Book - Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain by Sathnam Sanghera

The trouble with the English is that their history happened overseas so

they don’t know what it is

From the routine looting of artefacts and jewels, official and unofficial including the diamond

in the Queen’s crown to the abuse, torture and murder of millions, I knew this book would be tough.

The union jack instils a tenseness in me today like it did when I grew up in the era of National Front marches.. Hence I have scant regard for any royal occasions. As per my tradition, I managed to spend 6 days abroad avoiding the recent jubilee events and ensuring/chit chat. I don’t think looking at the Queen in her diamond topped crown does anything for my well-being. (Although a colleague tells me I could have just gone to Liverpool to avoid hearing about it - Rotterdam proved the greater allure)

It is said that Buckingham Palace banned ‘coloured immigrants and foreigners’ from clerical roles until at least the late 1960s. So it was extra unsettling to see a black colleague on-screen drinking out of a sparkly new flagged-up mug.

An English General named Dyer whose utter brutality against all Indians that he passed described in the opening pages set the tone for what was to come although the author tried hard to lighten the load on the reader where possible. It’s tricky to read about accounts of Dyer forcing Indians to crawl whenever in their presence or pissing in their drinking wells.

The inhumane treatment is driven by racism from the shooting of people (actual, live humans) out of cannons so there is no body left to bury to severed heads and body parts displayed as trophies. Not seemingly of prisoners. Just random Indians.

Hunting, abusing and murdering people of colour was a sport then, and it carried on being a sport with Teddy Boys and the National Front. There is so much upset in the book and I get all the way to p212 and just one slave owner's account of his atrocities is still so overwhelming.

The colonisation of India leads Adolf Hitler to comment that the Nazis should learn from the Brit's achievements in invading large countries. Well done England for inspiring one of the worst leaders of the 20th century.

Post-war it was thought that any racist tones would seem nazi-like so there were no immigration policies hence the Windrush arrivals. Also, Britain desperately needed workers.

Britain could have just traded with countries, much like fair trade today, rather than colonising them, which seems like much more effort. It’s estimated that 1m Irish died as a result of Britain insisting they still import goods even though their own people were starving.

In India,16m people died.

And yet the English grew moustaches as Indians thought being clean-shaven less manly.

 We are here because you were there

On the subject of returning stolen artefacts, the argument that we'd have nothing left to display is ludicrous as the vast majority - 99% - is in storage. They turn up on the Antiques Roadshow and one lot of looted possessions sold for a record 149k.

There are so many names of well-regarded Brits who supported the colonisation steeped in slavery/looting from Gladstone and Dickens - too many to mention. Between 1835-1872 £13m worth of goods were stolen from India with nothing given in return. They stole £45 trillion in less than 200 years. The number of companies who have admitted to being founded with slavery money;  Lloyds Bank, The Times (the author’s employer), Lloyds of London. In fact most banks. And railways. Add to this the number of church leaders who owned slaves gives me a head-in-hand moment.

Another is learning that the £20m loan taken out (now would be £17b) to pay compensation to slave owners was only paid back in 2015.  TWENTY FIFTEEN.

Immigrants only set up businesses as they faced racism in the jobs market. This reminds me of the CEO of John Lewis Sharon White saying her dad only bought a home because they couldn't rent in a decent area.

Every sentence of Empireland is an education. Not because what happened is new to me - I have been around for a chunk of it, but through reading this we are educated as to why.

Yes, every other sentence is also distressing but much more important for our society to learn this than about Henry V111s wives. Why is that rammed down our throats at school? 

I love how Germans teach their true history because they never want it repeated and yet we only talk about a mystical version.

Indeed the author says he pitched a TV series but the producer said no 'people don't like their prejudices challenged’. 

UK's history happened overseas and Germany’s happened on their land. Documents exist proving the British government acknowledged they knew of the atrocities being committed as late as 1970 but they were kept illegally hidden. The Selective Amnesia chapter gives us 5 reasons why this history is buried in the UK.

When the empires of the mind become a toxic cocktail of nostalgia and amnesia.