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Over 180 main historians on Wednesday referred to as for references to the British empire, colonial India and slavery in a key textual content that migrants want to review earlier than qualifying for everlasting residency or UK citizenship to be revised to appropriate errors and misrepresentations.
All migrants have to move a ‘Life in the UK Test’ as a part of their utility to the Home Office for ‘indefinite leave to remain’ or UK citizenship. It has 24 questions based mostly on British traditions, history and customs that migrants have to know properly sufficient to move it.
To put together for the check, the candidates are prescribed an official handbook referred to as ‘Life in the United Kingdom: A Guide for New Residents’. Over 1.25 lakh migrants utilized for naturalisation in 2019, a course of that features the check.
The historians, primarily specialising within the space of British empire, wrote an open letter in protest towards what they name “misrepresentation of slavery” and empire within the check and the handbook, which incorporates references to colonial India.
The letter says: “The official handbook published by the Home Office is fundamentally misleading and in places demonstrably false…It also states that ‘by the second part of the 20th century, there was, for the most part, an orderly transition from Empire to Commonwealth, with countries being granted their independence’.”
“In fact, decolonisation was not an ‘orderly’ but an often violent process, not only in India but also in the many so-called ‘emergencies’ such as the Mau-Mau Uprising in Kenya (1952-1960). We call for an immediate official review of the history chapter”.
Signatories embrace David Washbrook (Cambridge), Yasmin Khan (Oxford), Joya Chatterjee (Cambridge), William Dalrymple, Tirthankar Roy (LSE), Anindita Ghosh (Manchester), Sujit Sivasundaram (Cambridge) and David Olusoga (Manchester).
The letter says: “Applicants are expected to learn about more than two hundred individuals. The only individual of colonial origin named in the book is Sake Dean Mohamet who co-founded England’s first curry house in 1810. The pages on the British Empire end with a celebration of Rudyard Kipling”.
“The aim of the official handbook is to promote tolerance and fairness and facilitate integration. In its current version, the historical pages do the opposite…Until the history chapter has been corrected and rewritten, it should be formally withdrawn from the test”.
The Home Office, headed by secretary Priti Patel, stated: “Given the breadth of British history, the Life in the UK handbook provides a starting point to explore our past and help those seeking to live permanently in the UK gain a basic understanding of our society, culture and historical references which occur in everyday conversations”.
“We have published several editions of the handbook since it was launched and will continue to keep its contents under review and consider any feedback we receive.”
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