People saying that I want to remove or erase history because I support a street being renamed. I'm a historian. I have literally made it my life's work to teach people about the past. I'm sorry for you if the extent of your understanding of history is a road name or a statue.
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Havelock Road in Southall - London's 'Little India' - is finally to be renamed Guru Nanak Road. This is a big deal. Havelock Rd was named after the colonial British general who fought in the Sikh wars & later suppressed the 1857 Uprising. It is home to London's largest gurudwara.
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Here is
@EalingCouncil
's official announcement (which avoids mentioning anything about why it was called Havelock in the first place!) Great news. Congrats to
@VirendraSharma
@juliangbell
and all others involved in campaigning for & effecting this change.
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To all those in the replies who feel the need to defend the legacy of Havelock, why not try to adopt the considered, respectful & sensible approach of one of his actual ancestors...
@edanderson101
@EalingCouncil
@VirendraSharma
@juliangbell
As a descendant of Henry Havelock, this news makes me really happy. My ancestor's story will always be part of British history, but his living relatives have a much different view on the world and are very happy to celebrate Sikh influences and culture in the UK.
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Many replies reveal not just bigotry but a worrying - and often causative - lack of understanding of two areas:
1) The history of British colonialism
2) The history of South Asian communities in Britain
This is why decolonisation must go well beyond removing & renaming things.
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This response, which I originally thought was satire, gives a sense of the problem.
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Here's the piece I've written on this story with the wonderful
@priyaatwal
. Thanks for comments from
@VirendraSharma
@Emily_Mckenzie
& the dude who wrote “What a load of nonsense. What if we went to India and started changing their street names.”
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@edanderson101
Can imagine some of the people here going to Berlin and complaining that you can't find streets named after Hitler or Goebbels any more. "It's like they're trying to rewrite history!"
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@psycholdham
Who are they? Since they renamed the streets in Berlin I have no idea who those people are.
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@edanderson101
It will never be enough. They're not going to turn around and say, ok we're quits now, because they're not like you. They're not weak.
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@edanderson101
These people probably complained when Peking became Beijing, without a hint of irony
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@edanderson101
Why do you support a street renamed? That's not a historian's job anyhow, that's for city planners.
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@edanderson101
Whoever making that arguments are BSing. They can't digest seeing "other" people's names on "their" streets. Sick.
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