Prospects for a Bewältigung of Extreme Violence in Britain’s Imperial Past

Abstract

If we left we would not go back to the world as it was when we joined, still less to the old world of Britain's imperial heyday.

Contextualising colonial violence: Causality, continuity and the Holocaust

“…The combination of intensifying public, political and scholarly pressure have rendered such linkages between colonial violence and the Holocaust increasingly popular and led to calls for an expansion or adoption of the way in which Germany have actively dealt with and remembered the Holocaust. The Vergangenheitsbewältigung ’ (‘coming to terms with the past’) is claimed to be a suitable model on which Britain can deal with its colonial past (Gordon, 2020b, ‘Prospects for a Bewältigung of Extreme Violence in Britain's Imperial Past’). The Vergangenheitsbewältigung is intrinsically tied to the Holocaust, and it has already been expanded to German colonial history, where the genocide of the Herero and Nama in particular has been considered a precursor or ‘testing ground’.…”

“…A common characteristic of both the Holocaust (and general genocide studies) and colonial history is the racialised dehumanisation and violence that occurred (Gordon, 2020a, 2020b, 2020c). It is true that race and racism played a significant part in colonial rule and the brutalities that came with it.…”

“…This directly challenges the notion of German colonial exceptionalism, as espoused in the ‘colonial Sonderweg ’, but it also contains several flaws such as its overshadowing focus on race as the primary cause for cooperation between colonial powers, when pragmatic and tangible interests such as security, were far more important (Bomholt Nielsen, Forthcoming). Yet, according to Michelle Gordon, such connections paired with the supposed inspiration found in examples of violence in British colonial history, indicates that the British Empire was ‘an important precedent’ to extreme violence—that is the crimes of the Nazi regime (Gordon, 2020a, 2020b, 2020c).…”

“…The same problem is built into the idea that the Vergangenheitsbewältigung should be expanded and applied to British colonial history. This application is mainly suggested in two different yet connected ways: first the Vergangenheitsbewältigung is by some considered a model and inspiration for how Britain too should actively remember its colonial past in a certain way (Gordon, 2020a, 2020b, 2020c; MacGregor, 2016). Secondly, as Gordon claims, Britain's commemoration of the Holocaust and celebration of its own role in defeating Nazi Germany, colludes the brutalities committed in the course of the British Empire.…”

“…Secondly, as Gordon claims, Britain's commemoration of the Holocaust and celebration of its own role in defeating Nazi Germany, colludes the brutalities committed in the course of the British Empire. By considering the Holocaust an ‘unprecedented’ crime, Gordon argues, the ‘misdeeds’ of the British Empire are rendered incomparable and in this sense the Holocaust ‘somehow vindicates the crimes committed’ by Britain in its colonies (Gordon, 2020a, 2020b, 2020c; Stone, 2006).…”