0:00:03 > 0:00:05Less than 100 years ago,
0:00:05 > 0:00:08the British ruled a quarter of the globe
0:00:08 > 0:00:11and one in five of the global population.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14The British Empire was the biggest there's ever been.
0:00:16 > 0:00:21And even though it's long gone, its powerful legacy remains.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24It used to be the case that people were happy, proud even,
0:00:24 > 0:00:26to declare themselves imperialists.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29But now, across great swathes of the world,
0:00:29 > 0:00:31that sounds like a badge of shame.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35In this film, I'm going to examine not whether the Empire was a force
0:00:35 > 0:00:38for good or for ill, but instead,
0:00:38 > 0:00:42how it's been portrayed on television over the past 60 years.
0:00:44 > 0:00:49Using the history series Timewatch and other gems from the BBC archive,
0:00:49 > 0:00:53I'll discover how film-makers have altered their perspective over
0:00:53 > 0:00:55succeeding decades.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59I'll span the globe, like the Empire itself.
0:01:01 > 0:01:06I'll see how Britain's Caribbean colonies grew rich on slave labour...
0:01:06 > 0:01:08Slaves were expendable.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12The life expectancy of a slave was seven years.
0:01:12 > 0:01:16..how chaos gripped India when independence came...
0:01:16 > 0:01:21Britain, the once great colonial power, looks on as India burns.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28..how Africa was plundered for her mineral wealth.
0:01:29 > 0:01:33Millions of pounds worth of diamonds represented not money, but power.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38They called it the Empire upon which the sun never set.
0:01:39 > 0:01:41Though it's now gone, the arguments,
0:01:41 > 0:01:44the divisions over the British Empire
0:01:44 > 0:01:46are very far from being settled.
0:02:01 > 0:02:06Oxford is where many of the masters of Empire came for their education.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09The colonial officials, the district officers,
0:02:09 > 0:02:11the viceroys even.
0:02:11 > 0:02:15But one Oxford graduate left his mark on the Empire in a way that
0:02:15 > 0:02:18overshadowed almost all others.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22He's a figure who provokes bitter controversy
0:02:22 > 0:02:24more than a century after his death.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29So, there he is, Cecil Rhodes, the man who had the audacity,
0:02:29 > 0:02:32the arrogance, not just to seize countries,
0:02:32 > 0:02:35but to have one named after himself.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38It's his statue, here at Oriel College,
0:02:38 > 0:02:42which some say recalls the very worst side of the Empire.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46And because of that, he has no right to remain.
0:02:46 > 0:02:48They say, Rhodes must fall.
0:02:49 > 0:02:54So, let's look first at some of these Empire builders.
0:02:54 > 0:02:56Often heroes in their own time,
0:02:56 > 0:03:00but perhaps less heroic with the hindsight of history.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04The actor and historian Kenneth Griffith
0:03:04 > 0:03:07was one of the first to take on Cecil Rhodes,
0:03:07 > 0:03:08more than 40 years ago.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14Oxford University, England.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18He wanted to take a degree at University College.
0:03:18 > 0:03:19The master wouldn't wear it,
0:03:19 > 0:03:22but introduced him to the Provost of Oriel,
0:03:22 > 0:03:26saying, "They're less particular there."
0:03:29 > 0:03:32The Provost of Oriel received him glumly saying,
0:03:32 > 0:03:35"All the colleges send me their failures."
0:03:36 > 0:03:41What stops the laugh before it has started is that this young man ended
0:03:41 > 0:03:46his short life with 850,000 square miles
0:03:46 > 0:03:48of the Earth's surface
0:03:48 > 0:03:50in his own name.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54Rhodes named his conquest Rhodesia,
0:03:54 > 0:03:56now the country of Zimbabwe.
0:03:56 > 0:03:57Cecil Rhodes is a good poster boy
0:03:57 > 0:04:01for these kinds of debates about Empire, good or bad,
0:04:01 > 0:04:03particularly because he was just one of those figures who was
0:04:03 > 0:04:06a colossus in terms of British imperial expansion
0:04:06 > 0:04:09and debates about the nature of British imperialism
0:04:09 > 0:04:12at the time and, of course, ever since as well.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18The conquered land had belonged to the Matabele tribe,
0:04:18 > 0:04:20under their king, Lobengula.
0:04:22 > 0:04:26But spears were no match for machine guns and artillery.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31The British opened up with their field guns,
0:04:31 > 0:04:35and the best of Lobengula's warriors were no more.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38One regiment, the Imbizo,
0:04:38 > 0:04:42lost 500 of its 700 men.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47A witness to this carnage was Rhodes's young friend Willoughby,
0:04:47 > 0:04:52who recorded the so-called battle rather sportingly.
0:04:52 > 0:04:54He wrote,
0:04:54 > 0:04:59"The Imbizo and Ngobo regiments were practically annihilated.
0:04:59 > 0:05:04"I cannot speak too highly of the pluck of these two regiments.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08"I believe that no civilised troops could have withstood
0:05:08 > 0:05:12"the terrific fire they did for at most half as long."
0:05:21 > 0:05:24Bear in mind that this film appeared in 1971,
0:05:24 > 0:05:28when a guerrilla war was waging between African nationalists,
0:05:28 > 0:05:30including descendants of the Matabele,
0:05:30 > 0:05:32and descendants of the white settlers...
0:05:34 > 0:05:39..in a country which didn't abandon the name Rhodesia until 1980.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45Rhodes seemed to epitomise the worst of the power hungry imperialists,
0:05:45 > 0:05:47come to strip Africa of her wealth.
0:05:50 > 0:05:51Money, money,
0:05:51 > 0:05:56money is ever the key to Rhodes's power, and in the year 1886,
0:05:56 > 0:05:59at a place which was to be named Johannesburg,
0:05:59 > 0:06:03the biggest gold deposit that the world has ever known was discovered.
0:06:04 > 0:06:09Rhodes was now 33 years old, immensely wealthy and therefore,
0:06:09 > 0:06:12as he had predicted, immensely powerful.
0:06:12 > 0:06:16He loomed over this gold field, they called him The Colossus,
0:06:16 > 0:06:19and was poised to monopolise and grab the lot.
0:06:22 > 0:06:24And then a strange thing happened.
0:06:24 > 0:06:28Rhodes loved a young secretary at De Beers, his diamond company,
0:06:28 > 0:06:33very much. The young man's name was Neville Pickering.
0:06:33 > 0:06:34Now, I'm not suggesting that
0:06:34 > 0:06:38this was necessarily a homosexual relationship.
0:06:38 > 0:06:39Anyway, it doesn't matter,
0:06:39 > 0:06:44love is love and scarce enough not to quibble about, don't you agree?
0:06:44 > 0:06:50Whatever, Rhodes so loved young Pickering that, in 1882,
0:06:50 > 0:06:54he left him his entire vast fortune.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58The will simply reads, "I, CJ Rhodes,
0:06:58 > 0:07:03"leave my worldly wealth to NE Pickering."
0:07:03 > 0:07:04At that very time,
0:07:04 > 0:07:07Rhodes was informed that Neville Pickering
0:07:07 > 0:07:10was mortally ill in Kimberley.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13Rhodes, to his eternal credit,
0:07:13 > 0:07:18turned his back on his gold options and fled to Pickering's bedside.
0:07:18 > 0:07:23Rhodes personally nursed and cherished young Pickering
0:07:23 > 0:07:26while other money grubbers grabbed the gold.
0:07:28 > 0:07:33As young Pickering died, he looked at Rhodes and whispered,
0:07:33 > 0:07:40"You have been father, mother, brother and sister to me."
0:07:40 > 0:07:45You see, it is impossible to totally dislike Cecil Rhodes.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51Rhodes was an extremely controversial figure.
