Sathnam Sanghera: The culture war is over
The Empireworld author describes the threats he faces and says âfeelings are irrelevantâ to history
Writer Sathnam Sanghera told HARDtalk that he has faced âstalking situations and occasionally had to worry about my personal securityâ, due to his writing.
Speaking to Stephen Sackur, the author of Empireworld, disclosed that his experiences had been âpretty horribleâ and led him to stop doing certain events âbecause of all the shouting and the screamingâ. But he said other historians had faced worse threats than him. Sanghera started receiving racist abuse when he began writing about Britainâs imperial history.
Nonetheless, Sanghera asserted that âthe culture war that has led to all this behaviour is kind of overâ. He said the public is more willing than politicians to re-evaluate Britainâs imperial history, citing a Savanta poll which indicated that 44% âthink the royal family should pay reparations for slaveryâ. Sanghera said he was âquite optimistic that the population are over this culture war, way before the politiciansâ.
Sanghera, whose latest book Empireworld explores the global legacies of British imperialism, said: âhistory is an intellectual exerciseâ.
âIt's got nothing to do with pride, shame: your feelings are irrelevantâ.