0:00:08 > 0:00:12It was the greatest Empire the world had ever seen.
0:00:17 > 0:00:21At its height, Britain ruled over a quarter of the world's population.
0:00:25 > 0:00:26Everywhere they went,
0:00:26 > 0:00:31the men and women who built the Empire created a home away from home.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35From the wastes of Canada...
0:00:36 > 0:00:39..to the fertile highlands of Africa...
0:00:43 > 0:00:46..and the hill stations of India.
0:00:50 > 0:00:56They took with them what they saw as the spirit of Britain,
0:00:56 > 0:01:02and they spread the British way of doing things right across the globe.
0:01:05 > 0:01:12But as we made ourselves at home in strange and far away lands,
0:01:12 > 0:01:16the question was always, how do we live with the people we rule?
0:01:16 > 0:01:19The answer would shape their countries,
0:01:19 > 0:01:22but it would also shape our own.
0:02:26 > 0:02:31The story starts here on the east coast of India in the early 1600s.
0:02:35 > 0:02:41The first British people arrived not as invaders, but as traders.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44Their attitude to the peoples they encountered
0:02:44 > 0:02:47would be very different from those who followed.
0:02:49 > 0:02:55These pioneers of Empire actively embraced an Indian way of life.
0:02:55 > 0:02:59One of these early traders was Charles Stuart.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03He worked for the East India Company,
0:03:03 > 0:03:08which traded in cotton, silks and spices.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12Most mornings, Stuart could be seen joining the locals
0:03:12 > 0:03:16as they bathed in Calcutta's Hugli river.
0:03:20 > 0:03:22Charles Stuart is the sort of person
0:03:22 > 0:03:25who up ends easy prejudices about the Empire,
0:03:25 > 0:03:28the caricature is that it was all run
0:03:28 > 0:03:32by arrogant racists oppressing downtrodden natives.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36And like all caricatures, there is a degree of truth in that.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39But Charles Stuart belongs to an early generation
0:03:39 > 0:03:43of the British in India, who were seduced by the place.
0:03:50 > 0:03:56For Charles Stuart, India was neither alien nor forbidding.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59It was intoxicating.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35Imagine coming across this if the most exotic thing you'd ever seen
0:04:35 > 0:04:39was the stained glass in your parish church window.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42Most people would have been absolutely intimidated, I think.
0:04:42 > 0:04:46RINGING BELL
0:04:50 > 0:04:53In this unfamiliar world,
0:04:53 > 0:04:58Charles Stuart saw holiness, order and civilisation.
0:04:58 > 0:05:05So enchanted was he with India, he soon became known as Hindu Stuart.
0:05:09 > 0:05:14He encouraged his fellow Europeans to adopt Indian customs.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20He called on British women to abandon their dull dresses
0:05:20 > 0:05:23and wear colourful Indian saris,
0:05:23 > 0:05:26and on British men
0:05:26 > 0:05:29to grow what would become that trademark of Empire,
0:05:29 > 0:05:33a luxuriant moustache,
0:05:33 > 0:05:36Indian style.
0:05:40 > 0:05:48Hello. Can I talk to you about your moustache? Yes? Good. Can I come in?
0:05:51 > 0:05:54Now, how long have you had it?
0:05:58 > 0:06:00Do you think it makes you more manly?
0:06:21 > 0:06:23Do you think I'm a bit of a girl for not having a moustache?
0:06:28 > 0:06:31That's a relief.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39The traders of the East India Company,
0:06:39 > 0:06:43liked to mix business with pleasure.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47Relaxing with the locals was an everyday affair.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50To judge from their clothes,
0:06:50 > 0:06:54you often couldn't tell one from the other.
0:07:04 > 0:07:06This was the Empire making up the rules
0:07:06 > 0:07:10about the appropriate relations between the races, as it went along.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14In fact, there weren't really any rules, at all, yet.
0:07:16 > 0:07:22Many British traders took Indian mistresses, known as Beebees.
0:07:22 > 0:07:28But there were more serious and lasting relationships too,
0:07:28 > 0:07:32leading to marriage and families.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35Many men of the East India Company left their possessions
0:07:35 > 0:07:37to Indian wives or children.
0:07:54 > 0:07:59The practice of interracial sex and interracial marriage extended
0:07:59 > 0:08:03to the very highest British officials in the land.
0:08:11 > 0:08:16This monument was erected originally to honour Sir David Ochterlony.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21One of the great spectacles of his time as British resident in Delhi,
0:08:21 > 0:08:23was the sight of him taking the evening air,
0:08:23 > 0:08:30attended by his 13 Indian wives, each on her own elephant.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43Ochterlony liked nothing more than to repair to his residence
0:08:43 > 0:08:46for a quiet evening in with his harem.
0:08:46 > 0:08:51Dressed in full Indian costume, his shisha pipe at his side.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01The offspring of these mixed race marriages,
0:09:01 > 0:09:04became known as Anglo-Indians.
0:09:04 > 0:09:10Today there are an estimated 150,000 of them in India.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24It's Christmas in Chennai, formerly known as Madras.
0:09:24 > 0:09:30It's a big occasion in the Anglo-Indian calendar.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34Anglo-Indians tend to marry within the community,
0:09:34 > 0:09:37so the term now means having some British blood,
0:09:37 > 0:09:40often several generations back.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43# So here it is Merry Christmas
0:09:43 > 0:09:47# Everybody's having fun
0:09:48 > 0:09:56# Look to the future now It's only just begun. #
0:09:56 > 0:09:58THEY CHEER
0:10:05 > 0:10:08- You're all Christians? - Yes.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11- And you're all...got some British blood somewhere?- Yes.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14But, you know, you can't, I couldn't tell you from any other Indian?
0:10:14 > 0:10:17But my name says it.
0:10:17 > 0:10:19And I know my roots. That is it.
0:10:19 > 0:10:21Does it, what does it mean to you?