0:07:51 > 0:07:52He was a hero to some,
0:07:52 > 0:07:55but a villain to many, and not just to the people he oppressed,
0:07:55 > 0:07:58many people in Britain also found him a deeply controversial figure.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02His obituaries were extremely critical when he died so
0:08:02 > 0:08:05in his own time he was widely criticised.
0:08:05 > 0:08:10The film suggests Rhodes even had a touch of Hitler about him.
0:08:10 > 0:08:12So, how fair is that?
0:08:12 > 0:08:15I don't think that even someone as imperialistic as Rhodes
0:08:15 > 0:08:18quite had that approach in South Africa.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21There was a broader kind of civilising mission,
0:08:21 > 0:08:23and I'm not sure that the Nazis had that.
0:08:23 > 0:08:27I don't think they thought they were civilising inferior people,
0:08:27 > 0:08:30they thought they were in a life and death struggle with them.
0:08:32 > 0:08:34That heartfelt critique of Rhodes,
0:08:34 > 0:08:36the man who planted the seeds
0:08:36 > 0:08:39for the 1970s turmoil in southern Africa,
0:08:39 > 0:08:45feels as pertinent today as when it was first broadcast 45 years ago.
0:08:45 > 0:08:48That film pretty much set the pattern
0:08:48 > 0:08:50for debunking imperial heroes.
0:08:50 > 0:08:55And the following year, 1972, in a wide-ranging series on the Empire,
0:08:55 > 0:08:59film-makers once again homed in on Cecil Rhodes.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02Rhodes' personality still dominates this club.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05There are some 27 pictures of him on its walls.
0:09:05 > 0:09:10A fitting tribute to the man whose mastery of business deals astonished
0:09:10 > 0:09:11and discomforted many.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16He played company off against company...
0:09:18 > 0:09:20..until, finally,
0:09:20 > 0:09:21he took the jackpot.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28He was a multimillionaire by the time he was 35.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34But diamonds as jewellery, as adornments for royal crowns,
0:09:34 > 0:09:39or women, did not interest him...any more than women did.
0:09:39 > 0:09:41For him, the millions of pounds' worth of diamonds
0:09:41 > 0:09:43that passed through De Beers' sorting rooms
0:09:43 > 0:09:46represented not money, but power.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50Rhodes restated the imperial creed.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53"I contend that we are the first race in the world,
0:09:53 > 0:09:57"and the more of the world we inhabit, the better.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00"Every acre added to our territory provides for the birth of more
0:10:00 > 0:10:03"of the English race.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06"I have viewed the people of the world and have come to the
0:10:06 > 0:10:09"conclusion that the English speaking race has the highest ideal
0:10:09 > 0:10:12"of justice, liberty and peace.
0:10:12 > 0:10:16"Therefore, I shall devote the rest of my life to advancing the English,
0:10:16 > 0:10:19"the greatest people the world has ever seen."
0:10:21 > 0:10:25In the post-imperial early 1970s, with Britain's economy on the slide,
0:10:25 > 0:10:30Rhodes's racist creed seemed particularly out of place
0:10:30 > 0:10:32to many historians.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35Preoccupations of the time affect history.
0:10:35 > 0:10:40Every historian is completely influenced by his or her time.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44In the '60s and '70s, we might be interested in Marxism,
0:10:44 > 0:10:46obviously there's a Cold War going on.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49So, you have a Marxist interpretation of empire.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54It's inevitable that, in the historiography of something
0:10:54 > 0:10:56as vast as the British Empire,
0:10:56 > 0:10:58there are going to be different generations of historical
0:10:58 > 0:11:00approach and interpretation,
0:11:00 > 0:11:04and vicious debates within each generation.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08But, it would be wrong to think that the failings of these giant
0:11:08 > 0:11:13characters, like Cecil Rhodes, only emerge long after they're gone.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17Controversy has always swirled around certain empire-builders,
0:11:17 > 0:11:23as the BBC found in 1998 when it examined Earl Kitchener of Khartoum.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28Once the most famous face in the world, Kitchener,
0:11:28 > 0:11:30Britain's military chief in the First World War,
0:11:30 > 0:11:36played a controversial role a decade or so earlier in the South African Boer War.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43His legendary organisational skills seemed to have deserted him.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47He was nicknamed Kitchener of Chaos.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49His own troops were stricken with illness, made worse
0:11:49 > 0:11:54by the harsh climate and Kitchener economising on medical care.
0:11:54 > 0:11:57British losses mounted, and the guerrillas were still fighting.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02Suddenly he was faced with a dreadful conundrum.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05Here was an enemy which would not get into the field and fight him
0:12:05 > 0:12:07in a pitched battle.
0:12:07 > 0:12:08It was a hidden enemy,
0:12:08 > 0:12:10and so he had to flush it out.
0:12:12 > 0:12:15Kitchener needed to starve the guerrillas of all supplies - farms,
0:12:15 > 0:12:19crops and livestock were burned by British troops.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21Boer women and children were evicted
0:12:21 > 0:12:25from their land and sent to makeshift concentration camps.
0:12:25 > 0:12:27By the end of the war,
0:12:27 > 0:12:32at least 26,000 women and children had died from hunger and disease.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35It caused appalling suffering, which was quite unnecessary.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38He didn't need to deny
0:12:38 > 0:12:40proper supplies and medical arrangements
0:12:40 > 0:12:42for women and children.
0:12:42 > 0:12:43He just wasn't interested.
0:12:43 > 0:12:46This was just callous Kitchener.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49He was not too fastidious about the means.
0:12:49 > 0:12:51He was very much like an engineer.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54I mean, he was trained as an engineer and he took...
0:12:54 > 0:12:58Every problem he solved and took apart, in the way an engineer did,
0:12:58 > 0:13:00regardless of the consequences.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03So, he thought, "Well, we need to isolate these communities,
0:13:03 > 0:13:05"so we'll put them in internment camps."
0:13:05 > 0:13:07He didn't think of the humanity,
0:13:07 > 0:13:09that wasn't how his mind was structured.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12Kitchener's concentration camps did come in for extensive criticism
0:13:12 > 0:13:14at the time, and lots of people felt the conduct of that war
0:13:14 > 0:13:17wasn't really acceptable. Of course,
0:13:17 > 0:13:20now the phrase concentration camps is so loaded for us by World War II
0:13:20 > 0:13:23that we have a kind of extra horror, perhaps.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28As that film showed, almost 20 years ago,
0:13:28 > 0:13:33Kitchener's reputation is still in flux, a century after his death.
0:13:33 > 0:13:39I know from my own work that there is no such thing as a verdict of history.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43Just a fascinating, but never-ending, trial process,
0:13:43 > 0:13:49where we historians are always desperate to uncover new evidence.
0:13:49 > 0:13:51It's absolutely a driver, if you like,
0:13:51 > 0:13:54a motivating factor in a historian's work.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58If you want to provoke and stimulate debate,
0:13:58 > 0:14:02there is an impetus to try and say something different,
0:14:02 > 0:14:04something slightly unusual.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07You can't just keep saying the same thing.
0:14:07 > 0:14:09Fortunately, for us historians,
0:14:09 > 0:14:14the story of Empire is dotted not only with giant iconic characters,
0:14:14 > 0:14:20but also iconic milestone events, often ripe for revisionist analysis.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25Timewatch followed this trend for debunking, by tackling what some
0:14:25 > 0:14:30moviegoers would have considered one of the Empire's finest hours.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34In 2003, half a century after the movie Zulu appeared,
0:14:34 > 0:14:35Timewatch asked,
0:14:35 > 0:14:38how much of the movie is accurate?
0:14:38 > 0:14:41And came up with a startling answer.
0:14:43 > 0:14:49It turns out the victory we see, in reality masks a military disaster.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55Once again, southern Africa was the battleground.
0:14:55 > 0:14:57A British army marches across the plain,
0:14:57 > 0:15:01seeking out an enemy they regard as native savages.
0:15:03 > 0:15:07January 11th, 1879.
