The shadow of empire
A recent BBC radio programme exploring the morality and legacy of the British empire kickstarted an impassioned online debate. ANNA WHITELOCK followed its twists and turns
Arecent episode of BBC Radio 4’s longrunning debate series The Moral Maze on the morality of the British empire (available to listen to on BBC Sounds) prompted an impassioned discussion which extended far beyond the programme.
Kim A Wagner (@KimAtiWagner) tweeted: “If you wouldn’t do a programme on the morality of Nazi Germany, you shouldn’t be doing it on the British empire. It is analytically so incredibly inept and could only have been conceived by someone profoundly ignorant about history.” Yet, others were less sure whether the underlying premise was necessarily wrong. Samir Puri (@purisamir1) responded directly: “This kind of relativisation is not helpful… You are comparing 12 years of Nazi Germany to circa five centuries of British empire. Different spans of time give rise to moral questions of a different nature.” As Joshua Niecho (@JoshNeicho) put it: “Isn’t the point of The Moral Maze to include people with very different ideological convictions, ideally including those you as a listener passionately disagree with – and might think ‘evil’?”
Questions of relativism gave way to issues of perspective. Banksy bro (@yardain) commented: “Living in India for five years has brought me in contact with a good number of Indians who look back to the Raj with a bitter nostalgia of sorts… friends and sources who have made this argument tend to come from the middle and upper class – but is this simply an inaccurate romantic rehabilitation of the Raj?” Thomas Thorpe (@Greasy GrassI876) added: “Moral GB imperialism is not a myth. It was the motivating spirit of many, and contemporary records are filled with evidence. You might not like it now, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t true at the time.” Ash Bhardwaj (@AshBhardwaj) was more categorical. “It was not the ‘morally good’ force that it’s claimed to be,” he remarked. “Many of the power structures and imbalances of today are descended from it.”
Thomas Thorpe, commenting again, maintained the need for nuance. “Difficult to find anything lasting a significant period of time that doesn’t have ambiguities and complexities. GB empire ended long ago; if people wish to right perceived wrongs, energy is better directed at current entities.” However, Tom Knight (@Tom_Scribbler), along with many others, made the point that “Our history lessons teach us that we went out into the world, civilised it, and gave it back with a minimum of fuss when asked politely. It is completely divorced from reality.”
Indeed, as Ash Bhardwaj responded: “GB stacks up well if you ignore: Mau Mau; partition; genocide in Australia; Boer concentration camps; Opium Wars, etc. The nuance is that this is never taught in school, but the abolition of slavery is.” That may be a challenge and opportunity on which all could agree.
The British empire was not the ‘morally good’ force that it’s claimed to be