Patel power in Britain

Updated on: 15 June,2009 08:30 AM IST |
Khalid A-H Ansari | smdmail@mid-day.com

There are reportedly a quarter of a million Patels in the country

There are reportedly a quarter of a million Patels in the country

If the figures cited by a London radio station are to be believed, there are now around a quarter of a million Patels in Britain and that a member of the Gujarati community is seven times more likely to be a millionaire than a Smith.

A Radio Four reporter, investigating the country's 24th most common surname found Patels all over the country, representing different castes and clans, each with its own directories often running up to 1,000 pages, for
match-making.

At a Patel-only "singles-mingles" she found people wearing badges with relevant data concerning profession and ancestral village, since "Gujaratis only marry outside their own villages".

"I thought I was going to be introduced to loads of girls and basically be asked, 'who do you like?'" It didn't quite work out that way, but he was eventually fixed up thanks to what he described as a "complex family web of auntie's best friend's first cousin's in-laws", she quotes Bobby Patel as saying.

Jenkins concludes that although half of Britain's Patels married someone with the same name, "Western ways are intruding".

In Bobby Patel's words, "In my family it's Patel to Patel, but for my younger brother it could be Patel to
a blonde."

And in Leeds, Yorkshire, Ramesh and Jashu have five children, three of who are married, but not to Patels.
Typically they are unconcerned so long as they are happy.

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