Madeleine Bunting: Don't overlook the impact of empire on our identity (UK)
A spate of soul searching is guaranteed by two major anniversaries that loom this year: the abolition of the slave trade in the British empire in 1807, and the Act of Union of England and Scotland in 1707. Both will feed into Britain's nagging sense of self-doubt: who are we? As the debates around integration and multiculturalism show no sign of flagging, both anniversaries will be mined for their contemporary relevance. Add the imminent arrival of a Scot as prime minister - and one who has invested time and energy into mastering the history of British identity - and the stage is set for intense national introspection. Television programmes, books, ceremonies, conferences and newspaper supplements have been in the planning for months.
Some might regard this self-referentialism as tedious; they might advocate an apology for the slave trade and let's be done with 2007's anniversaries. But our reckoning with British history has been so limited that these two anniversaries provide us with a good opportunity for an overdue reality check. Any chance of reinventing a plausible national identity now (as many are keen to do) is only possible if we develop a much better understanding of how our nation behaved in the past and how nationalisms (English, Scottish and British) were elaborately created over the past few hundred years - and how incomplete and fragile that process always was. In how many other countries do children grow up uncertain of what to call their country, or adults hunt through those drop-down menus on the internet, uncertain whether their country is listed as the UK, Great Britain, Britain or England?
The coincidence of these two anniversaries is fortuitous. The abolition of the slave trade is a painful reminder of British imperial history, which we have, incredibly, managed to largely forget. Who remembers the Bengal famine or Hola camp, the empire's opium trade with China or our invention of concentration camps in the Boer war? We too easily overlook how empire was a linchpin to British national identity, vital to welding Scotland and England together. Indeed, historian Linda Colley suggests three ingredients for British identity: "Great Britain is an invented nation that was not founded on the suppression of older loyalties so much as superimposed on them, and that was heavily dependent for its raison d'etre on a broadly Protestant culture, on the treat and tonic of recurrent war, especially war with France, and on the triumphs, profits and Otherness represented by a massive overseas empire."
These three props for Britishness have collapsed: Protestant Christianity has declined sharply, war with France is the pastime only of a few drunken football fans, and the empire is no more. No wonder Britishness is on the decline; over the past couple of decades, people have become increasingly likely to define themselves in polls as English or Scottish rather than British....
Read entire article at Guardian
Some might regard this self-referentialism as tedious; they might advocate an apology for the slave trade and let's be done with 2007's anniversaries. But our reckoning with British history has been so limited that these two anniversaries provide us with a good opportunity for an overdue reality check. Any chance of reinventing a plausible national identity now (as many are keen to do) is only possible if we develop a much better understanding of how our nation behaved in the past and how nationalisms (English, Scottish and British) were elaborately created over the past few hundred years - and how incomplete and fragile that process always was. In how many other countries do children grow up uncertain of what to call their country, or adults hunt through those drop-down menus on the internet, uncertain whether their country is listed as the UK, Great Britain, Britain or England?
The coincidence of these two anniversaries is fortuitous. The abolition of the slave trade is a painful reminder of British imperial history, which we have, incredibly, managed to largely forget. Who remembers the Bengal famine or Hola camp, the empire's opium trade with China or our invention of concentration camps in the Boer war? We too easily overlook how empire was a linchpin to British national identity, vital to welding Scotland and England together. Indeed, historian Linda Colley suggests three ingredients for British identity: "Great Britain is an invented nation that was not founded on the suppression of older loyalties so much as superimposed on them, and that was heavily dependent for its raison d'etre on a broadly Protestant culture, on the treat and tonic of recurrent war, especially war with France, and on the triumphs, profits and Otherness represented by a massive overseas empire."
These three props for Britishness have collapsed: Protestant Christianity has declined sharply, war with France is the pastime only of a few drunken football fans, and the empire is no more. No wonder Britishness is on the decline; over the past couple of decades, people have become increasingly likely to define themselves in polls as English or Scottish rather than British....