0:15:07 > 0:15:09Under the command of Lord Chelmsford,
0:15:09 > 0:15:12the British cross the border from Natal into Zululand.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17The whole British Army was driven on by a mixture of self-confidence and
0:15:17 > 0:15:19contempt for their foes.
0:15:19 > 0:15:21They're a murderous looking crew.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24We look upon them as wild animals.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28The Zulus will fly away for their lives because they haven't got the weapons that we have.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32Chelmsford made the first of a series of blunders,
0:15:32 > 0:15:37splitting his forces to pursue what he believed was the main Zulu army,
0:15:37 > 0:15:42leaving 1,700 men exposed at the camp at Isandlwana.
0:15:45 > 0:15:4911.00am, and British scouts made a terrifying discovery.
0:15:52 > 0:15:5720,000 Zulu warriors within spitting distance of the undefended camp.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03The Zulus were given then to a low musical murmuring,
0:16:03 > 0:16:06which gave the impression of a gigantic swarm of bees
0:16:06 > 0:16:08getting nearer and nearer.
0:16:15 > 0:16:18The British Army suffers its most humiliating defeat.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25Extraordinary military blunders allow Zulus,
0:16:25 > 0:16:27most armed with just spears,
0:16:27 > 0:16:29to crush a modern British Army.
0:16:41 > 0:16:4595% of the British soldiers had been killed.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52It was a source of huge shock to the British Empire.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57And in lots of ways one can see, in that image of Isandlwana, an icon,
0:16:57 > 0:17:00if you like, for the progress of the British Empire across southern
0:17:00 > 0:17:06Africa. It really stands as a moment of the great resistance of the Zulu
0:17:06 > 0:17:08kingdom against white intervention.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14Timewatch shows how this major defeat
0:17:14 > 0:17:16would be followed later the same day
0:17:16 > 0:17:18by a second, much smaller victory.
0:17:21 > 0:17:23A small breakaway band of Zulus spontaneously moved
0:17:23 > 0:17:26to attack a supply depot in British-controlled Natal,
0:17:26 > 0:17:29bordering on Zululand.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32It was called Rorke's Drift,
0:17:32 > 0:17:36a name which, for many, symbolises the Zulu War.
0:17:36 > 0:17:42The clash here at Rorke's Drift is the story told in the film Zulu.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45The garrison held off their attackers for ten hours
0:17:45 > 0:17:48and were awarded 11 Victoria Crosses.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54Though, compared to the earlier catastrophe, it was a sideshow.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57Yet, it was this action that came to define the conflict,
0:17:57 > 0:18:02celebrated by every Briton, including Queen Victoria.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05There is no doubt about the valour of our troops.
0:18:05 > 0:18:07They have shown the utmost devotion and bravery.
0:18:07 > 0:18:09It seems that people should take more pride
0:18:09 > 0:18:11in such a memorable victory
0:18:11 > 0:18:14instead of bemoaning the tragedy of Isandlwana.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17I'm entirely of Your Majesty's opinion that the British people
0:18:17 > 0:18:19should dwell as little as possible...
0:18:19 > 0:18:22Elevating the strategic significance at Rorke's Drift wipes out
0:18:22 > 0:18:25some of the stain of the very real disaster,
0:18:25 > 0:18:28the real defeat here at Isandlwana earlier in the day.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33One of the most notable things about this period of colonial warfare was
0:18:33 > 0:18:37the fact that the British always had columns of troops, gunboats here,
0:18:37 > 0:18:40there and everywhere. We were always operating somewhere in very large
0:18:40 > 0:18:43numbers. And the losses were usually very, very small.
0:18:43 > 0:18:45So when you get things like Isandlwana,
0:18:45 > 0:18:48when you're losing sort of hundreds of troops in one day,
0:18:48 > 0:18:50these things, of course, really stand out.
0:18:50 > 0:18:53And that's why they try and, if you like,
0:18:53 > 0:18:55sort of switch on the victory narrative.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59But the shock of this defeat went far beyond
0:18:59 > 0:19:01its military significance.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04It threatened the deepest beliefs of some empire builders.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10The idea of Africans armed with spears,
0:19:10 > 0:19:12thrashing the technically superior British,
0:19:12 > 0:19:15ran counter to contemporary racist theorising.
0:19:17 > 0:19:21Jeremy Paxman explored that theme in 2012.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25He looked at how some imperialists had tried to exploit the idea
0:19:25 > 0:19:27of a master race.
0:19:28 > 0:19:30In 1863, the members of
0:19:30 > 0:19:34the Anthropological Society of London gathered to hear
0:19:34 > 0:19:38what was billed as a scientific lecture.
0:19:40 > 0:19:45It was a momentous and, as it turned out, hugely controversial occasion.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52The speaker was the president and founder of the association,
0:19:52 > 0:19:53Doctor James Hunt.
0:19:53 > 0:19:58The title of his paper was The Negro's Place In Nature.
0:20:01 > 0:20:03"I propose to discuss
0:20:03 > 0:20:07"the physical and mental characteristics of the Negro,
0:20:07 > 0:20:12"with the view to determining not only his position in nature,
0:20:12 > 0:20:15"but also the station he should occupy.
0:20:15 > 0:20:19"I shall also dwell on the analogies between the Negro
0:20:19 > 0:20:21"and the anthropoid apes."
0:20:22 > 0:20:27What followed was over an hour of racist nonsense dressed up in
0:20:27 > 0:20:32the pseudo-technological language of scientific observation.
0:20:32 > 0:20:37"The skull is very hard and unusually thick, enabling Negroes
0:20:37 > 0:20:41"to fight or carry heavy weights on their heads with pleasure."
0:20:41 > 0:20:44There were hisses and boos from the audience,
0:20:44 > 0:20:49but his ideas struck a chord among more fanatical empire builders.
0:20:54 > 0:20:58Because the Empire had been such a huge success story,
0:20:58 > 0:21:00they began to talk about how they had,
0:21:00 > 0:21:05and this phrase was pretty widely used, a "genius for empire".
0:21:05 > 0:21:08But what was this genius?
0:21:08 > 0:21:13It's got muddled up with Charles Darwin's ideas about evolution.
0:21:13 > 0:21:18The champions of empire argued that the British had evolved naturally
0:21:18 > 0:21:21to rule over others.
0:21:21 > 0:21:25"Everywhere, we see the European as the conqueror
0:21:25 > 0:21:29"and the dominant race, and no amount of education
0:21:29 > 0:21:33"will ever alter the decrees of nature's laws."
0:21:35 > 0:21:38In 2012 such views, of course,
0:21:38 > 0:21:41sounded not just offensive, but ridiculous.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46It's hard to believe that even in the heyday of Empire,
0:21:46 > 0:21:49ideas like that were taken seriously.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56Let's not get too, with the benefit of hindsight, judgmental.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59But, yes, I mean, there was social Darwinism,
0:21:59 > 0:22:01the survival of the fittest.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04You've got genetic theories emerging.
0:22:04 > 0:22:06And there is scientific racism, definitely.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09That's part of the mix, the intellectual mix.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12There was certainly a sense in the air that, you know,
0:22:12 > 0:22:14the British were the top nation.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19If you look at the coverage of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 1897
0:22:19 > 0:22:20in American newspapers,
0:22:20 > 0:22:22there was one editorial which was saying, you know,
0:22:22 > 0:22:25"We must acknowledge that the British are in charge of the world,
0:22:25 > 0:22:27"they are the kingpins."
0:22:32 > 0:22:34The movies and television have, I would argue,
0:22:34 > 0:22:37pretty much defined our image of the Empire as it was
0:22:37 > 0:22:40in its Edwardian heyday.
0:22:41 > 0:22:46It's those crazy bright red soldiers' uniforms and sola topee.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51It's the world of ripping yarns, of Carry On Up The Khyber,
0:22:51 > 0:22:54of Corporal Jones and his Fuzzy-Wuzzies,
0:22:54 > 0:22:55who don't like it up 'em.