0:10:21 > 0:10:23I feel something nice because I feel,
0:10:23 > 0:10:27I feel proud being Anglo-Indian, that's it.
0:10:27 > 0:10:28But you're a visible reminder,
0:10:28 > 0:10:32- at the fact that this country was a colony.- Yes.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34Well, a lot of people wouldn't like that.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37But that's, that's history, look at it, take it as a part of history,
0:10:37 > 0:10:40and like every country has a history, this is our history.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42It obviously has some big pull for you, doesn't it?
0:10:42 > 0:10:44Yes, it does
0:10:44 > 0:10:45One, my family,
0:10:45 > 0:10:46our roots are very deep
0:10:46 > 0:10:47and I am proud to be who I am here.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49I have both worlds to enjoy,
0:10:49 > 0:10:52I enjoy the West as well as I enjoy the East.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56You don't feel any resentment against these men who came over here,
0:10:56 > 0:10:58and fathered children, and then either died or disappeared?
0:10:58 > 0:11:01Not really. We don't resent, no.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04You sound actually as if you're rather proud of it!
0:11:05 > 0:11:10We are actually, we are because we like to keep in touch if, um...
0:11:10 > 0:11:12You had better be careful.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15Next you'll be asking to be colonised again.
0:11:19 > 0:11:24Everybody here seemed rather to celebrate the fusion of two cultures.
0:11:26 > 0:11:28But in Victorian Britain,
0:11:28 > 0:11:32these relationships were seen as subversive, even dangerous.
0:11:33 > 0:11:38The country was in the grip of a religious revival.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42The British were adopting a new, more puritanical Christianity.
0:11:42 > 0:11:46And they wanted the rest of the world to do likewise.
0:11:55 > 0:12:00That shift would soon be felt on the far fringes of Empire.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15It wasn't long before Victorian values arrived in India.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21They were brought, not only by missionaries,
0:12:21 > 0:12:24but by wives sent out from Britain
0:12:24 > 0:12:27who were arriving in ever increasing numbers.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30They were known as memsaabs.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41They hadn't the slightest interest in local culture.
0:12:41 > 0:12:44One memsaab wrote of Indian holy men as,
0:12:44 > 0:12:48"horrible objects, with their wildly rolling eyes,
0:12:48 > 0:12:53"long tangled hair, and every bone visible in their wretched bodies."
0:12:53 > 0:12:56Another arrived in India and wrote home,
0:12:56 > 0:12:59"There's such a lot of everything!"
0:13:24 > 0:13:27No wonder the memsaabs ran for the hills.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36They had very different ideas
0:13:36 > 0:13:40about how to make themselves at home in India.
0:13:44 > 0:13:49The days of easy going tolerance were now over,
0:13:49 > 0:13:53in their place came a culture war, a never ending battle
0:13:53 > 0:13:59to maintain the British way of life in the face of foreign temptation.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02The British strongholds in this battle were the places
0:14:02 > 0:14:04they came to escape the summer heat.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07Hill stations, like Ooty.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17The Indians called it Ootacamund,
0:14:17 > 0:14:19but that was too much of a mouthful for most of the British.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24As soon as they discovered the place,
0:14:24 > 0:14:30they began to turn it into a version of Surrey.
0:14:32 > 0:14:37In places like this, a particular idea of Britishness was forged.
0:14:37 > 0:14:39Tea on the lawn,
0:14:39 > 0:14:44a certain reserve, order, formality,
0:14:44 > 0:14:47unbelievable stuffiness.
0:14:47 > 0:14:51It is an idea that some people still have a soft spot for,
0:14:51 > 0:14:54while others have been laughing at it for decades.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58What tends to be forgotten, though,
0:14:58 > 0:15:02is that it was forged, initially, as a defence against something.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06In this case, as a defence against India.
0:15:16 > 0:15:21Bungalows sprouted like little forts all over the hills.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24Bungalow is originally an Indian word
0:15:24 > 0:15:27meaning a house in the Bengali style,
0:15:27 > 0:15:32but the buildings it came to describe were very British, indeed.
0:15:37 > 0:15:41The great Empire writer, Rudyard Kipling,
0:15:41 > 0:15:46talked about them as models of shut-up-ness.
0:15:46 > 0:15:49Enclosed within their own little compound, rigidly ordered within,
0:15:49 > 0:15:54they really were about the separation of us from them.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07Of course, the great shift in attitudes
0:16:07 > 0:16:11was shared by men and memsaabs.
0:16:11 > 0:16:12But as mistresses of the house,
0:16:12 > 0:16:14it was the women who were on the front line.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28For a young woman, arriving in this alien land
0:16:28 > 0:16:30after weeks on a boat from England
0:16:30 > 0:16:33must have been a truly daunting experience.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37Fortunately, though, help was at hand.
0:16:41 > 0:16:46The Complete Indian Housekeeper And Cook,
0:16:46 > 0:16:49by Flora Annie Steel and Grace Gardiner,
0:16:49 > 0:16:53is an intriguing window into the mind of British India.
0:16:59 > 0:17:01It tells you absolutely everything,
0:17:01 > 0:17:04from how much to pay the cook's assistant,
0:17:04 > 0:17:08to the best way to divide up the family possessions
0:17:08 > 0:17:12when you're moving house, by means of 11 camels,
0:17:12 > 0:17:15to how many coolies it takes to carry a piano.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18The answer to that one, if you're interested, is 16.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27The kitchen was the principal battle ground.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31Here there were terrible warnings.
0:17:31 > 0:17:37"The kitchen is a black hole, the pantry a sink.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40"The only servant who will condescend to tidy up,
0:17:40 > 0:17:44"is the skulking savage with a reed broom."
0:18:03 > 0:18:07The book is astonishingly rude about the Indians themselves.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11"The Indian servant," this bit here says,
0:18:11 > 0:18:16"is a child in all things save age, and should be treated as a child.
