‘A singular view of the past, whether positive or negative, is dividing our country’, says Sanghera in his documentary Empire State of Mind, positioning himself as adopting a ‘middle’ path on this ‘contentious’ issue. He is concerned with presenting a ‘reasonable’ understanding of colonialism, repeatedly arguing for the need of a ‘balanced’ colonial history to be taught in schools, with the implication that his book fulfils this role. ‘I don’t “love” or “hate” empire any more than I did when I started’, he writes ( Empireland 208). This apparent ignorance also allows Sanghera to adopt the position of seemingly neutral observer or explorer of colonial histories.
This ‘ignorance’ becomes an asset a point of connection for the intended reader who is perhaps similarly ‘ignorant’ - ‘ignorance’ that is a result, Sanghera tells us, of the erasure of this history in the education system, something his book sets out to highlight and rectify. He had little knowledge of empire when he started writing his book, he says the process of researching and writing has involved ‘learning’. The book stands out for the wide readership it has attracted and for its framing: Sanghera recently ‘discovering’ colonialism.
The Times bestseller and Book of the Year in the 2022 British Book Awards, Empireland is a harrowing articulation of the violence and exploitation of empire. Sathnam Sanghera’s Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain is one of a recent flurry of books about racism and colonialism being published by mainstream presses, hailed as works of ‘decolonisation’, and making their way onto educational curricula. You can read the full essay in Wasafiri 112, now available to download or purchase online. In this exclusive extract from Wasafiri 112: Reimagining Education, Kavita Bhanot writes about Sathnam Sanghera’s much-lauded book, Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain, and questions what kind of ‘decolonising’ work the book is really doing by offering what she terms as a ‘balanced’ history of of the violence and exploitation of empire.
A ‘Balanced’ History of Empire: Sathnam Sanghera’s Empireland and Other Colonial Anti-Colonial Histories
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