0:22:55 > 0:22:59In one sense, it's made the whole thing appear a bit comic.
0:23:00 > 0:23:04That sort of humour is something that we relate to.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08The whole idea of sending up a figure in authority,
0:23:08 > 0:23:11or someone who is quite self-important and is a big cheese,
0:23:11 > 0:23:14as it were, that's something that's quite British.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17But as I've learned on my trawl through the archives,
0:23:17 > 0:23:21there are some subjects that provoke argument, not laughter.
0:23:25 > 0:23:29And Britain's record in India, the jewel in the imperial crown,
0:23:29 > 0:23:31is one of them.
0:23:34 > 0:23:38The BBC's 1972 series on the British Empire
0:23:38 > 0:23:41was one of the most ambitious history series ever made.
0:23:42 > 0:23:47This 13-hour analysis of the Empire took 2.5 years to complete.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53It cost the then-huge sum of half a million pounds,
0:23:53 > 0:23:57in an era when the Prime Minister was paid £20,000 a year.
0:24:00 > 0:24:06In one episode, film-makers tell the story of the 1919 Amritsar massacre.
0:24:06 > 0:24:08A seminal event which hardened sentiment
0:24:08 > 0:24:11against British rule in India.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16Amritsar, in the Punjab.
0:24:16 > 0:24:18The holy city of the Sikh religion.
0:24:20 > 0:24:22In 1919, it was to be the inappropriate setting
0:24:22 > 0:24:25for a historic moment of violence,
0:24:25 > 0:24:29which would detonate a prolonged struggle between the British Raj
0:24:29 > 0:24:32and Indian nationalists for control of India.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38Punjab had always been one of the most loyal of provinces.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41It supplied over half the Indian Army's recruits.
0:24:41 > 0:24:42But in 1919,
0:24:42 > 0:24:46its cities were torn with rioting born of post-war discontents.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50There were attacks on Europeans and on government buildings.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53A town crier was sent round the city by General Dyer,
0:24:53 > 0:24:55the local British commander,
0:24:55 > 0:24:57to announce that all public assemblies were banned.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04A large crowd gathered in this park, the Jallianwala Bagh,
0:25:04 > 0:25:06on 13th April, 1919.
0:25:07 > 0:25:09General Dyer, with fewer than 100 troops,
0:25:09 > 0:25:11called on the crowd to disperse.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14It failed to do so. Unknown to Dyer,
0:25:14 > 0:25:18this narrow alley was the only exit from the Jallianwala Bagh.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21GUNSHOTS
0:25:25 > 0:25:26General Dyer said later,
0:25:26 > 0:25:31"I fired and continued to fire until the crowd dispersed.
0:25:31 > 0:25:33"I consider this is the least amount of firing which would produce
0:25:33 > 0:25:36"the necessary moral and widespread effect."
0:25:38 > 0:25:43379 people were killed and 1,200 injured.
0:25:43 > 0:25:45The wife of the Assistant Commissioner recalls
0:25:45 > 0:25:47what happened after the shooting.
0:25:48 > 0:25:55General Dyer came in looking very sad, and we gave him a drink.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58And then he said, "I am for the high jump,
0:25:58 > 0:26:00"but I've saved your women and children."
0:26:00 > 0:26:02Swift retribution,
0:26:02 > 0:26:05that was how the Raj had always maintained its authority.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11But at home, the sentiment which prevailed was of horror and outrage.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13For post-war Britain was liberal,
0:26:13 > 0:26:16humanitarian in its climate of opinion.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19Dyer was disavowed by the government and sacked.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26This story of the massacre recalls perhaps Britain's most shameful act
0:26:26 > 0:26:28during the Raj.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32And the film-makers seem to underline that sense of shame
0:26:32 > 0:26:36once the Raj had ended in 1947.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40This was once the mansion of Lord Clive,
0:26:40 > 0:26:42the first Governor-General of British India
0:26:42 > 0:26:44nearly two centuries before.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48The Honourable East India Company, the Empire of India,
0:26:48 > 0:26:52governors-general, viceroys, king emperors, all was over now.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59The British had said farewell at last,
0:26:59 > 0:27:01and India had returned to herself.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12Once these pillars had proclaimed a conqueror's pride,
0:27:12 > 0:27:16now they serve to dry the hand-moulded cakes of cow dung
0:27:16 > 0:27:17which are the staple Indian fuel.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23Eternal India's epitaph for an empire.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40For some viewers, the film seemed to mock the very idea of Empire.
0:27:43 > 0:27:45A former official of the Raj, Lord Ferrier,
0:27:45 > 0:27:48launched a debate in the House of Lords
0:27:48 > 0:27:51which unleashed fierce criticism of the BBC.
0:27:52 > 0:27:54In the official record, Hansard,
0:27:54 > 0:27:57there are pages and pages of complaints.
0:27:57 > 0:27:59The Lords, many of them quite elderly,
0:27:59 > 0:28:02turned out to be the most critical audience imaginable.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19The BBC was compared to Lord Haw-Haw,
0:28:19 > 0:28:22the radio propagandist for the Nazis during World War II.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25We tend to think by 1972, the Empire was over
0:28:25 > 0:28:27and that that was, you know,
0:28:27 > 0:28:29a new era in British politics.
0:28:29 > 0:28:30And of course, to some extent it was.
0:28:30 > 0:28:32But historical memory doesn't die immediately.
0:28:32 > 0:28:34A lot of the people who were objecting to this
0:28:34 > 0:28:36in the House of Lords and so on
0:28:36 > 0:28:38had lived through it, had worked in it.
0:28:38 > 0:28:41You know, many British families had spent not only their lifetimes,
0:28:41 > 0:28:44but generations, working in the Empire.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47It was still a very live political issue for people at that time.
0:28:47 > 0:28:50The irate politicians would have been astonished to learn
0:28:50 > 0:28:55what had been going on behind closed doors at the BBC.
0:28:56 > 0:28:59This series almost didn't make it to the screen.
0:28:59 > 0:29:02The rows backstage, inside the BBC,
0:29:02 > 0:29:05about what to say about the Empire
0:29:05 > 0:29:07were the same as those raging outside,
0:29:07 > 0:29:09among historians and politicians.
0:29:09 > 0:29:14According to one of the producers on the series, then in his 30s,
0:29:14 > 0:29:18the BBC wanted to glorify and celebrate the Empire.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21But the young producers were having none of it.
0:29:21 > 0:29:26They even talked about resigning en masse, before they got their way,
0:29:26 > 0:29:28to tell the story warts and all.
0:29:30 > 0:29:32The Empire is still an incredibly political thing to discuss,
0:29:32 > 0:29:35because echoes are still with us so strongly.
0:29:35 > 0:29:38You know, it still affects so much of the world today,
0:29:38 > 0:29:40certainly if we're talking about, say, the Middle East,
0:29:40 > 0:29:43parts of Africa or South Asia.
0:29:43 > 0:29:47There is the British Empire at the root of a lot of those problems.
0:29:47 > 0:29:49Of course, those political situations have evolved
0:29:49 > 0:29:52since the end of that empire.
0:29:52 > 0:29:56But part of what we now know as current events is rooted in that
0:29:56 > 0:30:00history, so it is still incredibly political for many people.
0:30:00 > 0:30:04More than a quarter-century after that row over the Empire series,
0:30:04 > 0:30:07India was still a controversial topic.
0:30:10 > 0:30:15In 1998 Timewatch invited one of our best-known historians
0:30:15 > 0:30:18to argue the case for the benefits of British rule.
0:30:18 > 0:30:22It was during the Queen's visit last year that the British role in India
0:30:22 > 0:30:26was once again brought to the world's attention.
0:30:26 > 0:30:29There were calls for the Queen to apologise for the Amritsar massacre
0:30:29 > 0:30:36in 1919, and implicitly, for two centuries of British colonial rule.
0:30:36 > 0:30:38How should we assess the British Raj?
0:30:38 > 0:30:43Is it an episode of which we should be proud, embarrassed, or ashamed?
0:30:43 > 0:30:46Andrew Roberts highlights what he believes to be historical myths of
0:30:46 > 0:30:48British rule in India.
0:30:51 > 0:30:54The viceroys, whose effigies are carefully preserved
0:30:54 > 0:30:57in a secluded estate outside Calcutta,
0:30:57 > 0:31:00governed the country with foresight and wisdom.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08English prevailed as the language of the law and of the administration,
0:31:08 > 0:31:10helping to unite as a single nation
0:31:10 > 0:31:13the once disparate peoples of the subcontinent.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18The young men of the Indian civil service came out here to dedicate
0:31:18 > 0:31:21their lives to the teeming multitudes of India.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24They did so with fairness, and decency,
0:31:24 > 0:31:27and astonishingly little interest in personal gain.
0:31:34 > 0:31:39The building of over 40,000 miles of railway track connected the country
0:31:39 > 0:31:41in a way never before possible.
0:31:44 > 0:31:47Of all the enduring achievements of the British in India,
0:31:47 > 0:31:50this railway system was one of the greatest.
0:31:52 > 0:31:55Throughout Britain's dominion over India,
0:31:55 > 0:31:58the British military establishment was tiny.
0:31:58 > 0:32:00It rarely numbered more than tens of thousands in a country
0:32:00 > 0:32:02of hundreds of millions.
0:32:02 > 0:32:06If our rule here had really been tyrannical, as is now made out,
0:32:06 > 0:32:10it could never have survived with Indians outnumbering Britons
0:32:10 > 0:32:12by 1,000 to one.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16Sir Winston Churchill, a great servant of the Raj,
0:32:16 > 0:32:19thought it Britain's greatest achievement.
0:32:19 > 0:32:23He was right, and rather than apologise for our record here,
0:32:23 > 0:32:26we can and should be proud.
0:32:26 > 0:32:31First of all, what's your overall attitude to his proposition?
0:32:31 > 0:32:34That it's sneering, snivelling,
0:32:34 > 0:32:36supercilious and silly.
0:32:36 > 0:32:41It's unhistorical, and totally unworthy of a history don.
0:32:41 > 0:32:44Turning to you, Patrick French. Do you take Andrew Roberts' view
0:32:44 > 0:32:46that it was a benevolent kind of government?
0:32:46 > 0:32:47Well, it's like Mani Shankaraiya says.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50It's such a grotesque caricature of what actually happened that it's
0:32:50 > 0:32:54hardly... I mean, I honestly don't know where to begin, to be frank.
0:32:54 > 0:32:58I'm startled that he could have made a film saying some of the things
0:32:58 > 0:33:01- that are in there.- Does it disturb you at all that Hitler admired
0:33:01 > 0:33:03what the British had done in India,
0:33:03 > 0:33:06and in fact used it as an example when he was wanting to march
0:33:06 > 0:33:09into Russia? To say that, in fact, this was his India?
0:33:09 > 0:33:11Does that not disturb you dreadfully?
0:33:11 > 0:33:12Of course not. Look what he did in Russia.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15He did the absolute opposite of what the British did in India.
0:33:15 > 0:33:21He depopulated, he killed people completely arbitrarily.
0:33:21 > 0:33:24The absolute opposite of what we have done for a century.
0:33:24 > 0:33:26I think that just because Adolf Hitler is said to have admired
0:33:26 > 0:33:28the British Empire... I mean, he admired Wagner,
0:33:28 > 0:33:31does that mean we are never to listen to Wagner?
0:33:31 > 0:33:37That lively exchange took place half a century after the British quit India.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40One result of their leaving was the partition of India,
0:33:40 > 0:33:46with disputed territory like Kashmir still the cause of bloodshed today.
0:33:46 > 0:33:51Film-makers have consistently returned to the events of 1947
0:33:51 > 0:33:56as historians constantly reassess the roots of the tragedy.
0:33:56 > 0:33:58On the 60th anniversary of partition,
0:33:58 > 0:34:02the BBC showed just how bitter the conflict had become.
0:34:02 > 0:34:07In British India, the 255 million Hindus were in a majority.
0:34:07 > 0:34:11India's 92 million Muslims were concentrated in the north-west and
0:34:11 > 0:34:13north-east of the country.
0:34:13 > 0:34:16The six million Sikhs lived mostly in the Punjab,
0:34:16 > 0:34:19one of the richest and most diverse provinces in India.
0:34:21 > 0:34:25Muslim fears that Hindus would dominate an independent India
0:34:25 > 0:34:28drove the demand for a separate Muslim homeland.
0:34:29 > 0:34:32With religious hatred and suspicion growing,
0:34:32 > 0:34:35the dream of a united India seemed to be falling apart.
0:34:37 > 0:34:41The task of managing the handover had been given to Earl Mountbatten,
0:34:41 > 0:34:44the last Viceroy of India.
0:34:44 > 0:34:46And he was in a hurry to get the job done.
0:34:50 > 0:34:53At a press conference, Mountbatten dropped a bombshell.
0:34:53 > 0:34:57Britain would not be leaving in June 1948 as had been planned,
0:34:57 > 0:35:00but on August 15th, 1947.
0:35:00 > 0:35:02Just three months away.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07The whole problem was that Mountbatten tried to do this job
0:35:07 > 0:35:10in too short a time.
0:35:10 > 0:35:13To expect a country to be partitioned,
0:35:13 > 0:35:15a new country to be created
0:35:15 > 0:35:17and within two months,
0:35:17 > 0:35:19everything went out of control.
0:35:19 > 0:35:23It was no question of it being too soon, it was much too late.
0:35:23 > 0:35:25Because in fact when he arrived,
0:35:25 > 0:35:27he saw the situation
0:35:27 > 0:35:31was so much more volcanic
0:35:31 > 0:35:34than he'd been led to believe in England.
0:35:34 > 0:35:37Communities that have lived together for centuries turn on each other
0:35:37 > 0:35:41in one of the worst communal massacres of the 20th century.
0:35:41 > 0:35:47Britain, the once great colonial power, looks on as India burns.
0:35:49 > 0:35:52Hindus and Muslims were
0:35:52 > 0:35:54in the grip of madness, you know.
0:35:54 > 0:35:55Lunacy, lunacy.
0:36:30 > 0:36:32In the coming months,
0:36:32 > 0:36:36around 15 million people made the journey from one side to the other.
0:36:36 > 0:36:38At least one million were dead.
0:36:38 > 0:36:42Thousands more lay abandoned in makeshift refugee camps,
0:36:42 > 0:36:45stuck on the wrong side of the border.
0:36:48 > 0:36:53In only a few months, India had been divided along religious lines.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57The Indian part of the Punjab was cleared of nearly all its Muslims,
0:36:57 > 0:37:00while Pakistan was emptied of most of its Sikhs and Hindus.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05The border created in 1947
0:37:05 > 0:37:09would become the focus for three wars and 60 years
0:37:09 > 0:37:12of animosity between the governments of India and Pakistan.
0:37:16 > 0:37:20There was very much at the time, certainly looking back,
0:37:20 > 0:37:23a "dammed if you do, damned if you don't" scenario.
0:37:23 > 0:37:26There were some senior British politicians in government
0:37:26 > 0:37:29who would have liked to have stayed for another 15 years
0:37:29 > 0:37:32to make the handover more successful, but of course,
0:37:32 > 0:37:34nationalist politicians, quite rightly,
0:37:34 > 0:37:36want the power now.
0:37:38 > 0:37:40From an historian's point of view,
0:37:40 > 0:37:43films like this may not always break new ground.
0:37:44 > 0:37:47Sometimes, they tell a familiar story,
0:37:47 > 0:37:49revived to meet a significant anniversary.