0:18:16 > 0:18:22"That is to say, kindly, but with the greatest firmness."
0:18:25 > 0:18:27It was these women's duty
0:18:27 > 0:18:31to introduce the native servants to the British way of doing things.
0:18:31 > 0:18:36And to teach them their place as decent dutiful inferiors.
0:18:40 > 0:18:44The book is obsessed with what it calls
0:18:44 > 0:18:47the natives' capacity for uncleanness.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50Of course, this isn't just dirt,
0:18:50 > 0:18:54it's also foreign contamination,
0:18:54 > 0:18:56and one particularly telling passage in the book,
0:18:56 > 0:18:58advises not to worry too much
0:18:58 > 0:19:01if the house you rent at the start of the season is a bit grubby,
0:19:01 > 0:19:06because it is English people's dirt, not entirely natives'.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18Yet for all their apparent self-confidence,
0:19:18 > 0:19:21these were women who lived in a state of fear,
0:19:21 > 0:19:27fear that the climate and conditions in India might actually kill them.
0:19:40 > 0:19:44St Stephen's Church was one of British Ooty's first buildings.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49Its graveyard is full of British women and children,
0:19:49 > 0:19:53whose stay in the new country didn't last long.
0:19:58 > 0:20:04"In memory of Mary, wife of RC Lewin of the Madras Civil Service.
0:20:04 > 0:20:08"June 10th 1858."
0:20:08 > 0:20:11Aged 28, that one.
0:20:19 > 0:20:22Death and disease ravaged the British in India.
0:20:22 > 0:20:27Among soldiers' wives and children,
0:20:27 > 0:20:31the mortality rate here was three times that back home.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40"Sacred to the memory of Issabella Frances Etheldred,
0:20:40 > 0:20:44"fourth daughter of the late Lieutenant Colonel Havelock,
0:20:44 > 0:20:46"14th Light Dragoons,
0:20:46 > 0:20:52"who died June 18th 1851, aged 17 years, two months and three days."
0:20:54 > 0:20:58How precisely they'd measured their loss.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16Along with this snobbery and self-righteousness
0:21:16 > 0:21:20went a certain fortitude and courage, as well.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23Maybe they passed themselves off as the master race,
0:21:23 > 0:21:28because deep down, they knew that they were an endangered species.
0:21:40 > 0:21:45But adversity seemed merely to spur the 19th century British
0:21:45 > 0:21:48onto further expansion across the globe.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53One of their greatest success stories began life as a swampy,
0:21:53 > 0:21:56tropical island in the South China Sea.
0:22:17 > 0:22:22Modern Singapore is a creation of Empire.
0:22:22 > 0:22:28It was founded by Britain as a trading post in 1819.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38It was Thomas Stamford Raffles who saw its potential
0:22:38 > 0:22:40at the crossroads of East and West.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45The British established free trade and the rule of law,
0:22:45 > 0:22:50and turned a pestilential island into a commercial metropolis,
0:22:50 > 0:22:56which drew in Malays, Indians and Chinese.
0:23:02 > 0:23:04In this colonial melting pot,
0:23:04 > 0:23:07the British were determined to remain distinct.
0:23:16 > 0:23:18As one old colonial put it to a new arrival,
0:23:18 > 0:23:21"If you want to be happy in Singapore,
0:23:21 > 0:23:24"don't admit you're living in an oriental country.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28"Live as nearly as possible as you would in Europe."
0:23:28 > 0:23:31And the British did this all over the Empire.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34Central to this concoction was the club.
0:23:42 > 0:23:43This is Singapore Cricket Club.
0:23:43 > 0:23:48It's been here since 1852.
0:23:50 > 0:23:52If the bungalow was the place the British ran away to,
0:23:52 > 0:23:55the club was where they came together.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02Inside, the club was designed to reassure,
0:24:02 > 0:24:07a piece of foreign soil that was for ever England.
0:24:13 > 0:24:18It's open to all races now, but it was founded as a haven,
0:24:18 > 0:24:22where British expats could retreat from the fact that they were abroad.
0:24:22 > 0:24:28At the heart of club life was a very British passion.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32Sport.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35There were cricket clubs,
0:24:35 > 0:24:36golf clubs,
0:24:36 > 0:24:37hockey clubs,
0:24:37 > 0:24:39badminton clubs,
0:24:39 > 0:24:40tennis clubs,
0:24:40 > 0:24:42hunting clubs,
0:24:42 > 0:24:45where there were neither hounds nor foxes,
0:24:45 > 0:24:48and a yacht club in the middle of the desert.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51# The natives grieve when the white men leave their huts
0:24:51 > 0:24:54# Because they're obviously, definitely nuts
0:24:54 > 0:24:58# Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun
0:24:58 > 0:25:01# Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun... #
0:25:03 > 0:25:06Do you play golf every evening?
0:25:06 > 0:25:09No, not every evening. As often as one can do one does and likes to,
0:25:09 > 0:25:11it's a good form of relaxation.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14# But mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday
0:25:14 > 0:25:15# Out in the midday, out in the midday
0:25:15 > 0:25:19# Out in the midday, out in the midday sun. #
0:25:25 > 0:25:29It was the done thing to ignore the stifling heat and humidity.
0:25:29 > 0:25:31As one member put it at the end of every game,
0:25:31 > 0:25:34you wrung out your shirt and shorts,
0:25:34 > 0:25:37then had a large glass of salt and water,
0:25:37 > 0:25:40before settling down to the serious drinking.
0:25:50 > 0:25:52As well as sports,
0:25:52 > 0:25:54there were amateur theatricals,
0:25:54 > 0:25:56solid British fare like Gilbert and Sullivan,
0:25:56 > 0:25:58or the latest West End smash.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01There were Burns Nights, and bridge evenings,
0:26:01 > 0:26:05dances and fancy dress parties galore.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16And, of course, tea on the terrace.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21But clubs served British comfort food,
0:26:21 > 0:26:24sausage and mash, or pies from Melton Mowbray.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28When one member of the Singapore Club asked for fresh papaya,
0:26:28 > 0:26:30he was served tinned apricots,
0:26:30 > 0:26:34on the grounds that the club does not serve native food.
