In this year marking the 60th anniversary of Indian and Pakistani independence it seems fitting to pose the historical question of whether the ideologies and insitutions of imperialism that governed the subcontinent, and indeed at one point a quarter of the globe, were admirable in their form and acheivements or whether they were a cause of oppression and tyranny. The GSC this week will publish a series of essays on this subject in order to determine how this grand project should be viewed in a post-colonial age.
Whilst the impact of British hegemony will be a matter of contention its scale cannot be denied, stretching as it did, in some form, across centuries and continents. Even today the foreign policy of great world powers is seen in its shadow, whether in neo-conservative justifications for Middle Eastern intervention or former colonies' conceptions of political philosophy. Therefore, as the UK considers its place in the world, should it look fondly on those times when the sun never set upon its empire?
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