London: Rishi Sunak, the UK's Indian-origin Prime Minister, has said that he experienced "racism" when he was a child and his parents sent him for extra drama lessons so that he could "speak properly" without an accent to "fit in".
In 2022, Sunak scripted history when he was appointed by King Charles III as Britain's first Indian-origin Prime Minister after being elected unopposed as the new leader of the governing Conservative Party on Diwali. The 43-year-old former Chancellor of the Exchequer, a devout Hindu, is the youngest British prime minister in 210 years. He is also the first Hindu Prime Minister of Indian heritage in the UK.
Speaking to ITV News, Sunak shared how his parents were so determined he should fit in and speak without an accent that he was sent for extra drama lessons. You are conscious of being different, he said. It's hard not to be, right, and obviously I experienced racism as a kid. Sunak also recalled the pain of hearing slurs directed at his younger siblings, adding that racism stings and hurts in a way that other things don't.