0:26:35 > 0:26:42As tins preserved food, so the club was meant to preserve
0:26:42 > 0:26:45a particular sense of national identity.
0:26:45 > 0:26:49Too much mixing with the locals was frowned upon.
0:26:55 > 0:26:57What is it you guys like about this club?
0:26:57 > 0:27:01It's home.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04- Home?- It's home to me.
0:27:04 > 0:27:06I've got so many friends here,
0:27:06 > 0:27:09I came 36 years ago and I play sport.
0:27:09 > 0:27:11- Do you remember what the club used to be like?- On this side,
0:27:11 > 0:27:15the men's bar was on that side of the club retained that. There was
0:27:15 > 0:27:19a lovely sign, "No women, children and dogs beyond this point."
0:27:19 > 0:27:21That annoyed my mother immensely.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24- Also the dogs complained about it. - Well, they would, wouldn't they?
0:27:24 > 0:27:27That would be a natural thing for them to complain.
0:27:27 > 0:27:29Dad'd bring me in here for lunch.
0:27:29 > 0:27:31I'd spend my whole life here.
0:27:31 > 0:27:33And my wife is a Colombian, and, um, she said, you know,
0:27:33 > 0:27:35"if it wasn't for the men's bar,
0:27:35 > 0:27:37"we would have been divorced a long time ago."
0:27:37 > 0:27:40Because she knew when I was in the men's bar I was safe,
0:27:40 > 0:27:42cos there was nothing else I was up to.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46Cos Singapore is a terrible place for getting up to a bit of, yeah,
0:27:46 > 0:27:49the odd... can, there's a few distractions.
0:27:49 > 0:27:50This is my sanctuary,
0:27:50 > 0:27:54so, if I didn't have this, I think I'd probably go back home.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59I wonder if looking at chaps like you, and a couple of, OK,
0:27:59 > 0:28:01I might as well be frank about it,
0:28:01 > 0:28:04a couple of old fossils in a club in Singapore.
0:28:04 > 0:28:05Very much so.
0:28:05 > 0:28:07Clinging onto our colonial past.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10You, sort of, belong in the... you DO belong in the past, don't you?
0:28:10 > 0:28:12We do, we've lost it. I have. He's lost it completely.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26But there was more than one kind of Empire.
0:28:26 > 0:28:30The British arrived on foreign soil, not only as traders or rulers,
0:28:30 > 0:28:32but as settlers,
0:28:32 > 0:28:36determined to make a new and permanent home for themselves
0:28:36 > 0:28:37in the Empire.
0:28:45 > 0:28:47They found plenty of thinly populated
0:28:47 > 0:28:50if inhospitable places in which to do it.
0:29:03 > 0:29:06In 1831, a young Scottish lawyer
0:29:06 > 0:29:12was travelling across the wild and snowy lands of British Canada.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15His name was Adam Ferguson.
0:29:21 > 0:29:25He'd come all the way from Perthshire to look for a suitable spot
0:29:25 > 0:29:28to build a new town for Scottish emigrants.
0:29:40 > 0:29:43Adam Ferguson was just one of vast numbers of British people
0:29:43 > 0:29:46who saw the Empire as an opportunity to make something of themselves.
0:29:46 > 0:29:50Throughout the 19th, and well into the 20th century,
0:29:50 > 0:29:53millions upon millions of British people,
0:29:53 > 0:29:56left home for somewhere in the Empire.
0:29:56 > 0:29:59There can hardly have been a family in the land
0:29:59 > 0:30:01who hadn't said goodbye to somebody.
0:30:05 > 0:30:10The Scots in particular left their homeland in vast numbers.
0:30:10 > 0:30:14They would play a huge role in the building of Empire,
0:30:14 > 0:30:15not only as settlers,
0:30:15 > 0:30:20but as soldiers, missionaries, engineers and pioneers.
0:30:35 > 0:30:37Ferguson and his companions eventually found
0:30:37 > 0:30:41a site in a sheltered valley 60 miles from what is now Toronto.
0:30:45 > 0:30:47There was water to power a mill,
0:30:47 > 0:30:49and wood and stone for building in a harsh climate.
0:30:55 > 0:30:58It was tough going, at first,
0:30:58 > 0:31:01they built themselves log cabins, like this,
0:31:01 > 0:31:04they survived on whatever bears or deer they could kill.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08And in winter, it was so cold that the wheat froze,
0:31:08 > 0:31:11which made the scones pretty chewy.
0:31:20 > 0:31:21In only a few years,
0:31:21 > 0:31:24a handful of huts had become a thriving little town.
0:31:32 > 0:31:40Modestly, Ferguson named his new town after himself, Fergus.
0:31:47 > 0:31:49Settlements like Fergus,
0:31:49 > 0:31:53sprang up all over the Empire from Canada to Australia.
0:31:53 > 0:31:58The settlers built in the style they knew.
0:31:58 > 0:32:06From the houses they lived in, to the churches where they worshipped.
0:32:06 > 0:32:11And the pub where they gathered in the evening.
0:32:11 > 0:32:16Always striving to hold onto a sense of home.
0:32:37 > 0:32:39Fergus was a little bit of Scotland
0:32:39 > 0:32:42transplanted to the other side of the world.
0:32:42 > 0:32:45People here formed pipe bands and curling clubs.
0:32:45 > 0:32:50They wore kilts and celebrated Hogmanay.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54They even had their own Highland games.
0:33:17 > 0:33:18Hello.
0:33:18 > 0:33:19- Hello.- I'm Jeremy.
0:33:19 > 0:33:22Hello Jeremy. Thanks for coming to my shop. I'm Heather.
