Imperial Legacy

Forgotten Glories

These days the Imperial British Empire is largely regarded with vituperative scorn amongst many historians.  Others express embarrassment.  What is left of the old imperial "structure" is now reflected in the Commonwealth of Nations.  This has been eagerly and persistently maintained by Elizabeth II as representing the best of the humanitarian ideals underlying the old Empire.  

In many ways it is a "force" to behold.  We suspect that as time passes, the better fruits of Imperial Britain will come more into focus and attention.  But for the present the injustices, the use of force, the disregard for local populations, and the atrocities of the Empire predominate.  More time is needed for a balanced appraisal to emerge.  As one historian put it

The British Empire is too recent to be regarded by most commentators with the detachment that can be applied to older empires such as the Ottoman or the Mughal.  When the latter used violence against their subject peoples, they can be said to have carried out "stabilizing operations"; but when the British did so, they committed "war crimes," even "genocide."   [Robert Tombs, The English and Their History (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015), p. 785.]

The inability of the present generation of historians to deal objectively with the matter is patently obvious.  This is particularly the case when regimes which replaced the administration of the Empire turned out to be more oppressive and incompetent than the British administration they replaced.
  Some seek to deflect this by arguing that it is  the British who were also responsible for the post-imperial mess in many countries.  The British had, it is alleged, so destabilized the native cultures that when the colonial overlords withdrew, post-colonial nations ended up copying the injustice of the British.

This, however, is a nonsense insofar as in many cases the local tribes, populations, and cultures were simply reverting to time-cemented historical practices which had been in existence for centuries untold.  Many post-colonial nations were merely going back to the future.

Moreover, much of the "good stuff" of the Empire was undertaken by Christians seeking to bring the light of the Gospel of Christ to pagan nations.  This was an opportunity made possible by the Empire, but not generally an official component of the British Raj.  The effect and contribution of this work lies forgotten or spurned these days.

Tombs offers a more balanced view:

By what criteria could one judge the effects, for example, of missionary education on headhunters in Borneo?  If the empire is regarded as "wholly without any redeeming features," only denunciation is required.  It is therefore possible to denounce both imperial strength and imperial weakness, both what it did and what it failed to do.

Some established practices that the British tried to stop--the slave trade, female infanticide, genital mutilation, widow-burning, cannibalism, headhunting, tribal warfare, witchcraft, human sacrifice, systematic sexual abuse--cannot easily be defended today.  They can, however, be played down, the existence minimized or dismissed as colonialist fantasy.  [Ibid., p. 786]

Ironically, what has been dismissed as "colonialist fantasy" now seems to be making a remarkable comeback in our post-modern world.   The resurgence of militant Islam has re-introduced many of the iniquitous practices listed above.  Some militant Hindu political parties in India are arguing for re-establishing traditional Hindu practices such as suttee or widow-burning.   Sikh nationalism has led to atrocities and murders, reminiscent of the "old days". 

Despite injustices and iniquities, the British Empire permitted in most cases the presence of Christian missionaries throughout the Empire.  The good that accomplished will continue to be recounted.

Here is one testimony--from the first ordained Maori convert, speaking at a memorial service honouring Henry Williams, one of the great missionaries to New Zealand:

Think of the wickedness of our island.  The exceeding heavy stone which weighed us down was cannibalism, but that did not deter him.  He forsook his own country and people, parents and relatives.  He arrived here in 1823.  He landed at Paihia, and there built his first fortress, the church standing before you.  It was in that fortress he forged the weapons of war wherewith to overthrow the strongholds of the earth.  [Rev. Mattiu Taupaki, 11th January, 1876]

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of similar stories waiting to be told.   For many this can best be described as a mere unintended consequence of Empire.  But if so, this is part of a consistent pattern.  God ever continues to strike straight blows with crooked sticks.  For that, we remain thankful.  If it were not so, nothing good would ever be attempted or achieved.