Empireland is about how modern Britain is shaped by our history of empire from our language (which contains many words of Indian origin) and the way we think, to even our health services like the NHS. It is also a book about why we do not talk about it, at least not properly. Despite the fact that the British Empire was the largest in history, lasting for centuries and encompassing vast swathes of the globe. It is a subject that is skirted around and one that has not been taught properly in our schools and universities. Why is this?

The answers lie in our difficult, complex history. Though most are aware of the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade, other aspects are less well known. Parts of the book are harrowing to read. Learning about what British colonisers did to Tasmanian Aboriginals left me feeling nauseous. It is scandalous that such things are not discussed and that there are no memorials for people who suffered. Fortunately, Sanghera has compiled the mother of all bibliographies, spanning 50 pages, as a guide for further reading.

Sanghera’s approach is balanced, and he is careful to point out that empire and history are too complex to simply be labelled ‘good’ or ‘bad’. He points out the importance of minority communities integrating and that they “should not be left alone to become isolated and myopic”. Yet, he also emphasises the responsibility of Britain to acknowledge its history. We are a multicultural country because the British Empire was multicultural itself.

To be clear, this avoidance of empire is a free speech issue. Though there has been no rule or law saying that people cannot talk about it, discouraging free and open discussion of empires is a form of soft censorship. Additionally, this has had an impact on modern Britain, particularly for people of minority backgrounds. Despite many being born or having ancestry in former colonies, many have been told to ‘go home’. Indeed, Sanghera links the violent attacks on minorities by gangs, like the Teddy Boys, to the violent episodes of the British Empire.

Sanghera’s interpretation of decolonising the curriculum, different to others I have come across, is compelling:

“…urgent and essential efforts to decolonise curriculums might have a better chance of succeeding if they changed their language, if campaigners talked about widening curriculums rather than decolonising them for that is what decolonising involves. It is entirely possible to teach the canon and also give students a sense of what sits outside it, to teach the extraordinary and prizewinning words of Naipaul, Ishiguro and Zadie Smith, for example, alongside those of Dickens and Joyce.”

If all in the decolonising movement held this view, I would be part of it. Unfortunately, others have a different, worrying interpretation of it. For example, teachers in the US-based #DisruptTexts movement have posted on social media about successfully removing classical texts from syllabuses, including Homer’s Odyssey. The website advises that “if you must teach [Shakespeare] due to school policies … the only responsible way to do so is by disrupting his plays”. If there is no common agreement on what decolonisation means, simply changing the language is not enough.

For raising the important subject of empire, Sanghera has received racist abuse on social media. This is an attack on his freedom of speech. It is an attempt to silence and censor him. He is not alone. David Olusoga, a professor of Public History at the University of Manchester and a presenter of popular BBC programmes, receives a huge amount of abuse to the point where he nominated a ‘Racist of the Day’ during the BLM protests in 2020 on his social media. Many others are affected too.

It needs to be said that this goes beyond individuals being unpleasant or finding what Sanghera, Olusoga and others have to say difficult. One has to ask how much racism could have been prevented or reduced if empires had been openly discussed and taught in schools and universities. Censorship of empire has led to the censorship of individuals and communities. It has also affected the whole country. As Sanghera summarises:

“If we don’t confront the reality of what happened in the British empire, we will never be able to work out who we are or who we want to be.”

Vicki Robinson

@storiesopinions