0:33:22 > 0:33:24- You're Heather. - Owner of the shop, yes.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27- Nice to meet you. - Nice Scottish name, eh?- Welcome.
0:33:27 > 0:33:29So, what do you sell in a Scottish shop?
0:33:29 > 0:33:31Well, we sell all things Scottish.
0:33:31 > 0:33:33We sell all the sweets and cakes,
0:33:33 > 0:33:35and the drinks and the crisps
0:33:35 > 0:33:38- and stories and connections. - Stories?
0:33:38 > 0:33:41People like to come and tell us their stories
0:33:41 > 0:33:44and their Scottish connections, and memories from their past.
0:33:44 > 0:33:46Got any deep fried Mars Bars?
0:33:46 > 0:33:48- Oh, no, I haven't, I do have the Mars Bars.- Meat pies?
0:33:48 > 0:33:52I do have meat pies. I have Scotch pies and bridies and steak pies
0:33:52 > 0:33:55and black pudding, haggis. Oh, yes. I've got the haggis
0:33:55 > 0:33:57and the sausage and the good stuff.
0:33:57 > 0:33:59I didn't know they still made Camp Coffee!
0:33:59 > 0:34:01We've got the Camp Coffee and um...
0:34:01 > 0:34:03Do people buy this stuff?
0:34:03 > 0:34:06Yes, they love that we carry all of these products
0:34:06 > 0:34:08that they grew up with, so...
0:34:08 > 0:34:10So, your customers are mainly people who've moved here?
0:34:10 > 0:34:13- They are mainly people that who've moved here.- From Scotland.
0:34:13 > 0:34:16The fact that there's a connection here to their past is fabulous,
0:34:16 > 0:34:18that seems to be the big draw.
0:34:18 > 0:34:20Hmm. Gosh, what fun!
0:34:20 > 0:34:23Blast from the past. Bring back all the memories from childhood.
0:34:38 > 0:34:40The Scots who settled in Fergus wanted a better life
0:34:40 > 0:34:42than the one they were leaving behind.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48But in their new homeland they clung tenaciously
0:34:48 > 0:34:51to the customs of the land of their birth.
0:34:51 > 0:34:55English-speaking former colonies, like these, are one of the Empire's
0:34:55 > 0:34:58most enduring legacies,
0:34:58 > 0:35:02a network of countries linked to Britain by tradition,
0:35:02 > 0:35:05family and history.
0:35:07 > 0:35:09APPLAUSE
0:35:14 > 0:35:17The growth of this successful community
0:35:17 > 0:35:20was a pretty peaceful affair.
0:35:20 > 0:35:25But in some colonial settlements it was a very different story.
0:35:30 > 0:35:34Native peoples were forced off their land.
0:35:34 > 0:35:38Many were tricked into signing it away.
0:35:40 > 0:35:45Others had their populations devastated by famine
0:35:45 > 0:35:48and diseases introduced by settlers.
0:35:55 > 0:36:00The biggest land grab of all was still to come.
0:36:30 > 0:36:33What became known as the scramble for Africa
0:36:33 > 0:36:37saw the great European powers
0:36:37 > 0:36:41carve up millions of square miles as they wrestled
0:36:41 > 0:36:44over the land and its peoples.
0:36:56 > 0:37:01British settlers started coming here to Kenya in the early 1900s.
0:37:01 > 0:37:07Then it was a vast thinly populated region of mountains and forest,
0:37:07 > 0:37:11huge plains and wild animals.
0:37:15 > 0:37:17The settlers liked what they saw.
0:37:17 > 0:37:20West Africa was full of swamps and diseases and things,
0:37:20 > 0:37:24but here, here the land was fertile,
0:37:24 > 0:37:26the climate was glorious,
0:37:26 > 0:37:29like England on the very nicest kind of summer's day.
0:37:35 > 0:37:40But there was one problem,
0:37:40 > 0:37:42the best land was already occupied.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48Local tribes such as the Kikuyu were bribed
0:37:48 > 0:37:51or bullied into making way for the new arrivals.
0:37:56 > 0:38:01In return for six months' labour, they were allowed to become squatters
0:38:01 > 0:38:06and to grow crops on land that had once been theirs.
0:38:08 > 0:38:13It was an uneasy arrangement.
0:38:13 > 0:38:17Tension led to violence on both sides.
0:38:17 > 0:38:24Some Kikuyu villages witnessed dreadful scenes.
0:38:27 > 0:38:29One morning in the early 1900s,
0:38:29 > 0:38:32a young British lieutenant in the King's African Rifles,
0:38:32 > 0:38:37Received orders to find out what had become of a white settler.
0:38:37 > 0:38:39He described what he found.
0:38:39 > 0:38:42"In the middle of the village on the open ground,
0:38:42 > 0:38:45"was a sight which horrified me.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48"A naked white man had been pegged out on his back,
0:38:48 > 0:38:51"mutilated and disembowelled,
0:38:51 > 0:38:54"his body used as a latrine by all who passed by."
0:38:54 > 0:38:59Revenge was instant and it was savage.
0:38:59 > 0:39:01"We burned all the huts," he said,
0:39:01 > 0:39:05"we razed the banana plantations to the ground,
0:39:05 > 0:39:10"and every soul was either shot or bayoneted."
0:39:35 > 0:39:40The English class system made sure different kinds of settlers ended up
0:39:40 > 0:39:43in different kinds of colonies. The toffs came to Kenya.
0:39:43 > 0:39:47No-one without plenty of cash was allowed in.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59They proved themselves good at growing new crops like coffee,
0:39:59 > 0:40:03wheat and sugar cane, or tea.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10Surrounded by their estates,
0:40:10 > 0:40:15they built grand houses in the English style,
0:40:15 > 0:40:18a taste of Edwardian England
0:40:18 > 0:40:23in the so-called dark continent.
0:40:23 > 0:40:28Some stayed on after independence in the 1960s.
0:40:30 > 0:40:32Jeremy, nice to meet you.
