UK governments.”

 

New History

Paradoxically, the UK is governed for the first time by its auspices under the British colonial crown, and the idea of separation, with historical, religious, and social motives, strongly contests it from Scotland as well as from Ireland before the decade of the first quarter of the 21st century is completed, after Britain was the empire on which the sun never sets in the 19th century and half of the 20th century.

The fate of the future of the UK is in the hands of the children of immigrants from the former colonies, which Britain divided in 1947 into two independent states (India and Pakistan).

Rishi Sunak, the fierce supporter of permanently cutting the umbilical cord from the European continent, and Humza Yousaf, the bearer of the banner of independence from the UK, stand face to face today in discussions of the issue of Scotland’s secession from the British Union, after 75 years of what Great Britain made by separating Pakistan from India.

Despite confirming his aspiration to work with new SNP leader Humza Yousaf, Sunak rejected the latter’s call for a new independence referendum, The Independent reported.

On the other hand, Yousaf stressed in his victory speech that he would be the generation that would achieve the independence of Scotland and that the Scottish people needed independence.

The UK’s top court ruled last November that Scotland could not hold a second referendum without approval from the British parliament.

It is noteworthy that the grandfather of Humza Yousaf (Abdul Ghani) was a prominent activist in calling for the partition of India and the establishment of an independent state for the Muslims of India, which eventually led to the establishment of Pakistan as an independent state in 1947.

The division then came on a religious basis, as Hindu-majority states joined India and Muslim-majority states joined Pakistan.

As noted by former Indian Minister of State Shashi Tharoor on Twitter, “There’s the delicious irony of a person of Pakistani origin demanding the Partition of the UK while being resisted by a PM of Indian origin defending an Akhand Britain.”

In this regard, observers ask, will the descendants of immigrants coming to the UK in past centuries be able to create a new history of independence?