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Good for who? the Lieutenant-General of the Punjab with five Maharajas, two Rajas and one Nawab on 2 April 1875.
Good for who? the Lieutenant-General of the Punjab with five Maharajas, two Rajas and one Nawab on 2 April 1875. Photograph: Popperfoto
Good for who? the Lieutenant-General of the Punjab with five Maharajas, two Rajas and one Nawab on 2 April 1875. Photograph: Popperfoto

No I’m not grateful for colonialism, and here’s why

This article is more than 5 years old

To begin with the British Empire is credited for ending the transatlantic slave trade – which it started

In Bristol, a student throws a party that promises to be a mix of “Indian glamour” and “colonial chic”, to – as the original invite (before it is changed) says – be a “luxurious yet debauch [sic] throwback to the glory days of the early 20th century, where Britain and India lived side by side”. Hey! Let’s party! Colonial style! Except only the chic bits of the colonies? None of that oppressed and occupied peoples bit! The thing that stays with me is how clueless this student is about the British Empire and its relationship with a country it occupied.

The student is not alone in his ignorance. As a country, we are woefully uneducated about the realities of the British Empire. A survey in 2016 found that 44% of people were proud of Britain’s colonialism. The same survey asked whether the British Empire was a good thing or a bad thing: 43% said it was good. Good for who? The British? Sure. The people it enslaved? Hmmm, suddenly not so sure. I find it troubling that the British Empire is credited with ending the transatlantic slave trade, something it started. In terms of Britain and India, the focus of this party, let’s not forget one was responsible for the partitioning of the other, which resulted in the forced moving of 10 million people and the killing of 1 million people. Famines, caused by the Empire, resulted in up to 29 million deaths in India. So, at what point did Britain and India live side by side?

“But what about the railways?” someone says to me at an event. I had been talking about the effects of colonialism that persist today, about how we needed to have a more open conversation about the British Empire and what it did to the lands and peoples it occupied. “Surely,” he said, “you’re grateful for the railways?”

It’s always the railways. People always bring up the railways. The railways that were built to transport resources and soldiers. They weren’t exactly built for tourism, for fun, or as a thank you for occupation.

“Not really,” I reply. We’re at the signing table. I look past him to someone else waiting. “It’s important to be grateful,” he tells me before wandering off.

This demand that people who challenge things like racism or colonialism or oppression just aren’t grateful is a toxic one. It breeds a type of contempt that ensures you can never win. If I am complaining about colonialism and can’t even say thank you for the railways, then the chip is on my shoulder, the problem is mine.

Toni Morrison once said: “The function, the very serious function, of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being.” Indeed, if I mention the evils of the British Empire, someone will tell me about the horrors of another empire. If I tell them Churchill starved the Bengalis, there will be another comparison. It stops us from having the necessary national conversation about the British Empire.

Maybe, if we had that conversation, this Bristol student would have considered these things before opting to throw a colonial chic party. I mean, if my man just wanted to put on a sherwani and look sick, he would have fared better organising a Bollywood party.

I remember watching Viceroy’s House, the Gurinder Chadha film about partition. In a key scene, Jinna and Nehru are arguing and Mountbatten suggests dividing the country up for the first time, which gives both leaders pause. At the screening I was in, I heard a man say: “Now that’s good diplomacy.” The decision that lead to the death and displacement of millions was not good diplomacy.

This trend towards demanding gratitude needs to stop. And we need to exercise care and thought about the legacy of colonialism and how we talk about it. Because otherwise, we cannot move on together. If it helps initiate the conversation we desperately need, then I’m happy to say thank you for the goddamn railways on behalf of everyone.

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