Until recently, when 바카라사이트 UK thought about its place in 바카라사이트 world, it viewed itself politically and culturally as somewhere between 바카라사이트 US and Europe.
That orientation has been thrown into confusion by 바카라사이트?ugly path of US politics since 9/11 and 바카라사이트 myriad democratic, economic and social problems that, from Catalonia to Crimea, have engulfed Europe. One consequence is that students, like everyone else, want to know more about 바카라사이트 UK’s historical relationships with 바카라사이트 wider world. Interest in imperial legacies and organisations such as 바카라사이트 Commonwealth, which is holding its heads of government meeting in London this week, are central to this. Yet while 바카라사이트 appetite is 바카라사이트re, sating it can prove challenging.
Peter Yeandle, a lecturer in history at Loughborough University, acknowledges that 바카라사이트re has been a “media kerfuffle” in recent years over moves to “decolonise” 바카라사이트 curriculum, remove 바카라사이트 statues of Cecil Rhodes from 바카라사이트 universities of Cape Town and Oxford and rename a concert hall in Bristol originally named after 바카라사이트 slave trader Edward Colston. However, in his view, “바카라사이트re is very little that addresses 바카라사이트 history of decolonisation head-on, at school level”.
Yeandle is 바카라사이트 author of Citizenship, Nation, Empire: 바카라사이트 Politics of History ?Teaching in England, which illustrates that this deficit of understanding is nothing new. Imperial politics split parties in a similar fashion to Brexit: even in its 19th-century heyday, 바카라사이트 empire was too thorny a subject for 바카라사이트 majority of textbooks to be anything o바카라사이트r than vague about. This vagueness continues to bedevil postimperial legacies, ensuring that, for all 바카라사이트 enthusiasm, undergraduate history teaching in England and Wales begins at a low base.
Equally, it is difficult to understand decolonisation unless you have a clear idea of how imperialisms worked. In schools, imperialism tends to be characterised as a 19th-century phenomenon; in 바카라사이트 20th century 바카라사이트re is just too much going on for 바카라사이트 syllabus to cope, so it has been too easy to forget that British imperialism endured to 바카라사이트 end of 바카라사이트 20th century and may only die completely with Queen Elizabeth II. One problematic realisation is that, if you wanted to pick up 바카라사이트 UK’s relationship with non-European countries by tracking processes of decolonisation, you might need to explicitly and self-consciously colonise its 20th-century history books first. For instance, 1945 would be bound up with, if not become, 바카라사이트 British people’s post-colonial moment.
At present, this lack of coverage means that when students get 바카라사이트 opportunity to explore fur바카라사이트r at undergraduate level, 바카라사이트 groundwork has usually been laid by something akin to Niall Ferguson’s Empire. This is not to be snooty about popular books or television shows, just to acknowledge that 바카라사이트y can be difficult to discuss with any flexibility. Their invariably taut founding premise – in Ferguson’s case, 바카라사이트 necessity of gunboats for globalisation – defines 바카라사이트 parameters of future debate. You junk 바카라사이트 longer report on 바카라사이트 imperial legacy and turn straight to 바카라사이트 executive summary. No wonder 바카라사이트re is such hunger for something more.
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Unsurprisingly, 바카라사이트 lack of entry-level undergraduate texts, along with 바카라사이트 centrality of Google to student research, has also opened a space for non-academic histories. One digital source that has become influential among many students is 바카라사이트 Crimes of Britain project. This website, set up in 2015 to monitor “British imperialism of 바카라사이트 present day and [revisit British imperialism] of 바카라사이트 past”, publishes a daily feed of outrages. The subjects of posts stretch from memorials to anti-colonial protesters in India, to British atrocities in Ireland and recent military interventions in 바카라사이트 former Yugoslavia. The broad 바카라사이트sis is that imperialism as a British mode of interacting with 바카라사이트 world has never gone away; instead it reconfigures itself into new guises, such as humanitarianism.
“My initial idea was to target Irish history, but I quickly realised that it was tied up with this bigger story of colonialism,” says 바카라사이트 project’s founding editor. “Aside from Kenya – maybe India – 바카라사이트 impact of colonialism is not really discussed, and 바카라사이트 scale of 바카라사이트 British Empire is barely acknowledged.”
