Many people and political rulers across the globe look at ethnic, religious, and linguistic diversity as a problem or, at least, a shortcoming. In the spirit of a modern age still gripped by the ideals of national sovereignty and homogenous societies, immigrants and minority groups continue to appear as troublemakers – as a threat, that is, to national unity and prosperity.
The book ‘Ethnicity, Religion, and Muslim Education in a Changing World’ edited by Karamat Iqbal and Tahir Abbas encourages us to change that view. It invites us to look at diversity from the perspective of those who are often at the receiving end of cultural ignorance, social and economic exclusion, and violence. Crucially, the book does not present diversity as a problem but as an asset, and it shows practical ways to tackle discrimination and to unlock the potential of a diverse society.
As a historian, I found particularly intriguing the chapter ‘Understanding all our histories’, written by Karamat Iqbal, Jasvir Singh, and Rajwinder Pal. The chapter reveals the glaring gaps in the history curriculum at many schools in the UK, notably concerning the history and experiences of non-white and, more broadly, non-Western people. Yet the authors also cite several inspiring cases where pupils, their parents, and their teachers took it on themselves to change things. In one case, this meant revising the history curriculum to include crucial but hitherto neglected topics such as the partition of India. In another case, students expressed their disdain at the absence or at best one-sided treatment of Black history at their school, prompting teachers to engage in a process of dialogue and review of the curriculum.
As the authors show, these initiatives bring to light controversial and difficult questions: should the purpose of the study of the British Empire at schools be to expose that empire’s violent and racist character? And, if so, how are we to deal with those students, parents, and not a few teachers who emphasise ‘the good things about the Empire’ and claim that we should ‘not make white students feel guilty for something they hadn’t done’ (p. 177)? Should the students learn about the Industrial Revolution in Britain being ‘funded and facilitated’ by the slave trade (p. 179)?
In a university context, where we explore these important issues with our students in depth, I have always found it helpful to begin with a distinction between the evidence and logic-based analysis and multifaceted explanation of events, trends, and processes, on the one hand, and moral or political judgement, on the other. In my view, what we need right now at schools, universities, but also in public debate more generally is more of the former: open-minded study driven by curiosity and respectful dialogue.
Towards the end of the chapter, Rajwinder Pal eloquently underlines the importance of engaging in such a dialogue to create a shared sense of belonging for everyone in the UK. He speaks of the ‘idiocy’ of adopting a view that pits ‘our’ history against ‘“their” history’. That antagonistic approach, he goes on to say, only ‘drives culture wars deliberately seeking to divide us.’ Instead, he argues, ‘colonialism and slavery [are] histories for us all to share and debate in the spirit of enriching and energising us’ (p. 185).
This excellent and important edited volume thus brings up difficult and unresolved questions that we all need to address together. The challenge of history is to bring the past in a dialogue with the present. For our own time, as this collection of essays so well highlights, finding empathic, inclusive, and productive approaches to diversity is at the centre of that challenge.
Volker Prott is senior lecturer in modern history at Aston University. His main field of research is twentieth century international history. His work focuses on nationalism and borders, ethnic violence, humanitarian politics, international organisations, and foreign intervention. His first book, ‘The Politics of Self-determination: Remaking Territories and National Identities in Europe, 1917–1923’, was published with Oxford University Press in 2016. Currently, he is working on a project entitled ‘Breaching Sovereignty: Foreign Interventions in the Cold War’, focussing on the Congo Crisis in the early 1960s and the Indo-Pakistani conflict in 1947–1953 and again in 1971.