Feel guilt not pride in British Empire, say academics

‘They will not close the discussion down. They do not have the right to control how I think about things’

OXFORD academics have said that Britain should be guilty about the empire, as they launch a stinging critique of a professor who suggested that people should have “pride” about aspects of their imperialist past.

More than 50 professors, lecturers and researchers have signed an open letter expressing their “firm rejection” of the views of Professor Nigel Biggar, who wrote that if people believe the “strident anticolonialists” it could lead to a feeling of guilt that makes the public “vulnerable to wilful manipulation”.

Oxford University backed Prof Biggar, regius professor of moral and pastoral theology, when he was branded a “bigot” by students for his stance.

But now his colleagues have waded into the debate, claiming that his “prescriptions not only rest on very bad history, they are breathtakingly politically naïve”. Prof Biggar, who is director of the Mcdonald Centre for Theology, Ethics and Public Life, is leading an Oxford University project on “Ethics and the Empire” which will analyse the impact of Britain’s imperial past.

In the open letter, Oxford academics criticised the project, saying it “asks the wrong questions, using the wrong terms, and for the wrong purposes”.

Prof Biggar hit out at the academics who signed the letter, saying they ought to have addressed him directly rather than engage in “collective online bullying”. He said: “Not one has had either the courage or the sense of collegial responsibility to do so.

“The project may or may not be the poorer for their refusal to participate, had an invitation been given to them.

“But their refusal will not close the discussion down. They do not have the right to control how I, or anyone else, thinks about these things.” Prof Biggar said that participation in the project is by invitation only “so as to enable focused reflection and sustained discussion on important matters by a necessarily small and select group of relevant experts”.

A spokesman for Oxford University said that the project is a “valid, evidence-led academic project and Professor Biggar, is an entirely suitable person to lead it”.