0:40:32 > 0:40:35Very pleased to meet you, thank you for having us.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38Tony Seth Smith's grandparents came to Kenya in 1904.
0:40:38 > 0:40:43That's the first animal I've recognised today.
0:40:46 > 0:40:49That's my uncle's first house.
0:40:49 > 0:40:50It's a grass hut?
0:40:50 > 0:40:52It's just a grass hut and some mud walls.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56Zebra skin on the wall probably stopped the draught
0:40:56 > 0:40:57going through a crack in it.
0:40:57 > 0:41:00Then he progressed to a rather smarter house there
0:41:00 > 0:41:02made of corrugated iron up on stilts
0:41:02 > 0:41:05to stop the white ants getting at the floorboards.
0:41:05 > 0:41:07Transport, there you are.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10That's a huge oxen train, isn't it?
0:41:10 > 0:41:15Train of oxen, 16 was generally a typical span of oxen.
0:41:15 > 0:41:1816, 16 at one time?
0:41:18 > 0:41:1916 for the one cart.
0:41:19 > 0:41:21And then, of course, during the night
0:41:21 > 0:41:24you'd have a little thorn enclosure,
0:41:24 > 0:41:27which you kept the oxen in and a lion would come round and roar upwind of it
0:41:27 > 0:41:32and pwoof, all your oxen had gone and the lions nailed two of them in the dark.
0:41:32 > 0:41:35But it was, I suppose that was part of the fun, wasn't it?
0:41:35 > 0:41:36You know, it was exciting and...
0:41:36 > 0:41:39That's a great picture. This is your father, is it?
0:41:39 > 0:41:41- That's my father. - With a dead lion?
0:41:41 > 0:41:43With a dead lion. These lions,
0:41:43 > 0:41:46they didn't sit around like you see them in a park nowadays,
0:41:46 > 0:41:50the lions in those days knew how to look after themselves
0:41:50 > 0:41:51and there wasn't a park.
0:41:51 > 0:41:54But even the lions aren't what they were, hey?
0:41:54 > 0:41:57No! No everything's fallen by the wayside.
0:42:02 > 0:42:06Do you think this policy of trying to attract enterprising people
0:42:06 > 0:42:07with money to invest,
0:42:07 > 0:42:10do you think it worked for this country?
0:42:10 > 0:42:11I think it worked in the long term.
0:42:11 > 0:42:15Because, unlike today, where much of the developing world
0:42:15 > 0:42:21is developing as a result of aid and packages and money that donors
0:42:21 > 0:42:24and things, there were, there were no donors.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27The country was developed on the backs of the settlers,
0:42:27 > 0:42:29people like my father.
0:42:29 > 0:42:31Which one of these is your father?
0:42:31 > 0:42:35That's my father, they came and they brought all their family money out
0:42:35 > 0:42:37and it was all sunk into this country.
0:42:37 > 0:42:38Do you think they had a sense
0:42:38 > 0:42:41of what the purpose of the British Empire was
0:42:41 > 0:42:44or were they just concerned with getting on with their lives?
0:42:44 > 0:42:46I think there was quite a lot of that.
0:42:46 > 0:42:50Englishmen were proud of having an Empire, being a part of it.
0:42:50 > 0:42:53And I think that every family in England round about that time
0:42:53 > 0:42:55had a member of it
0:42:55 > 0:43:00who was serving or doing development somewhere in the Empire.
0:43:00 > 0:43:04Be it a, an administrator in India or policeman in Nigeria
0:43:04 > 0:43:10or a farmer in Kenya, or gold miner in South Africa.
0:43:10 > 0:43:12Everyone had a member of the family,
0:43:12 > 0:43:18so they were all very aware of Britain's Empire
0:43:18 > 0:43:19and they were proud of it then.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22Are you proud of it?
0:43:22 > 0:43:25Yes. There's nothing to be ashamed of.
0:43:25 > 0:43:26Nothing to be ashamed of.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35One African writer dismissed the white farmers
0:43:35 > 0:43:38as parasites in paradise,
0:43:38 > 0:43:41living off land they had taken from others.
0:43:43 > 0:43:46Whatever the justice of that remark, the white settlers of Kenya
0:43:46 > 0:43:50felt they had a right to the land they were developing.
0:43:50 > 0:43:54This was their home now.
0:43:57 > 0:44:01It would be half a century before this tension found
0:44:01 > 0:44:06a bloody resolution, as the country stumbled towards independence.
0:44:27 > 0:44:31It was the British who created the country's capital Nairobi.
0:44:34 > 0:44:36The city still has plenty of the rough and ready feel
0:44:36 > 0:44:39of the early days.
0:44:39 > 0:44:43Not much more than a century ago,
0:44:43 > 0:44:46this was just a strip of swampy ground.
0:45:00 > 0:45:04No-one planned Nairobi as a capital city. It just happened.
0:45:04 > 0:45:06It happened because it was a railway stop
0:45:06 > 0:45:11on one of the most ambitious lines in the entire British Empire.
0:45:11 > 0:45:14The Lunatic Line.
0:45:28 > 0:45:30For the Empire in 1900,
0:45:30 > 0:45:34making yourself at home meant building a railway.
0:45:44 > 0:45:46The line ran 600 miles
0:45:46 > 0:45:47from the coast,
0:45:47 > 0:45:48through Nairobi
0:45:48 > 0:45:51all the way to Lake Victoria.
0:45:57 > 0:46:00It was built to bring British goods to the interior
0:46:00 > 0:46:04and raw materials out to ports on the coast.
0:46:10 > 0:46:15It would encourage British farmers to come out here and settle.
0:46:19 > 0:46:23There was plenty to merit the title, Lunatic Line.
0:46:23 > 0:46:28There was the cost, £534 million in today's money.
0:46:28 > 0:46:33There was the engineering required to allow a train
0:46:33 > 0:46:35to climb from sea level into the mountains
0:46:35 > 0:46:38and then to plunge down into the great rift valley.