0:37:50 > 0:37:51Yet even then,
0:37:51 > 0:37:55they serve a valuable purpose in outlining the key moments
0:37:55 > 0:37:58of history for a new generation.
0:38:02 > 0:38:06I've seen how the imperial legacy in Africa and India has been the
0:38:06 > 0:38:10subject of often controversial film-making for many decades.
0:38:12 > 0:38:15Cecil Rhodes appears to have few defenders,
0:38:15 > 0:38:19while the motives of the masters of the Raj were mixed,
0:38:19 > 0:38:22and that's borne out in the television archive.
0:38:26 > 0:38:28But, in another part of the Empire,
0:38:28 > 0:38:31the motive of the masters was quite clear.
0:38:31 > 0:38:33and their methods despicable.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39An episode of the 1972 British Empire series
0:38:39 > 0:38:41looked at how, for 200 years,
0:38:41 > 0:38:44Britain drew riches from the Caribbean,
0:38:44 > 0:38:46using enslaved Africans.
0:38:49 > 0:38:51It took three years to break an African tribesman
0:38:51 > 0:38:53into an efficient field slave.
0:38:55 > 0:38:57It was known as the seasoning period.
0:38:59 > 0:39:04One in three of the slaves died during seasoning,
0:39:04 > 0:39:08of disease, overwork, ill-treatment and suicide.
0:39:09 > 0:39:13They worked from dawn to dusk, with a short break for breakfast
0:39:13 > 0:39:15and a longer one at midday.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22Though the work in stifling cane fields was backbreaking,
0:39:22 > 0:39:26crop times seemed the best in the year to the slaves.
0:39:26 > 0:39:29Then at least they could stave off hunger by chewing cane.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32And they were even given rum to keep them going.
0:39:35 > 0:39:37Slaves were expendable.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40The planters reckoned it more economic
0:39:40 > 0:39:41to import new slaves from Africa
0:39:41 > 0:39:44rather than prolong the life of those they had
0:39:44 > 0:39:46by better treatment.
0:39:46 > 0:39:50The life expectancy of a slave was seven years.
0:39:52 > 0:39:55Eventually, after decades of campaigning,
0:39:55 > 0:39:59the abolitionists won their moral crusade against slavery.
0:40:01 > 0:40:05In 1833, the reformed House of Commons decreed
0:40:05 > 0:40:08the end of slavery in the British colonies.
0:40:10 > 0:40:15In the West Indies, half a million slaves rejoiced on the great day.
0:40:19 > 0:40:24In 1972 film-makers largely accepted that the slaves were freed
0:40:24 > 0:40:28on moral grounds. Since then, some historians have suggested
0:40:28 > 0:40:33that slave rebellions and cold economics also played a role.
0:40:33 > 0:40:37Industrialisation is far more productive than having slave labour.
0:40:37 > 0:40:39It's not a humanitarian thing.
0:40:39 > 0:40:42People worked out that slave labour actually isn't that productive.
0:40:42 > 0:40:43You've got to feed them,
0:40:43 > 0:40:46you've got to look after them when they get sick,
0:40:46 > 0:40:48you've got to house them,
0:40:48 > 0:40:50and actually, the industrial system,
0:40:50 > 0:40:53if you like, where you pay people and then they look after themselves,
0:40:53 > 0:40:55in theory, who are not looked after,
0:40:55 > 0:40:57was far more productive and profitable.
0:40:59 > 0:41:01The film appeared in the early 1970s
0:41:01 > 0:41:04at a time when Britain's relationship
0:41:04 > 0:41:07with its former colonies was hotly debated.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13Although the sun had finally set on the Empire,
0:41:13 > 0:41:17there remained a legacy of those imperial citizens who claimed their
0:41:17 > 0:41:22rights to settle in Britain, which many regarded as the mother country.
0:41:24 > 0:41:26Immigration was THE big issue,
0:41:26 > 0:41:30and film-makers in the 1970s began to ask whether high levels of
0:41:30 > 0:41:33immigration were desirable, and also,
0:41:33 > 0:41:36if those who came were getting a fair deal.
0:41:36 > 0:41:40There have been blacks in Liverpool since the 1770s,
0:41:40 > 0:41:44a consequence of the shipping trade with West Africa.
0:41:44 > 0:41:47In those days, black slaves could be bought in Liverpool.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52Later, African seamen settled here, and then, in the 1940s,
0:41:52 > 0:41:57the wartime government recruited West Indians to work in British factories.
0:41:57 > 0:41:59For generations, these black men
0:41:59 > 0:42:01have married and lived with white women,
0:42:01 > 0:42:04producing a half-caste community that is British by birth
0:42:04 > 0:42:06and Afro-British by race.
0:42:06 > 0:42:07What is life like in this estate?
0:42:07 > 0:42:11It's all right, you know. I've got friends with the woman next door,
0:42:11 > 0:42:13so we're all friendly in the neighbourhood.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16But the woman next door is very friendly, you know.
0:42:16 > 0:42:17- Is she white?- Yes.
0:42:17 > 0:42:19Yes, she is white.
0:42:19 > 0:42:21But locally born Liverpool blacks
0:42:21 > 0:42:23want more than neighbourly tolerance.
0:42:23 > 0:42:25They want equality of opportunity,
0:42:25 > 0:42:28a fair share of whatever jobs this depressed area has to offer.
0:42:28 > 0:42:30According to race relations workers here,
0:42:30 > 0:42:33many Liverpool employers have discriminated
0:42:33 > 0:42:34against the black community
0:42:34 > 0:42:38for so many years that the practice has become an accepted fact of life.
0:42:38 > 0:42:40Even in its better days,
0:42:40 > 0:42:44Liverpool has always had twice the national rate of unemployment,
0:42:44 > 0:42:48and always the blacks have found themselves at the end of the queue.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51There has got to be a policy of positive discrimination.
0:42:51 > 0:42:52They have got to come forward
0:42:52 > 0:42:55and they have got to allocate jobs to black people.
0:42:55 > 0:42:57They have got to recognise that black people exist
0:42:57 > 0:43:00and black people need to be catered for.
0:43:00 > 0:43:04Kids of 17, 18, 19, they have got a right to say,
0:43:04 > 0:43:08"What is this white society doing for me?"
0:43:08 > 0:43:12Film-makers were keen to explain in the simplest terms the new law to
0:43:12 > 0:43:17protect the rights of immigrants, which had just come into effect.
0:43:17 > 0:43:19It is an attempt to change people's attitudes.
0:43:19 > 0:43:21Take employment first.
0:43:21 > 0:43:24This man is after a job for which he is qualified
0:43:24 > 0:43:28and which he knows exists because he has seen it advertised.
0:43:28 > 0:43:32He applies for the job, but the employer turns him down.
0:43:32 > 0:43:34That rejection could be against the new law.
0:43:34 > 0:43:38An employer may not refuse a man a job, or deny him promotion,
0:43:38 > 0:43:42or pay him less simply on grounds of race.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45The same man is now looking for somewhere to live.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49He goes to a boarding house and he asks for a room.
0:43:49 > 0:43:52If the owner turns him down, apparently on grounds of race,
0:43:52 > 0:43:54he can take the owner to court.
0:43:54 > 0:43:56The law applies to hotels.
0:43:56 > 0:44:00Indeed, it is now unlawful to deny a person any goods or service
0:44:00 > 0:44:02on racial grounds.
0:44:03 > 0:44:04Whatever the law said,
0:44:04 > 0:44:08not all of the recent arrivals felt welcome in Britain.
0:44:11 > 0:44:14It is now 25 years since Commonwealth nations
0:44:14 > 0:44:17first came to Britain in sizeable numbers.
0:44:17 > 0:44:20First, the men came alone, uncertain whether they'd stay.
0:44:20 > 0:44:23But later, most of them sent for their wives
0:44:23 > 0:44:25and transplanted their roots and their culture.
