The newest Indian-origin member of the British House of Lords, Jitesh Gadhia, has made history by taking his oath of allegiance to the reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, using the ancient Vedic text of the Rig Veda, which is considered the world's oldest religious scripture in continuous use, dating back 1500 BC.
Lord Gadhia, a well known investment banker and businessman of Gujarati descent, was nominated by former Prime Minister David Cameron to join the upper chamber of the British Parliament last month. He was sworn in officially this week in a traditional ceremony that dates back to 1621 when King James I delegated the introduction of new Peers to the Garter Principal King of Arms.
The ceremony and preceding lunch was attended by close family and friends including his 90-year grandmother Gulabben Gadhia, mother Hansaben and wife Angeli. A wide range of Parliamentarians were also in attendance for the fully vegetarian meal on the House of Lords Terrace, including: former Conservative Party Chairman Lord Andrew Feldman, Government Chief Whip, Lord John Taylor, the former Goldman Sachs Chief Economist and now Treasury Minister Lord Jim O' Neill, his two sponsors Lord Dolar Popat and Lord Stanley Fink, Baroness Usha Prashar, Lord Meghnad Desai, Lord Raj Loomba, Lord Rumi Verjee, Lord Ranbir Suri, Lord Jamie Borwick and MPs Shailesh Vara and Rishi Sunak. He was later felicitated in the afternoon by two former Chancellors George Osborne MP and Lord Norman Lamont, Cabinet Ministers Sajid Javid MP and David Gauke MP and Ministers Jo Johnson MP, Matthew Hancock MP and Richard Harrington MP.
Lord Gadhia has been involved in some of the largest investments flows between UK and India and is a Member of the UK-India CEO Council which met during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the UK last November. During that visit, Modi addressed a packed crowd of 60,000 people at Wembley Stadium, and was introduced by David Cameron in a widely acclaimed speech, understood to be written by Gadhia.
Newly created peers, dressed in Red Ermine-laced robes, take a writ from the serving monarch, called the Letters Patent, to be read out in front of the assembled chamber. As part of the investiture ceremony, new members pledge their allegiance to the Monarch and sign the Roll of Peers and the House of Lords Code of Conduct.
For some years now, new members have been permitted to choose a religious text other than the Christian Bible but none of the British Indian Peers have so far has used the Rig Veda.
The copy of the Rig Veda used by Gadhia also has its own historical significance. It was edited and published in 1849 by Dr Max Müller, a famous German academic who lived and studied for most of his life in Oxford, England and was one of the pioneers of Indian, Sanskrit and Vedic Studies in the western world. His compilation of the Rig Veda - in the traditional Devanagari script - was published under the patronage of the East India Company. Müller enjoyed a close association with with Swami Vivekananda, who he met in London in 1896, and both shared a mutual respect for Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, one of the fathers of modern Hinduism.
Lord Gadhia has purchased the 167 year old book and gifted it to the British Parliament. Speaking to Asian Voice afterwards, he said: "Having multiple generations of my family with me for this ceremony was hugely important - after all it is a significant right of passage - best shared with your nearest and dearest."
That same afternoon former Prime Minister David Cameron announced his decision to step down from Parliament. Lord Gadhia commented: "It added to the emotion of the day as it was David Cameron who personally nominated me to join the House of Lords. History will judge him to have been a great reforming Prime Minister, who brought the country back from the financial brink. He was also a great friend of India, having visited the subcontinent three times during his term - which I was privileged to join. Moreover, I believe, he did more than any other holder of his office to engage with the British Indian community. He will be a big loss to Parliament but I respect his decision and hope he will remain engaged in public life. On a personal note, I wish him and Samantha all the very best for the future."