0:46:38 > 0:46:44And to construct 1,200 bridges on the way.
0:46:50 > 0:46:53But it wasn't the British who built the railway.
0:46:53 > 0:46:56It wasn't even the Africans.
0:46:56 > 0:46:58This remarkable feat was the work
0:46:58 > 0:47:01of 32,000 labourers, craftsmen and engineers,
0:47:01 > 0:47:05brought in by the British from India.
0:47:05 > 0:47:07They knew how to build railways there.
0:47:17 > 0:47:20Soon, the Lunatic Line was carrying coffee and tea,
0:47:20 > 0:47:24sisal and wheat from the settler's farms to the coast.
0:47:29 > 0:47:32The building of the railway was a staggering feat,
0:47:32 > 0:47:37but it came at a staggering cost in human life.
0:47:37 > 0:47:422,500 workers were killed during its construction,
0:47:42 > 0:47:48by malaria, accidents, or man-eating lions.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01What was the attraction for someone like your great-grandfather
0:48:01 > 0:48:05and his brother when they came here?
0:48:05 > 0:48:07Well, I mean, to be honest,
0:48:07 > 0:48:11I don't think we were very well off back home, OK?
0:48:11 > 0:48:16Cos, I mean, why would you want to leave the comfort of your home
0:48:16 > 0:48:19to come to this wilderness?
0:48:19 > 0:48:21Harsh African conditions, vegetation,
0:48:21 > 0:48:24a strange land to them.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28It wasn't very easy cos water was scarce,
0:48:28 > 0:48:30especially when they were going towards,
0:48:30 > 0:48:32across the Tara desert, towards Salvo.
0:48:32 > 0:48:35They didn't have water for showering for weeks.
0:48:35 > 0:48:37They would just get enough water just to drink.
0:48:37 > 0:48:41And what my great-grandfather told me is,
0:48:41 > 0:48:44that when the carriage would come for drinking water,
0:48:44 > 0:48:47they would pretend to be clumsy about drinking their water
0:48:47 > 0:48:49cos, basically, they'd go and scoop it out
0:48:49 > 0:48:51and they pretend to be clumsy about it,
0:48:51 > 0:48:53and in the process have a little shower,
0:48:53 > 0:48:56you know, like, literally throw the water on them.
0:48:56 > 0:48:57And dangerous, dangerous.
0:48:57 > 0:49:02- Yes. Wilderness, wild animals, out in Salvo.- Salvo's a place?
0:49:02 > 0:49:03Yes, that's man-eaters.
0:49:03 > 0:49:05I've read accounts of these attacks
0:49:05 > 0:49:07by the man-eating lions,
0:49:07 > 0:49:09and they talk about men being dragged from their tents,
0:49:09 > 0:49:13and their colleagues being able to hear them
0:49:13 > 0:49:15- as they're eaten alive by the lions? - Yes, yes.
0:49:15 > 0:49:17Horrifying, isn't it?
0:49:17 > 0:49:21Let me ask you a political question, the fact that your comm...
0:49:21 > 0:49:24you and your community are now a very, very long way
0:49:24 > 0:49:30from where, naturally, you came from, and you're in this alien culture,
0:49:30 > 0:49:33was what the British did in bringing you here,
0:49:33 > 0:49:36a good thing or a bad thing?
0:49:36 > 0:49:39Um, that's a good question.
0:49:41 > 0:49:44To be honest, I have no regrets for being here
0:49:44 > 0:49:47and when people ask me, you know, who are you?
0:49:47 > 0:49:48Where are you from? You know?
0:49:48 > 0:49:53I say Kenya's my home, and I have no regrets for coming here.
0:50:00 > 0:50:03The Indian workers who built the Kenyan railway
0:50:03 > 0:50:06were part of a bigger Empire story,
0:50:06 > 0:50:10the shifting of populations around the globe,
0:50:10 > 0:50:13to meet the Empire's need for labour.
0:50:13 > 0:50:18In the 18th Century, Africans were taken as slaves
0:50:18 > 0:50:21to the sugar plantations of the West Indies.
0:50:23 > 0:50:27Their descendants now people those islands.
0:50:30 > 0:50:34In the 19th century, Tamils from South India were sent
0:50:34 > 0:50:36to pick tea on estates in Sri Lanka
0:50:36 > 0:50:41or tap rubber in Malaya.
0:50:41 > 0:50:46All had to make new homes in Britain's ever growing Empire.
0:50:53 > 0:50:56The world still lives with the consequences of these great
0:50:56 > 0:50:58population shifts.
0:51:04 > 0:51:06In the 20th Century,
0:51:06 > 0:51:11Indians came to play a vital part in the Kenyan economy,
0:51:11 > 0:51:13as shopkeepers and professionals.
0:51:26 > 0:51:30Then, on the 12th of December 1963,
0:51:30 > 0:51:33Kenya gained independence from Britain.
0:51:42 > 0:51:45Now, Indians in Kenya were seen as unwelcome relics
0:51:45 > 0:51:48from the days of British rule.
0:51:48 > 0:51:51Many of them feared for their future,
0:51:51 > 0:51:57and turned to their former colonial masters to provide a new home.
0:51:57 > 0:51:58'The Asian community prepare to leave.
0:51:58 > 0:52:00'Britain was their destination.
0:52:00 > 0:52:02'The Kenya government had not pulled its punches
0:52:02 > 0:52:05'in telling the British-passport-holding Asians
0:52:05 > 0:52:07'they were not wanted.
0:52:07 > 0:52:09'Asian shopkeepers were left with little alternative
0:52:09 > 0:52:12'but to wind up their businesses and seek new roots.
0:52:12 > 0:52:15'The airport was jammed with those lucky enough to get
0:52:15 > 0:52:17'flight tickets to Britain.'