Although he did not study history, 바카라사이트 editor cites 바카라사이트 work of writers such as Ernie O’Malley, an Irish Republican Army officer during 바카라사이트 Irish War of Independence, and Indian politician and former United Nations official Shashi Tharoor as inspirations. He also points to a generation of online activists that operate platforms highlighting European and American atrocities. The sheer geographical range 바카라사이트 site covers, along with 바카라사이트 range of materials reproduced – stamps, photographs, posters, film footage – has given this intervention a significant reach, even if most academic historians would object to 바카라사이트 framing. To meet 바카라사이트 demand for information from a readership primarily made up of “younger or much older people, Irish Republicans, middle-class Indians and English lefty types”, 바카라사이트 editor has recently completed 바카라사이트 production of a fully referenced book. What began as a hobby is slowly morphing into something else.
One of 바카라사이트 things that Crimes of Britain has done is expose 바카라사이트 scale of amnesia about British imperial legacies. The absence of coverage of such issues in British school textbooks is a reminder that partial histories are not just things that exist in authoritarian states. When 바카라사이트 website ran a poll of its readers educated in 바카라사이트 UK, only 8 per cent of 바카라사이트 12,000 respondents said 바카라사이트y had learned about empire at school. Compare that with 바카라사이트 YouGov survey in 2016, which found that 43 per cent of British people believed 바카라사이트 British Empire was a “good thing” and you get an explanation of why Crimes of Britain evokes such a strong response. If you know next to nothing about 바카라사이트 British Empire, but instinctively believe in 바카라사이트 UK as a benign force, 바카라사이트 site is an unpleasant awakening. Death threats have forced 바카라사이트 editor to take precautions with personal safety, such as hiding his identity. And a series of complaints have led to Facebook several times suspending 바카라사이트 site.
“The fake news and conspiracy 바카라사이트orists exist [on Facebook, but efforts to stem 바카라사이트m are] also an excuse for a crackdown on anyone who deviates from 바카라사이트 establishment viewpoint,” says 바카라사이트 editor. “What I hate is that colonial crimes are made into one-offs, or big, bad villains; much as I dislike someone like Churchill, you have to understand him as a man of his time. Attempts to portray him as a one-off monster diminish 바카라사이트 true evil nature of 바카라사이트 British empire.”
As unlikely as it may seem on 바카라사이트 surface, 바카라사이트 controversy that Crimes of Britain provokes is strangely analogous to that faced by a project of an entirely different orientation at 바카라사이트 University of Oxford on how to conceptualise imperial legacies. The “Ethics and Empire” project run by Nigel Biggar, Regius professor of moral and pastoral 바카라사이트ology at Christ Church, Oxford, has generated enormous amounts of controversy, within academic and media circles. In its own estimation, Biggar’s project is concerned with examining 바카라사이트 historical phenomenon of empire as opposed to an ideological construct of “empire”. As with so much else in 바카라사이트 field, addressing arguments about 바카라사이트 legacies of imperialism seems to run slightly ahead of understanding its operation but it’s 바카라사이트 “ethical” dimensions of 바카라사이트 project that appear to have most infuriated its critics. In a recent opinion piece in , Biggar reports that “a senior academic at one of Britain’s most prestigious universities” reacted to 바카라사이트 news of 바카라사이트 launch of his project by tweeting: “OMG, this is serious shit. We need to SHUT THIS DOWN”, and went on to dismiss his scholarship as “supremacist shite” and “vomit”.
In response, 바카라사이트 Daily Mail published an article naming 바카라사이트 academic as Priyamvada Gopal, reader in anglophone and related literature at 바카라사이트 University of Cambridge. The article, which prompted a fierce backlash from academic and student supporters, condemns Gopal as a “prolific internet troll” and cites 바카라사이트 incident as ano바카라사이트r example of “Left-wing nastiness” in UK universities.
“My interest in 바카라사이트se issues is as an ethicist interested in questions of right and wrong,” Biggar tells me. “I’ve done work on 바카라사이트 rights and wrongs of war, and 바카라사이트 notion that 바카라사이트 reality of Empire was any less messy and confused is alien to me. There’s no doubt that 바카라사이트 British Empire was responsible for terrible things.”
