When in 1857, Britain conquered India, Queen Victoria became Empress of India and there began the beginning of the rule of the British Raj – which Indians seemed to have regarded as rag not raj.
When Gandhi singlehandedly toppled the British Empire 90 years later, he was not likewise made Emperor of Britain with him also personally refusing to become PM of India – as political office had no attraction for the one who had become exalted as a Mahatma (a Saint).
The fact that Rishi Sunak of Indian descent has become the PM of England seems more like if England has redressed its mistake in not offering the position to Gandhi by elevating this descendant to the position.
What goes around comes around seem appropriate in the shenanigans of the geo-political horizon as Obama of Kenyan ancestry became the US president, as Kamala Harris of Indian and Jamaican ancestry became the US VP and now with Rishi Sunak of Indian and, incidentally, of Kenyan ancestry, as well, becoming the PM of England.
The idea of white supremacy has diminished over the years as in sports, for example, in boxing, the white boxer is no longer invincible; and in basketball, Afro-Americans own the patent for it; cricket was for a time dominated by West Indians made up mainly of Afro-Caribbean players and today the BCCI of India is the powerhouse in that game; and in so many other aspect of the human endeavour, whites no longer have a hegemony as they once did.
It was natural that in politics that one day blacks and coloured people would scale the wall that blocked them from entering the corridors of power as is happening now.
To paraphrase Neil Armstrong, “this is one small step for Sunak, but a giant leap for mankind.”
L. Siddhartha Orie
