Race and Faith: Challenges of post 7/7 Britain
Gautam Banerji
If at all we remain strongly committed to Peace and Solidarity, our traditional thinking on race needs to adjust to the new realities post 7/7.
There was a time when race relations in Britain could be symbolised by the very simple reference to there being "no black in the union jack". White people had the power, control, resources and the empire; black people were perceived as exotic immigrants doing the low-grade jobs and disfiguring the landscape as well as the labour and housing markets. But no longer can a simple analysis be made of the state of race relations, as Britain's changed demography reflects new generations of multi-ethnic origins and heritage.
Over the decades different groups of people have had to assert themselves to get their grievances heard, sometimes engaging in uprisings. The last significant disturbances occurred in the northern English towns of Bradford, Burnley and Oldham in 2001. They highlighted resentment, hatred and ignorance, and the gulf between poor white and deprived Muslim communities.
The 2001 uprisings moreover forced a redefinition of the race equality project, and faith, belief and religious identity are now regarded as issues warranting explicit consideration in all equality debates.
However, there is now a whole new ball game: the terrorist atrocities of July 7 have created enormous uncertainties and deep fears across all communities and suspicions abound, despite the best efforts of the police and community and political leaders for calm and cooperation.
To rely upon outlawing incitement to religious hatred would be way off the mark. Surely that was just a convenient governmental gambit for separating "good" from "bad" Muslims, an ill-thought-out bit of diversity management judged to be a price worth paying in order to isolate the hotheads and agitators.
While we must no doubt recognize that this is a different political game from the one played during the 1970s, the debate over the recent terrorist bombings, however, has underlined many continuities with that period. It seems as though every asylum seeker is now a potential mass murderer. The old logic of expulsion/repatriation remains intact, and one of the bombers was even identified as a former mugger.
In the post 7/7 context, it may be more important today to ask what social, economic and cultural conditions can promote solidarity and mutuality across fluid cultural lines. Perhaps now might be a good time to see the struggle against ignorance as a civilising element that is also a means of building democracy and citizenship.
The media-generated fears of "invading" asylum seekers, gypsies desecrating the countryside, Muslims flexing their political muscle and international terrorists breaching our national defences make it even harder to achieve the much desired inclusive British identity. To compound the problem further, bigotry, ignorance and misinformation seem to characterize race debates in Britain.
While it is easy to lament the malady, correcting the imbalances is a much more daunting task.
Two main actions are necessary to counter the anomaly. The first is for political, corporate and community-based leaders to challenge all forms of misinformation and sensational media reports that demonise particular groups of people. This is more difficult to achieve in the present climate of real fear as well as paranoia.
The second concerns what should be happening in our places of learning. Parents are educating and influencing their children with their perceptions, attitudes and limited knowledge, so there is a huge gap to be filled by our nurseries, schools, colleges and universities. It might help if we appreciate that the problems that derive from unacknowledged colonial crimes and unresolved imperial histories are not Britain's alone: similarly divisive issues exist in other post-imperial nations, from France to Japan.
At the same time, it need not be underscored that the national solidarity we aspire to can only be built upon trust and an acknowledgement of the damage done by racism. Racism is a key source of the double standards in international affairs that feed local disenchantment and hopelessness. It leaves large chunks of underprivileged population groups socially deprived and marginalised.
The disturbances of 2001 revealed the lack of intermixture, interdependence and intercultural relations between groups inhabiting the same spaces in their local neighbourhoods.
The malady is obviously deep-rooted and deeply entrenched in our society and a social value system that breeds inequality and perpetuates deprivation. Later explorations showed that young white people and young Muslims in areas of disturbances were crying out for better teaching, more learning and the opportunities to mix with people different from them.
My wife is a school teacher. I am told that there is a large comprehensive school in the East End of London that has pupils from every conceivable impoverished background. Good communications between staff, pupils, parents and local communities as well as information-sharing and intercultural mixing combined with effective leadership give them self-esteem and confidence, and facilitate their respect for others. It works.
We need to see this replicated elsewhere and to rid ourselves of the notions that people must compromise, conform and comply in order to gain acceptance. We should not allow the terrorism crisis, with its evil ideology and global influences, to blow off course the progress we have made. There is much to our credit by way of achievement. We need to take it further instead of beginning from scratch by undoing what we have achieved.
The rapid demographic changes impacting upon our society need to be recognised and accorded political significance. Let us agree that we need a map of Britain's new political and cultural geography.
If I am groping for anything it is to hang on to those fundamental things that work for disadvantaged communities, including demonised communities, while we await the emergence of the political leadership with the necessary mettle to challenge the status quo. I am encouraged enormously by the community and political leadership in the present circumstances. Out of such adversity often emerges real benefit, and that would be a special legacy in memory of all those who have been the victims of evil and hate.
The British history, which the present generation helped reshape, now offers valuable lessons about how to get along in a multicultural polity. The shrine at King's Cross and the crowd at Stockwell station conveyed this vividly.
What healthier, secular alternatives can we offer them? Fundamentalism's over-simple solutions harness the disenchantment that grows with marginalisation and hopelessness. There must be more to British citizenship than bullying asylum seekers to get their grammar right and swot up on their kings and queens.
Education is fundamental. Another key is cultivating a political outlook that does not counterpose solidarity and diversity so that more of one means less of the other. We need both in equal shares. That, for me, was one positive aspect of London's response to the outrages of 7/7. Let us stand together to re-shape a new destiny. Let us feel proud of a new identity that we have carved out for ourselves as citizens of this country.
I invite you to the Universal Kinship that we as Indians stand committed to in the comity of nations. We call this Planet Earth our one united Family. Let the United Kingdom rise up to the challenges of achieving this United Kinship, our ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ as we say in Sanskrit. We have to move with the times.