0:44:30 > 0:44:33And now there is a second generation of British Asians
0:44:33 > 0:44:35that knows no country but this.
0:44:35 > 0:44:37The British don't accept me because they say,
0:44:37 > 0:44:39"Although you possess a British passport..."
0:44:39 > 0:44:42And although I have lived all of my life,
0:44:42 > 0:44:47almost all of my life, in this country, they will not accept me.
0:44:47 > 0:44:49We are stuck in a sense between the two cultures,
0:44:49 > 0:44:52the West and our own culture.
0:44:53 > 0:44:56The old Jewish quarter at Whitechapel,
0:44:56 > 0:44:58now occupied by one of the least favoured immigrant groups
0:44:58 > 0:45:02in Britain - the Bengalis of Bangladesh.
0:45:02 > 0:45:04The parts of Bangladesh they come from
0:45:04 > 0:45:06are among the poorest in the world.
0:45:06 > 0:45:09They face bigger problems of adjustment to British society
0:45:09 > 0:45:11than any other immigrant group.
0:45:11 > 0:45:14The result is tension and sometimes violence.
0:45:14 > 0:45:16The window has been broken, and the one upstairs.
0:45:16 > 0:45:18When they throw the bricks, you know,
0:45:18 > 0:45:20the glass went everywhere in the room,
0:45:20 > 0:45:22and the baby was sleeping in the cot.
0:45:22 > 0:45:25The baby had bruising in the face, marks.
0:45:25 > 0:45:28Two men, my back, on the top.
0:45:28 > 0:45:30And one is pulling a knife.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33They cut this that way.
0:45:36 > 0:45:40In 1994, using newly released official papers,
0:45:40 > 0:45:44Timewatch explored the history of immigration from the former Empire.
0:45:46 > 0:45:48In an episode which resonates today,
0:45:48 > 0:45:51politicians apparently underestimated how many people
0:45:51 > 0:45:55would take the opportunity to settle in Britain,
0:45:55 > 0:45:58causing concern in some communities.
0:45:58 > 0:46:01By the early 1960s, some of those who lived in the communities
0:46:01 > 0:46:04where the black immigrants had settled
0:46:04 > 0:46:06felt emboldened to speak their mind.
0:46:06 > 0:46:10It's no good folk saying people will mix, they just won't.
0:46:10 > 0:46:13They are a nuisance at work, they won't work,
0:46:13 > 0:46:15and for folks who've got them living by them,
0:46:15 > 0:46:18there is more nuisance still.
0:46:18 > 0:46:23I think they should live in a district all to themselves
0:46:23 > 0:46:28because I have got to bring this little boy up amongst them.
0:46:28 > 0:46:31The problem arose from a miscalculation
0:46:31 > 0:46:33made in the late 1940s.
0:46:36 > 0:46:40British subjects numbered nearly 800 million people.
0:46:40 > 0:46:42From whichever country they came,
0:46:42 > 0:46:45they had the right to work and settle in Britain,
0:46:45 > 0:46:49a right enshrined in the British Nationality Act of 1948.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52It was assumed that only a few of those subjects
0:46:52 > 0:46:55would actually exercise their right.
0:46:55 > 0:46:57But, with the passing of the new act,
0:46:57 > 0:47:00the children of the Empire began to come home.
0:47:00 > 0:47:03Leaving behind poverty and unemployment,
0:47:03 > 0:47:06they were hoping for a better tomorrow in Britain.
0:47:06 > 0:47:10Timewatch revealed how quickly the policy of open-door immigration was
0:47:10 > 0:47:11called into question,
0:47:11 > 0:47:14and how the whole subject became mired in politics.
0:47:16 > 0:47:18Official documents that have recently been the subject
0:47:18 > 0:47:20of academic study reveal that,
0:47:20 > 0:47:23within months of enacting the 1948 act,
0:47:23 > 0:47:27the authorities were already alarmed by its implications.
0:47:27 > 0:47:32In April 1954, a meeting was convened to build a case for legislation
0:47:32 > 0:47:38intended to withdraw the automatic right of abode in the 1948 act.
0:47:38 > 0:47:41In November 1961, amidst heated debate,
0:47:41 > 0:47:45the government introduced a bill to limit immigration
0:47:45 > 0:47:46from the old Empire.
0:47:48 > 0:47:51Despite those first measures to control immigration
0:47:51 > 0:47:56more than 50 years ago, the subject remains very much alive.
0:47:56 > 0:48:00As recently as 2012, film-makers were able to demonstrate
0:48:00 > 0:48:05just how firmly shut the once-open door has now become.
0:48:05 > 0:48:08The children of those who would once have claimed an entitlement to enter
0:48:08 > 0:48:14Britain, face a treacherous journey, and a cold reception.
0:48:14 > 0:48:18Illegal migrants from India, trapped in the UK without a home, work,
0:48:18 > 0:48:21or even an identity.
0:48:21 > 0:48:23They pay people-smugglers thousands of pounds,
0:48:23 > 0:48:27yet sometimes end up penniless and destitute.
0:48:36 > 0:48:40Punjab, one of India's richest states.
0:48:43 > 0:48:46They call it the food basket of India.
0:48:49 > 0:48:51In the first decades after independence,
0:48:51 > 0:48:54hundreds of thousands of mainly Sikh Punjabis
0:48:54 > 0:48:59settled in the UK to fill huge gaps in Britain's workforce.
0:49:00 > 0:49:02Today, the criteria they must meet
0:49:02 > 0:49:05for a British work visa is much tougher.
0:49:06 > 0:49:10Agents charge up to 15,000 for a visa
0:49:10 > 0:49:12and the services of traffickers.
0:49:12 > 0:49:13There are no refunds.
0:49:18 > 0:49:20This is Southall in West London.
0:49:21 > 0:49:24It is home to a huge South Asian population,
0:49:24 > 0:49:27one of the biggest concentrations outside India.
0:49:27 > 0:49:29Over the last 20 years,
0:49:29 > 0:49:33illegal immigrants from India have added to that population.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38But, for new arrivals, life here is tough.
0:49:38 > 0:49:41From sunrise, hundreds of illegal immigrants descend
0:49:41 > 0:49:43on the train station car park,
0:49:43 > 0:49:47a regular pick-up point for cheap, illegal labour.
0:49:49 > 0:49:53A lack of work is pushing illegal workers into the very poverty
0:49:53 > 0:49:54they hoped to escape.
0:49:57 > 0:50:01They live here, in Britain's 21st century slums.
0:50:01 > 0:50:06Across Southall, 2,500 poorly constructed buildings,
0:50:06 > 0:50:09hidden at the end of suburban gardens.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12They call them sheds with beds.
0:50:12 > 0:50:15Many built without planning permission,
0:50:15 > 0:50:17others converted garages.
0:50:17 > 0:50:19This is just one street,
0:50:19 > 0:50:23and on the end of each garden, there are brick buildings like this one.
0:50:23 > 0:50:28All with windows and doorways leading to this alleyway.
0:50:28 > 0:50:33And they just go on and on and on.
0:50:33 > 0:50:36Increasing numbers of illegal immigrants are giving up
0:50:36 > 0:50:38on their life in Britain.
0:50:38 > 0:50:40But getting home isn't easy.
0:50:43 > 0:50:46Of course, many millions of Commonwealth citizens
0:50:46 > 0:50:49have come to Britain and thrived here.
0:50:49 > 0:50:53The nation that 70 years ago offered an open door to all its
0:50:53 > 0:50:56former subjects is no longer so welcoming.
0:50:58 > 0:51:03But Britain today has been shaped by its imperial past.
0:51:03 > 0:51:05The multicultural world we live in today
0:51:05 > 0:51:07is a consequence of the Empire.
0:51:07 > 0:51:11My parents were from Ghana, or the Gold Coast as it then was.
