From Nikki Haley to Rishi Sunak, a look at prominent Indian-origin world leaders
Rishi Sunak, 42, has become the first person of Indian origin to become the prime minister of the United Kingdom. He is the UK’s youngest and first prime minister of colour.
He served as the UK’s finance minister and was praised for his Covid-19 economic rescue package.
Like Sunak, Indian-origin politicians are currently serving in crucial portfolios in countries all around the world, from the United States to Portugal.
Also read: Rishi Sunak: Bengaluru/India connection, and his passion for cricket
Here’s a look at some other Indian-origin leaders around the world:
Kamala Harris
US’ 49th vice-president Kamala Harris, born in California to parents who emigrated from India and Jamaica, is first woman and first woman of colour to hold that office.
Harris made an unsuccessful run for president in 2019, facing off against Joe Biden in the Democratic primary. An attorney by profession, she is also the first female vice-president and the highest-ranking female official in the US history.
She was a senator for California from 2017 to 2021 and the attorney-general of California from 2011 to 2017. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
Pravind Jugnauth
Prime Minister of Mauritius since 2017, Pravind Jugnauth’s ancestors come from Uttar Pradesh. He was born into a Hindu family of the Ahir (Yadav) caste.
He has been the Militant Socialist Movement’s leader since April 2003.
Born on 1961 in La Caverne in Mauritius, he was born to Anerood Jugnauth, a barrister, and Sarojini Ballah, a schoolteacher. In 2017, Pravind was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman by the President of India.
Prithvirajsing Roopun
Prithvirajsing Roopun GCSK, also known as Pradeep Singh Roopun, is a Mauritian politician who has been the country’s seventh president since 2019.
Prithvirajsing Roopun GCSK, also known as Pradeep Singh Roopun, is a Mauritian politician who has been the country’s seventh president since 2019.
He was born in an Indian Arya Samaji Hindu family and grew up in Morcellement St. Jean, a suburb of Quatre Bornes.
From January 2017 to November 2019, he served as minister of arts and culture. During his tenure, he chaired the UNESCO 13th Session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage during which reggae music of Jamaica was inscribed on the representative list.
Antonio Costa
António Luis Santos da Costa GCIH, the 119th and current prime minister of Portugal, is of Portuguese and Indian descent.
He has been in office since November 26, 2015 and is serving his third tenure after winning in 2022. Costa’s father was born to a Goan family in Maputo, Mozambique.
Costa is affectionately known as Babush in Goa, a Konkani word that means ‘a young loved one’.
Mohamed Irfaan Ali
On August 2, 2020, Mohamed Irfaan Ali was sworn in as Guyana’s president. He was born in Leonora, West Coast Demarara, into a Muslim Indo-Guyanese family.
Ali is Guyana’s first Muslim president and the Americas’ second Muslim head of state after Noor Hassanali.
Ali was a MP and the minister of housing before becoming the presidential candidate of the People’s Progressive Party in the March 2020 general election. He was sworn in as Guyana’s 10th president after months of legal challenges regarding the integrity of the election and even a consequential recount of all ballots.
Chan Santokhi
Chandrikapersad ‘Chan’ Santokhi is a Surinamese politician and former police officer who is serving as the country’s ninth president since 2020. He was born in 1959, into an Indo-Surinamese Hindu family in Lelydorp, in district Suriname.
Santokhi was Suriname’s sole presidential candidate after winning the 2020 elections and elected president by acclamation on July 13, in an uncontested election.
Santokhi in 2011 became chairman of the Progressive Reform Party. Since then, once an Indo-Surinamese party has grown into a multi-ethnical party which, with eight seats in the parliament was the biggest opposition party until 2020.
Leo Varadkar
Leo Eric Varadkar is an Irish Fine Gael politician who is serving as Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment since June 2020, having previously served as Taoiseach and Minister for Defence from 2017 to 2020.
Born on January 18, 1979, in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, Varadkar is the third child and only son of Ashok and Miriam (née Howell) Varadkar.
His father was born in Bombay and moved to the United Kingdom in the 1960s to work as a doctor.
Halimah Yacob
Halimah Yacob has been serving as the eighth president of Singapore since 2017. Born to Indian-Muslim parents, she scripted history by becoming the first woman speaker of Singapore’s parliament. She is also the first female president in Singapore’s history.
Halimah was born in 1954 to an Indian father and Malay mother. Her father was a watchman who died due to a heart attack when she was eight years old, leaving her and four siblings to be brought up by her mother.
Wavel Ramkalawan
A Seychellois politician and Anglican priest, Wavell Ramkalawan, has been serving as the president of Seychelles since October 2020. Ramkalawan was born in Mahé into a modest family and he was youngest of the three children. His grandfather was from Bihar, India. His father was a tinsmith while his mother was a teacher.
Ramkalawan was an opposition MP from 1993 to 2011 and 2016 to 2020. He also served as the leader of the opposition from 1998 to 2011 and 2016 to 2020.
On October 25, 2020, Ramkalawan won the presidential election, the country’s first such victory for an opposition candidate since independence, marking its first successful peaceful transition of power.
Nikki Haley
Nikki Haley, born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa to an Indian-Punjabi American Sikh family in South Carolina, she was the first female governor of South Carolina.
She is also the second Indian-American, after fellow Republican Bobby Jindal, to serve as a governor in the United States.
She served as the 29th US ambassador to the United Nations from 2017 to 2018, prior to which she served as the 116th Governor of South Carolina from January 2011 to January 2017. In 2016, Haley was named among ‘The 100 Most Influential People’ by Time magazine.
Also read: We are both daughters of India, in a way: Priyanka Chopra tells Kamala Harris
Priti Patel
Priti Patel served as UK’s home secretary from 2019 to 2022. A Thatcherite and ideologically on the right-wing of the Conservative Party, she was born to Sushil and Anjana Patel in 1972. Her parental grandfathers were from Gujarat.
Her grandfather migrated to Uganda and established a shop in Kampala. Later, her parents migrated to the UK and settled there.
She has been MP from Witham since 2010.