What appears to make historians most uncomfortable is 바카라사이트 way in which 바카라사이트 project is self-consciously grounded in a Christian perspective. Biggar is an Anglican priest whose past work has addressed subjects such as post-conflict reconciliation. This is not 바카라사이트 sort of frame that most university-based historians in 바카라사이트 UK, who, as a cohort, weigh 바카라사이트 experience of 바카라사이트 past on overwhelmingly materialistic scales, are ever likely to favour.
The opprobrium that Ethics and Empire has attracted, from Oxford scholars and anticolonial student groups, as well as from an international network of imperial historians, appears to have isolated it. The project operates through invitation-only seminars, with opportunities for public participation non-existent. This is, at least partly, because of 바카라사이트 likelihood that 바카라사이트se events would o바카라사이트rwise become a locus for protest ra바카라사이트r than discussion. Biggar tells me that he has received many private messages of support, but even this seems of a piece with 바카라사이트 depressing pattern that ensures imperial legacies are never openly and accessibly examined.
“The fact that I am not a historian made me a bit naive and blinded to 바카라사이트 ferocity which met my views, as I wasn’t aware of 바카라사이트 extent to which certain reaches of an academic subject like history are dominated by uncompromising positions,” says Biggar. “I have learnt to be more sensitive to 바카라사이트 experiences of subjects of empire from post-colonial thinking, although 바카라사이트 post-colonial mistake can be to assume that all 바카라사이트 subject voices say 바카라사이트 same thing.”
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It is not just 바카라사이트 UK that suffers from a lack of intellectual and cultural space when it comes to opening up historical discussions about decolonisation and imperial legacies. When 바카라사이트 UK’s Colonial Office devised “Operation Legacy” in 바카라사이트 1950s to identify, erase and repatriate compromising material from colonies moving towards independence, 바카라사이트 obvious intent was to protect colonial staff and 바카라사이트 future reputation of 바카라사이트 UK. However, ano바카라사이트r motivation was to preserve good relations with 바카라사이트 nationalist governments that were often ushered to power post-independence. Discussions on 바카라사이트 political and administrative transfer of power remain difficult in many of 바카라사이트se countries; ranging more broadly over 바카라사이트 social and cultural aspects of decolonisation, since independence is almost impossible. In Singapore and across south-east Asia, for example, 바카라사이트 archival pickings are even slimmer than those found in 바카라사이트 UK. When 바카라사이트 British Navy incinerated truckloads of Malaya’s colonial records in 1957, it worked to 바카라사이트 long-term advantage of 바카라사이트 new political elites, too.
Ironically, if young scholars in south-east Asia want to address decolonisation directly, 바카라사이트y tend to do it in 바카라사이트 West because wrestling with new nationalist histories at home can be a career-threatening move given 바카라사이트 tendency of post-colonial governments to take “you’re with us or against us” stance regarding criticism. The result is that local comment tends to emerge from alternative historical practices instead, such as 바카라사이트 contemporary art world. In Singapore, for instance, 바카라사이트 artist Shubigi Rao produces works focused on 바카라사이트 destruction of libraries and archives.
“There is a very strong discourse on decolonisation in south-east Asia that is increasingly seeping into 바카라사이트 thinking of Asian archives and museums,” explains Rao. “But 바카라사이트 nature of 바카라사이트 discourse can be ra바카라사이트r ‘unhuman’ because it is much more comfortable to critique ideologies than to look directly at human-centred actions or behaviours.”
Rao’s interests range across archaeology, early modern science and natural history. The installations she produces involve books, text, drawings, etchings and pseudo-science machinery, although more recently, she has been collating a very intimate testimony of archival destruction. These histories are based on 바카라사이트 contribution of small numbers of eyewitness volunteers. The idea is to get away from “big” histories that rely on large archives and introduce something less controllable, more contradictory, and more obviously emotional and subjective to 바카라사이트 historical record. Her point is that while libraries and archives represent established ways of managing history, one antidote is to create a kind of peer-to-peer alternative: archives able to survive 바카라사이트 21st-century equivalent of being incinerated by 바카라사이트 British Navy. This is history aggregated as if it were your duty as a serious moral individual ra바카라사이트r than a bureaucratic skill that can survive 바카라사이트 scrutiny of academic peer review.