0:51:11 > 0:51:14They wanted to continue their education
0:51:14 > 0:51:16in what was even then called the mother country,
0:51:16 > 0:51:18the kind of seat of empire, if you like.
0:51:18 > 0:51:21I mean, I wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for the British Empire.
0:51:23 > 0:51:27Delving into the Empire archive has reminded me of
0:51:27 > 0:51:32one important principle - history can never be entirely objective.
0:51:32 > 0:51:36Historians and film-makers must select which facts to work with,
0:51:36 > 0:51:41how to interpret them, and therefore the message they convey.
0:51:42 > 0:51:45There is a particularly robust debate in Britain about Empire
0:51:45 > 0:51:48and about our supposed heroes or villains of our history.
0:51:48 > 0:51:52Now there's actually a great fashion for people saying it wasn't that bad
0:51:52 > 0:51:54after all. That's been going for some time,
0:51:54 > 0:51:56and then there's a counterbalance to that.
0:51:56 > 0:51:58But I think this is all part of a healthy debate.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01You wouldn't want to restrict what points of view
0:52:01 > 0:52:02people are allowed to take.
0:52:04 > 0:52:08I've seen how, in the 1970s, film-makers were keen to expose
0:52:08 > 0:52:10the excesses of Empire.
0:52:12 > 0:52:16Fast forward a few decades, and in two more recent high-profile series,
0:52:16 > 0:52:19their authors take a much more benign view,
0:52:19 > 0:52:24at least giving Empire builders the credit for a noble enterprise.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27The men and women who had sat at their desks and danced
0:52:27 > 0:52:31in the club were not monsters of hard-hearted indifference.
0:52:31 > 0:52:37They had, many of them, only the very best of intentions.
0:52:37 > 0:52:40They had, in fact, a vision that their empire was the best
0:52:40 > 0:52:44the world had ever seen because it was built on virtue.
0:52:44 > 0:52:48Its power was to be measured not in Gatling guns,
0:52:48 > 0:52:52but in an unselfish dedication to eradicating poverty,
0:52:52 > 0:52:54ignorance and disease.
0:52:54 > 0:52:58We would take whole cultures crippled by those maladies
0:52:58 > 0:53:00and stand them on their own two feet.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05The more British India could become, the better.
0:53:06 > 0:53:10The country would be turned into one vast school run.
0:53:12 > 0:53:16Western education was the instrument by which India was going to be
0:53:16 > 0:53:20transformed from a world of bullock carts and beggars
0:53:20 > 0:53:24into the progressive Victorian dynamic world of the telegraph
0:53:24 > 0:53:26and the locomotive.
0:53:26 > 0:53:28English would be a way to bring Indians,
0:53:28 > 0:53:32divided by so many faiths and languages, together.
0:53:35 > 0:53:40The film recognises that those noble aims were only partially achieved by
0:53:40 > 0:53:43the time Britain decided to call it a day.
0:53:44 > 0:53:48In 1947, when India became independent,
0:53:48 > 0:53:51all New Delhi's statues of the king-emperors
0:53:51 > 0:53:53and viceroys and generals,
0:53:53 > 0:53:56the great and good, and the not-so-good,
0:53:56 > 0:54:00were rounded up and taken here, where they were interred
0:54:00 > 0:54:05like so many forlorn hostages to that old joker, history.
0:54:05 > 0:54:08But perhaps the last word on the British Empire
0:54:08 > 0:54:11hasn't been Britain after all.
0:54:11 > 0:54:13At least if that Empire is thought of
0:54:13 > 0:54:18not in terms of scarlet tunics and flashing sabres, but language,
0:54:18 > 0:54:21law and liberal democracy.
0:54:22 > 0:54:26Not just in Calcutta and Madras, but also in Oldham,
0:54:26 > 0:54:28Leicester and Bradford.
0:54:36 > 0:54:38Remember, in 1972,
0:54:38 > 0:54:42film-makers were accused of treason more or less
0:54:42 > 0:54:45in their judgment on India.
0:54:45 > 0:54:49This 2002 judgment seems far more charitable.
0:54:49 > 0:54:51But, as always,
0:54:51 > 0:54:56there will be a voice to challenge each new interpretation.
0:54:56 > 0:54:58Even today, I think there's very much a desire in a country
0:54:58 > 0:55:01like Britain not to be told that key aspects of our past
0:55:01 > 0:55:03were desperately iniquitous.
0:55:03 > 0:55:06People want to believe that generally it was all OK,
0:55:06 > 0:55:08even if some nasty things happened.
0:55:08 > 0:55:11Well, unfortunately, when you begin to look at the very underpinnings
0:55:11 > 0:55:12of British imperialism,
0:55:12 > 0:55:16the underpinnings were often remarkably suspect.
0:55:16 > 0:55:20So, even if some more benign things happened at certain junctures,
0:55:20 > 0:55:22that really isn't the bit of the story
0:55:22 > 0:55:24that necessarily should be focused upon.
0:55:24 > 0:55:25A more rounded story is needed,
0:55:25 > 0:55:29and I think the tail should never be allowed to wag the dog.
0:55:30 > 0:55:35In 2012 Jeremy Paxman cast his critical eye over the Empire and wrapped up his
0:55:35 > 0:55:42inquiry by urging that we re-engage with this critical part of our past.
0:55:42 > 0:55:46The sun had most definitely set on the Empire.
0:55:46 > 0:55:49It had taken centuries to accumulate.
0:55:49 > 0:55:52It was gone in a couple of decades.
0:55:57 > 0:56:02The Empire brought blood and tears and dispossession to millions of
0:56:02 > 0:56:07people, but it also brought roads and railways and education.
0:56:10 > 0:56:11For good or ill,
0:56:11 > 0:56:16much of the world is as it is today because of the Empire.
0:56:16 > 0:56:17From the way it looks...
0:56:21 > 0:56:23..to the sports people play.
0:56:28 > 0:56:31From the religion they practice...
0:56:32 > 0:56:34..to the language they speak.
0:56:39 > 0:56:43It has changed the very genetic make-up of Britain.
0:56:45 > 0:56:48If only we can look at it clear-eyed,
0:56:48 > 0:56:51it can tell us a lot about who we are.
0:56:53 > 0:56:56It is a story that belongs to all of us.
0:56:59 > 0:57:02We have been through pride, we have been through shame.
0:57:02 > 0:57:05Mostly nowadays we seem to be in denial.
0:57:05 > 0:57:09But if we really want to understand who we are,
0:57:09 > 0:57:14it's time we stopped pretending the empire was nothing to do with us.
0:57:22 > 0:57:23As I've gone through the archive,
0:57:23 > 0:57:27I've seen historians being attacked by their peers.
0:57:27 > 0:57:31I've seen film-makers pilloried in the House of Lords.
0:57:31 > 0:57:35Wouldn't it be wiser just to steer clear of the empire and stay out of
0:57:35 > 0:57:38trouble? Quite simply,
0:57:38 > 0:57:42it is so full of such astonishing stories that it's a constant source
0:57:42 > 0:57:44of material for documentary film-makers,
0:57:44 > 0:57:47as well as dramatists and screenwriters.
0:57:47 > 0:57:51And when the pendulum of historical interpretation swings so violently,
0:57:51 > 0:57:56it means that familiar subjects never lose their appeal.
0:57:56 > 0:57:59Ironically, it's now almost as controversial
0:57:59 > 0:58:01to defend characters like Cecil Rhodes
0:58:01 > 0:58:04as it was four decades ago to denounce them.
0:58:06 > 0:58:09It seems to me that the documentary archive demonstrates
0:58:09 > 0:58:13that there is no historical subject more exciting and colourful,
0:58:13 > 0:58:15nor more treacherous and controversial
0:58:15 > 0:58:17than the British Empire.
0:58:18 > 0:58:23And if it gets people thinking and caring passionately about who we are
0:58:23 > 0:58:27and where we have come from, is that a bad thing?