0:52:23 > 0:52:27Though not everyone in Britain was happy about it at the time,
0:52:27 > 0:52:30the Empire was coming home.
0:52:33 > 0:52:37Many Kenyan Asians chose to settle in the Midlands,
0:52:37 > 0:52:39in cities like Leicester.
0:52:43 > 0:52:47In the process, they transformed the face of urban Britain.
0:52:53 > 0:52:57Today, over a quarter of Leicester's population is of Asian origin.
0:53:02 > 0:53:06They've worked hard and done well, as in Kenya,
0:53:06 > 0:53:11specialising in running shops and businesses.
0:53:26 > 0:53:28- You must be Ramila?- Oh, welcome, Jeremy. Come on in.
0:53:28 > 0:53:30Thank you very much, thank you. Thank you.
0:53:34 > 0:53:38Ramila Shah came to Britain from Kenya when she was 14.
0:53:38 > 0:53:41She's now a Labour councillor in Leicester.
0:53:41 > 0:53:44Jeremy, I'd like to introduce you to my husband, Suresh.
0:53:44 > 0:53:46How do you do? Hello, I'm Jeremy. How do you do?
0:53:46 > 0:53:49Her husband, Suresh, was also brought up in Kenya.
0:53:49 > 0:53:51That's my mother-in-law.
0:53:51 > 0:53:52How do you do? Very good to see you.
0:53:52 > 0:53:56'His mother brought the family over in 1968.
0:53:56 > 0:54:02'His sister, Madu, was 18 when she left Kenya and went to India,
0:54:02 > 0:54:05'but she didn't feel at home there and followed her family to England.'
0:54:10 > 0:54:13That's the model of our shop in, um, Kenya.
0:54:13 > 0:54:15That was the family business?
0:54:15 > 0:54:18- Yeah, that's me. - You're the little boy.
0:54:18 > 0:54:21That's my older brother.
0:54:21 > 0:54:23That's my dad at the back,
0:54:23 > 0:54:26that's my mum at the back.
0:54:26 > 0:54:29So, this is grandma over here? When slightly younger, hey.
0:54:29 > 0:54:32Must have taken all of you some getting used to,
0:54:32 > 0:54:36- come from the warmth of East Africa. - So cold.
0:54:36 > 0:54:38At that time, I think,
0:54:38 > 0:54:40not many people even had central heating.
0:54:40 > 0:54:42And used to use charcoal fires.
0:54:42 > 0:54:44Or paraffin heaters.
0:54:44 > 0:54:47Or paraffin heaters. There were no bathrooms.
0:54:47 > 0:54:51- No bathrooms?!- No, people had to go public bath, at that time.
0:54:51 > 0:54:53When we stayed at my aunt's house, she said,
0:54:53 > 0:54:56"You can't have a bath like you used have to twice a day in Kenya.
0:54:56 > 0:54:59"It'll be once a week, now. We'll have to go city centre
0:54:59 > 0:55:00"to the public baths."
0:55:00 > 0:55:04- Yes so.- You must have thought we were really dirty people, did you?
0:55:04 > 0:55:06Must have been very strange.
0:55:06 > 0:55:08No bath, no toilet. No heating.
0:55:08 > 0:55:12Toilet outside.
0:55:12 > 0:55:15When you think about the British Empire,
0:55:15 > 0:55:17most people, as far as I can see, in this country,
0:55:17 > 0:55:21have a pretty black and white view about what the British Empire was,
0:55:21 > 0:55:25and what they're taught, very often,
0:55:25 > 0:55:27is that it was, really, pretty much a bad thing,
0:55:27 > 0:55:29imposing your rule on somebody else.
0:55:29 > 0:55:31What do you guys think about the Empire?
0:55:31 > 0:55:35In one way, I thank the British Empire, you know, for...
0:55:35 > 0:55:37You thank the British Empire?
0:55:37 > 0:55:40Yeah, thank them, because where we are, at the moment,
0:55:40 > 0:55:43and what we have and everything, yeah and it's because of that,
0:55:43 > 0:55:45you know, everything that we've achieved
0:55:45 > 0:55:48and we are, so we've got to thank the British Empire.
0:55:48 > 0:55:51Do you know how politically incorrect you are?
0:55:51 > 0:55:53When I came here there was a job, if you want to work.
0:55:53 > 0:55:57You can go to college, study.
0:55:57 > 0:56:00I think very well British people were, and they went,
0:56:00 > 0:56:02where the country they ruled, our country was good.
0:56:02 > 0:56:05You know, it was ruled good, it was better,
0:56:05 > 0:56:07and everything, and no corruption, nothing.
0:56:07 > 0:56:09That's what my feelings are.
0:56:09 > 0:56:11As soon as the British left any country,
0:56:11 > 0:56:13I think it just went downhill.
0:56:13 > 0:56:14That's my own feelings about it.
0:56:30 > 0:56:34It's Diwali night in Leicester, the festival of lights.
0:56:40 > 0:56:42Over 35,000 people come here each year
0:56:42 > 0:56:45for the biggest Diwali celebration outside India.
0:56:50 > 0:56:54For better or for worse, the Empire changed the world.
0:56:54 > 0:56:57But it changed Britain too.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04For many of the peoples who were colonised, home is now here.
0:57:04 > 0:57:09Our land utterly different from the one the Empire builders left behind.
0:57:27 > 0:57:29Next time, playing the game.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34How the Empire spread the gospel of sport around the world.
0:57:37 > 0:57:43In its wide open spaces was born a new kind of British hero.
0:57:43 > 0:57:46Hungry for glory and adventure,
0:57:46 > 0:57:52determined that nothing should stand in his way.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55For the pin-up boys of Empire, how you play the game
0:57:55 > 0:58:00mattered more than victory, mattered more than life itself.
0:58:09 > 0:58:12To order a free Open University poster
0:58:12 > 0:58:16exploring the legacy of Britain's Empire...
0:58:43 > 0:58:48Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd