Labour Party Vows To Teach Colonial History In Schools If It Wins UK Elections

The British colonisers did all possible atrocities on the local communities in Asia and Africa. India being one of the biggest colonies of the British rulers still feels the pinch of it even after 70 years of Independence from the British rule. There have been several demands from leaders across the world that Britain should recognise and apologise for all the wrongdoings during the colonial period. However, no official recognition from any of the major political party or civil society organisation.

Now, as the country is preparing for the general elections, to be held of December 12, Jeremy Corbyn led Labour party has pledged that it will introduce colonial studies in the school curriculum if it comes to power.

The Party has unveiled an add-on manifesto, pledging to set up a new educational trust that would ensure that Britain¡¯s colonial history and injustices of the Raj are taught in schools across the country.

¡®Race and Faith Manifesto¡¯ as the party calls it, comes as an addition to the manifesto that pledged to issue a formal apology for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar by troops under the British Empire in April 1919.

Reuters

¡°The creation of an Emancipation Educational Trust will ensure historical injustice, colonialism and role of the British Empire is taught in the National Curriculum,¡± notes the supplementary manifesto.

¡°Only by acknowledging the historical injustices faced by our communities can we work towards a better future that is prosperous for all, that isn¡¯t blighted by austerity and the politics of fear,¡± said Dawn Butler, Labour¡¯s Shadow Equalities and Women¡¯s Secretary.

AP

Students are not mandated to study the history of the British Empire currently. This has often been highlighted by the critics as a failure to present an accurate picture of the country¡¯s history for schoolchildren.

¡°It is important that children are taught about colonialism, injustice and the role of the British Empire. This is a major step that meets our long-standing demands,¡± said Harsev Bains, National Vice-President of the Indian Workers Association of Great Britain (IWA-GB), one of the oldest Indian workers¡¯ groups in the United Kingdom.

Congress leader, Shashi Tharoor has demanded apology and reparation from the United Kingdom.

"By the end of 19th century, the fact is that India was already Britain's biggest cash cow, the world's biggest purchaser of British goods and exports and the source for highly paid employment for British civil servants. We literally paid for our own oppression. And as has been pointed out, the worthy British Victorian families that made their money out of the slave economy, one fifth of the elites of the wealthy class in Britain in 19th century owed their money to transporting 3 million Africans across the waters. And in fact in 1833 when slavery was abolished and what happened was a compensation of 20 million pounds was paid not as reparations to those who had lost their lives or who had suffered or been oppressed by slavery but to those who had lost their property," he said in his famous talk at the Oxford Union.