Introduction 

‘Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain’ is a Book by Sathnam Sanghera. Sanghera’s perspective of Imperialism and Racism as a Indian-Sikh from Punjab who was born in Wolverhampton. It is fascinating and would be very relatable to people from Similar backgrounds. Sanghera’s parents migrated to Britain in the late 1960’s and sent their child to Wolverhampton Grammar School. Sathnam’s documentary ‘Empire’s State of Mind’ precedes Empireland and he addresses the Documentary in this book – a large piece of the information in this book is from the documentary – in fact the Documentary probably inspired him to write the book. Throughout the book we see different themes – he addresses how much of modern Britain is there because of the empire. It addresses the problems of immigrants and the racism towards the immigrant communities; how the immigrants lived in slums, how the immigrants were more likely to be involved in gangs and more. The book has praise from people like Sadiq Khan (Mayor of London), Jonathan Coe and James O’Brien. The book shines a light at the dark side of the Empire and gets you thinking, making it a fascinating read. 

 Empireday 2.0

Empire Day a grand celebration of the empire on May 24th – a great celebration of the Empire and all it’s work. Empire Day was created by Reginald Brabazon (1841 – 1929) , 7th Earl of Meath – he created this to ‘nurture a collective identity and imperial responsibility’ and to ‘remind the children of their mighty heritage’. This was celebrated across the empire from Jamaica to India. Grand celebrations with Children Holding the Union Jack. Women would march in a parade to the infamous british Trumpet tune. However, it was stopped in 1958 – as the event fell into a decline after WWII (along with the empire) Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (1894 – 1986) announced there would be no more Empire day and instead there would be a commonwealth day on the 18th December 1958. The change is directly linked to the empire at its end and it wouldn’t be able to survive for much longer, in other words Imperialism was at its end. 

In the book Sathnam Sanghera asks us whether an Empire Day with changes would actually be good for the children. The Goal of Empire Day was to Educate the Children about their Heritage – Sanghera agrees with this; instead of teaching children about the glorious empire and just Britain, he wants children to be taught about the whole of the empire from the Caribbean to the Indian Subcontinent. He illustrates that through his education (including University) there was only one time where he was told to look at his own culture as a homework assignment. He says instead of learning about the importance of the empire Children could instead learn about how the Empire has shaped modern Britain. Instead of walking around with flags of the Union Jack you could bring your native country’s flag to show diversity. 

This picture is from ‘Imperial war Museums’  during Empire Day in Jamaica on the 24th May 1944

How Imperialism has Shaped Us                                      and why are we here? 

Imperialism – what does it mean? According to the dictionary it is something relating to the Empire (British to be Specific). In one of the chapters titled ‘We are Here because you were there’. It outlines the fact that because of the empire we are here – because you wanted to invade ‘our’ we are in ‘your’ country. 

Immigrants have certainly made a change to England – now instead of fish and Chips as our national dish, it is arguably curry from the immigrants from the Subcontinent of India showing this to the natives by restaurants and curry houses. The first to do this Sake Dean Mohammed born in Patna and died in Brighton. He opened the first Curry house (targeted for people who were generals and businessmen in India), and he could have brought Shampoo to Britain and Europe. We know this through his book ‘The travels of Dean Mohomet’ as he notes his travels from India to Ireland then finally to England. 

Immigrants have also helped when it comes to jobs, whether from Ireland or Asia immigrants are usually put into the jobs that you had to have the most strength or lowest paying. Examples are Train track worker, garbage bin collector or a taxi driver amongst many. Sanghera also addresses the phrase that is most used against immigrants: ‘They’ve come to steal our jobs’. In a controversial article from ‘The Sun’ in 2017 the sun claims that ‘Brits are suffering from Immigrants taking their jobs for half price’. However in a study from Alan Manning (Professor of Economics from the LSE), he found employment of British-Born Workers is at its highest.

This is the Cover of his book published on the 15th January 1794. You can see Dean Mohammed in the middle.

Empire’s state of Mind

The Empire – what a glorious thing. Over the years, opinions about the empire have changed. However, have the fundamentals of the Empire changed? Without the Empire, Do these fundamentals still exist in our current Government? In this chapter Sanghera aims to find these questions out. He starts off looking at the Empire’s core beliefs – these were Identity, Rule and Being proud of your heritage. Then he looks at our current Government led by the Conservative Party (Boris Johnson); through his dive into this comparison he notices something. To put his words in short: 

‘What was the point of Brexit? It was to have a better identity and to rule over yourself. People felt that their Identity was slipping away – that is why Brexit Started. If we look into it deeper, David Cameron works for the Conservative party who have been labeled as racist within their ranks. A BBC broadcast from the 1970’s  even claimed that if you were an immigrant you should vote Labor.’ 

This is a picture which would have been used as a type of propaganda – it looks like it would have been drawn in the late 1880’s

Conclusion

In conclusion this review does not hold a candle to the vast forest of information. Every Sentence there is more information – it is engaging to the reader to the point where you lose track of time. Despite this all being said, ‘Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain’ also has its own downfalls. Sanghera often jumps from one point to another making it hard for the reader to concentrate. Sometimes, Sanghera repeats the same thing over and over again, however, I would guess this is because the point is important. In my opinion – if I were a book rater – I would give this book a 8/10. Keep in mind almost no book gets a 10/10!