UK elections: How Indian diaspora has helped Britain become more sensible towards India

Keir Starmer, human rights barrister and freshly elected Britain’s prime minister, had a very important message that he wanted to convey, when the Labour Party trounced the Tories in Britain’s general elections earlier this week.

He has announced a “reset” for not only his own country but the Labour Party’s relationship with India and intentions to pursue a new “strategic partnership", including Free Trade Agreement with India. While campaigning, he also denounced “Hinduphobia” and made very obvious efforts to woo Hindu voters by making several visits to temples. This approach is a radical shift from the Labour Party’s previous stance towards India under the leadership of Jeremy Corbin, especially the party’s previous favouritism of Pakistan regarding the Kashmir issue.

Starmer promises to ensure that the Labour Party is rid of any anti-India sentiments, with party chair Amelia Dodds promising that the Labour Party has “cleansed its ranks of any members with extremist views on India”. The Labour Party is also expected to push hard on visa negotiations and take a close look at immigration, which is one of the most controversial topics in British politics.

These are very strong statements that very transparently show just how important the Indian community and, via them, India, are to political leaders in the UK.

There are approximately 1.5 million people of Indian descent living in the UK, with about half a million residing in London. Their energy and ambition are reflected in high rates of employment and professional qualification, with Indians having the highest employment rate of any other ethnic group in the UK. More than 50 per cent of Indians in the UK are qualified to degree leve, l and over 40 per cent work in managerial and professional occupations.

There are around 65,000 companies owned by the Indian diaspora in the UK. Around 654 of them have a minimum annual turnover of around 100,000 pounds, with a combined revenue of almost 37 billion pounds, paying over a billion pounds in corporation tax while providing employment to almost 180,000 people. It is quite clear that Indians are among the most prosperous, value-adding, and dynamic ethnic minority communities in the UK, exerting an enormous amount of political and economic influence.

This means that some of the wealthiest people in Britain are of Indian descent. Srichand, Hinduja, and ‘steel magnate’ Lakshmi Mittal are names often found topping the Sunday Times’ ‘Rich list’. These businessmen have followed in the footsteps of one of the first notable Indian entrepreneurs, Lord Gulam Noon (1936–2015), who built a mammoth business catering to Britain’s love of curry, amassing a personal fortune of 65 million before entering the House of Lords in 2011. He also donated millions to charities in the UK and India.

There is now a new generation of Britons of Indian heritage who are taking up the baton, such as the Arora brothers of the B&M retail chain, Rishi Khosla of OakNorth Bank, Kuljinder Bahia of Southall Travell, Mohsin and Zubair Issa of Euro Garages, among others, who are becoming a powerful force in British society.

Going beyond the world of business, the energy and talents of the Indian diaspora are being felt across various domains such as academics, medicine, the arts, sports, and politics.

Most of the UK’s most prestigious academic institutions count specialists boasting an Indian heritage among their highest-ranking academic staff. Sir Venkatraman Krishnan, an Indian-born American and British structural biologist who was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, is a former President of the Royal Society.

British Indian actors and broadcasters are increasingly visible in the UK’s media scene. Journalists Krishnan Guru Murthy and Naga Munchetty are prolific in their fields, as are Meera Syal, an actress and writer, and Sir Anish Kapoor, a Bombay-born sculptor.

The Indian diaspora has been deeply involved in British politics for quite some time now. In the 2024 UK general elections, there were as many as 108 British Indians in the race for 680 available seats, with a record number of Indian-origin politicians being elected to the British Parliament, most of them representing the Labour Party.

The first Parliamentarian of Indian origin in the UK was Dadabhai Naoroji, who sat as a Liberal Democrat from 1829–95. Priti Patel made history when she became the first person of Indian origin to serve the UK as Home Secretary in 2019. Baron Meghnad Desai was the first non-UK-born candidate to stand for the position of Lord Speaker in the House of Lords. Outgoing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak created history when he became the first Indian-origin politician to be invited by King Charles III to form the British government in October 2022.

People of Indian descent currently make up about 2.5 per cent of the population of England and Wales, yet in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, 2019, almost 4 per cent of the recipients were of Indian heritage.

The contribution of the Indian diaspora to public service institutions such as the NHS is indispensable. Despite there being no official figures, it is estimated that there are upwards of 50,000 medical professionals of Indian origin (both Indian and British citizens) serving the NHS in the UK currently.

These facts, circumstances, and conditions explain why political leaders in the UK are so eager to seek favour and appease the powerful and influential Indian community in the country.

The Indian diaspora is also an indispensable soft power tool for India when it comes to our nation’s standing in an increasingly polarised world.

If Atal Bihari Vajpayee, during his 1998–2004 tenure as Indian PM, is credited with having promoted serious engagement with the Indian diaspora so that mutually beneficial linkages can be developed, PM Modi is known for really pressing the accelerator on this agenda. In an interaction with the Indian diaspora in Denmark in 2022, PM Modi urged them to work as “Rashtradoots” (representatives of the country) and encouraged them to invite their peers to India under the “Chalo India” banner.

The combined turnover of Indian diaspora-owned companies and Indian parent-owned companies in the UK is 85 billion pounds, with almost 2 billion pounds paid in taxes and close to 300,000 people employed. These significant numbers cannot be ignored, and they are clearly being noticed by UK political leaders, as demonstrated by even the Labour Party’s newly developed warmth towards India.

We are being wooed, and how? Our diaspora is a symbol of national pride, and they represent our country internationally. Their ability to spread India’s message and lobby for our interests while contributing significantly to our economy is now well recognised. We can see that the world is also recognising and acknowledging India’s growing dominance as a power and force to be reckoned with in the world today.

The author is a freelance journalist and features writer based out of Delhi. Her main areas of focus are politics, social issues, climate change and lifestyle-related topics. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.