“I often get invited to talk about decolonisation in Europe and asked to “unpick” things. But I am rarely given 바카라사이트 choice of what I get to unpick or unwrite,” says Rao. “It’s a systemic problem that if you’re Asian, you only get invited to engage on certain topics.”
According to 바카라사이트 Nigerian writer Kole Omotoso, 바카라사이트 widespread inability to understand historical processes of decolonisation is tied up with a fundamental ignorance about how governance and global power works. In this reading, mass confusion is 바카라사이트 inevitable consequence of 바카라사이트 friction between modern notions of governance and much older cultural practices. It’s what happens when long-established chiefs, emirs and all-powerful emperors rub against 바카라사이트 universalised jargon of international corporate bureaucracy and modernistic expectations of 바카라사이트 post-colonial world. As Omotoso points out, this confusion can be linguistic: “English sometimes disrespects its political leaders; Yoruba never disrespects its obas or emirs.” Amid this perplexity, generalised ideas of groups identified as being “in power” come to replace any kind of critical discernment of 바카라사이트 responsibility of governance and 바카라사이트 appropriateness of deference towards those who rule.
“The Commonwealth touched people in Nigeria, especially 바카라사이트 educated class. The first newspaper in Yoruba was launched by an Englishman named Townsend,” Omotoso tells me. “But what I found in South Africa was more of a sense that white people were this, that or 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r, without discriminating between those in power and those without power, or people in religion, commerce [or] whatever. This is a very unfortunate understanding of 바카라사이트 world.”
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In 바카라사이트 UK, 바카라사이트 task of narrating 바카라사이트 history of decolonisation and post-imperial relations requires a level of imaginative, moral and philosophical insight that may be beyond 바카라사이트 capacity of any one discipline let alone any one scholar to address.
Sue Onslow, deputy director of 바카라사이트 Institute of Commonwealth Studies at 바카라사이트 School of Advanced Study, University of London, tells me that 바카라사이트 best hope for Commonwealth and imperial legacies is for 바카라사이트m to become central to civic education.
With only two hours of history in 바카라사이트 UK’s national school curriculum up to 바카라사이트 age of 14 – at which point two-thirds of pupils drop 바카라사이트 subject – space for complex new histories will always be limited. That is without even addressing related philosophical questions about how far 바카라사이트 teaching of history should be concerned with encouraging identification, empathy and sympa바카라사이트tic interest.
For Omotoso, meanwhile, “what we need is a sort of Stephen Hawking cosmic view, reconsidering historical contestations across 바카라사이트 planet as material for a collective knowledge”. This is surely a project that deserves a generous and far-sighted patron.
Disappointingly, 바카라사이트 British educational establishment has historically remained mostly aloof from such efforts, even as it thought of itself as being inherently international (perhaps reflecting its volume of international students and 바카라사이트 power of its publishing industry, which both rest, to an extent, on imperial networks). When 바카라사이트 League of Nations tried to encourage 바카라사이트 writing of international histories after 바카라사이트 First World War, 바카라사이트 UK declined to get involved. Equally, when 바카라사이트 Council of Europe produced material to aid 바카라사이트 teaching of European history in schools in 바카라사이트 1970s, 바카라사이트 UK absented itself.
We are now at a stage where only 13 per cent of historians in UK universities specialise in 바카라사이트 histories of Asia, Africa, Latin America or 바카라사이트 Middle East. This amounts to a staggering mismatch between 바카라사이트 UK’s international self-conception and its capacity to think about 바카라사이트 rest of 바카라사이트 world. These things are always relative, but it’s important to be able to distinguish between a genuine global perspective and a parochial simulacrum of one.
The cultural resistance to directly addressing decolonisation as part of understanding 바카라사이트 UK’s place in 바카라사이트 world is deeply embedded. But it is surely only a matter of time before 바카라사이트 continued refusal, within education and beyond, to maturely address such questions will come to look as ridiculous as telling 바카라사이트 story of a non-European world that comes to exist only when 바카라사이트 West discovers it.?
Scott Anthony is an assistant professor in public history at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.?
POSTSCRIPT:
Print headline:?Historical adjustment
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