POLITICS:
The Commonwealth Mask Slips a Little
Analysis by Sanjay Suri
LONDON, Mar 4 (IPS) - The mask over the origins of the Commonwealth is
off, or at least it will be next week.
About time, perhaps. It is polite to speak at Commonwealth gatherings
now of diverse nations sharing a common purpose, of the Commonwealth as a
working microcosm of the world at large. But there is near silent agreement at
such meetings to say nothing about its origins.
There is little even by way of minimal acknowledgment that the
Commonwealth is a group of countries that include Britain and other
countries that were once a part of the British Empire. Britain and its
former colonies, that is, except that no one likes to put it that way.
That will change when Commonwealth Day is observed Monday March 8.
Because while Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon has issued
a polite statement on the Commonwealth, quite another kind of celebration
will take place at the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum in Bristol,
about 100 miles west of London.
That this museum was set up in Bristol is no coincidence. It is to
Bristol that the great majority of black slaves from Africa were brought
in the days of Empire. The city became the centre for celebrating such
triumph as the Empire was.
Those around during the Empire are being invited to relive their
memories. "We want people to tell us how they remember celebrations of
Empire Day in their times in the former colonies," Claire Thompson from
the Empire and Commonwealth Museum told IPS.
The museum will ask people about the Commonwealth as well, she
said. "We do ask people to question the Commonwealth too," she
said. "Whether it is an outmoded grouping of countries, and whether it
can be a force for good. The Commonwealth obviously realises it's not
perfect, but it is moving on."
The museum is a reminder how Commonwealth Day grew out of Empire
Day. Empire Day was celebrated all over Britain on May 24 every year from
1904 to 1958. May 24 is the birth date of Queen Victoria who reigned over
Britain at the peak of Empire.
But celebrations up to 1958 continued six years after the coronation
of the present Queen. The Queen who is head of the Commonwealth led
celebrations of Empire Day for years after much of it was gone.
In 1958 Empire Day was renamed British Commonwealth Day. And it was
some years later that the 'British Commonwealth' became just the
Commonwealth.
The Empire Museum came to be renamed the British Empire and
Commonwealth Museum. The clubbing of the names is a source of much
national and international embarrassment. If there is one thing that
nobody mentions at Commonwealth meetings, it is that museum.
But will the museum celebrate the Empire or the Commonwealth? Events
planned at the museum Monday show that the past has not quite been
disconnected from the present.
The 'education department' of the museum will record interviews with
visitors about their experiences of celebrations of the Empire. That is
about as close as one could get today to at least part celebration of the
Empire itself.
Exclusive archive material showing how Empire Day was celebrated in
Britain and its former colonies will be shown on the day. This will
include historic documents, photographs and films. The museum is strong
on such material, but not so strong on protests and movements against the
Empire.
The idea of celebrating the Empire originated in Canada in the late
1890s. Britain picked up the idea soon, prompted by the desire to create
a closer bond among the 400 million people living within the Empire, and to
celebrate what was hailed then as "the magnificence and power of the
Empire."
The theme for this year's Commonwealth Day, celebrated always on the
second Monday of March, is "building a Commonwealth of freedom."
Freedom, eminently, was not what the Empire was about. But an official
attempt persists in clubbing the Empire and the Commonwealth as the
expression of common good and common values.
"The theme highlights the importance of democracy, national self-
determination, individual liberty and human rights - values that provide
common ground for the Commonwealth as a whole," says an official
statement from the British government.
The British will be celebrating memories of Empire, and with that
also "national self-determination" as an aim of its offshoot, the
Commonwealth. The British are particularly good at doing this sort of
thing without blinking.
McKinnon sought to bridge the two ahead of the celebrations next
Monday. "The modern Commonwealth was born out of the quest for freedom,"
he said in a statement Wednesday. "Its purpose, its goals, its identity
were shaped by the struggles for autonomy and political emancipation
everywhere in the Commonwealth. Today, more than ever, freedom - in all
its forms - is at the core of the Commonwealth project."
McKinnon had more to say about the Commonwealth and freedom.
"Freedom is, of course, a fundamental right," he said. "But it is also a tool that
enables us to improve our lives and change the world around us. Freedom
means being able to express opinions about the kind of society we wish to
live in; freedom means access to healthcare and education; freedom means
the opportunity to provide for ourselves and our families."
All, in short, that the Empire either opposed or failed to provide.
McKinnon was saying that the Commonwealth is now opposed to all the
values of the Empire - without actually saying it.
The contradictions will be buried in ceremony. A multi-faith,
multicultural observance will take place at Westminster Abbey on the
occasion, and will be attended by the Queen in her role as head of the
Commonwealth.
The Commonwealth now comprises 53 countries, one down from last year
after Zimbabwe quit. Pakistan remains suspended from the councils of the
Commonwealth, a suspension that seems not to have done it much harm.
(END/2004)
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