16th August 2022
Dear Editor,
I was curious to see historian Tom Devine’s support for Anas Sarwar’s
view that India was a colony and Scotland is not.
There has been a considerable shift in the views of many in Scotland
since Professor Alf Baird produced his book ‘Doun Hauden’in 2020.
After Culloden the Highlands were garrisoned with many
English troops. Gaelic, Highland dress and culture seriously suppressed
and many survivors forced into migration.This was not the pattern of
behaviour of two equal nations cooperating with each other.As Alf Baird
has shown from his studies of colonisation and liberation theory
,denigration of language and culture and evidence of shared trauma are
all aspects of the experience of colonisation.
The Clearances and depopulation of the Highlands provide evidence of
brutal suppression and genocidal behaviour from the English ruling
class,with assistance from some incorporated Scottish ruling class
elements, typical of colonial rulers. Alf makes the interesting claim that
although Scotland was not a typical colony it was treated as such and
this has been the nub of much confusion around the issue.
Certainly Scotland produced administrators from Edinburgh University
and many Scottish troops.but to claim that Scotland was ‘at the heart of
Empire’ is ,in my view, a falsification of the position. James Hunter in
his many excellent studies of Highland life and culture makes the point
that many lairds demanded a son of the family of tenant farmers for the
army or the tenancy was threatened . The impoverishment of many
families after the Clearances led many to take ‘the King’s shilling’.
It is also vital to consider where the drive for Empire came from and in
its early stages it was from the notorious East India Company set up in
1600.
The reality is that oppression can be promoted in a variety of ways and
part of that is the obfuscation that blurs and conceals the behaviour of
the oppressor, leading to a colonised mentality that diminishes the
potential for success and liberation.
Alf Baird has done us all a huge favour with his publication of ‘Doun
Hauden’.To understand your own colonised mind is the beginning of the
road to liberation.
Your sincerely
Alf is right we are a colony.
1) Is our economy run by a foreign neighbour, Yes.
2) Is our politics and foreign policy controled by that foreign neighbour, Yes.
3) Does that foreign neighbour deny us our right to self determination through a democratic path, Yes.
Surely this is unfettered right in your face colonialism without the mask. I don’t need Tom Devine to tell me I am a subservient vassal of the British state to realise that I am one.
An Northern Irishman can get a referendum every 7 years and stay in the EU on a 56% share of the vote compared to the Scots who voted 62 % to remain in the EU and got dragged out and who are constantly told no to a referendum. Where is the democracy here for us in UK, Ok, our colonial masters tell us we have no rights in their eyes we are 3rd class colonial subjects who have not got less rights than a Northern Irish citizen. What will it take you our greedy traitorous quisling politicians to wake up and fight the cause. Sturgeon and her useless cabal must go.
Dissolve the Union
We are fortunate that many highly intelligent, well-informed, worthwhile people like Alf Baird are determined to remove Scotland from the English/British/WM yoke and take back our country once more.
Dissolve the Union.
Those who would contest Scotland’s colonial status should take 5 minutes to look at a map and a marker pen and circle each place name that has a prefix of “fort”. Fort George,Fort William, Fort Matilda et Al. These were not convalescent homes or hotels for the British Army. These were outposts of a colonising army no more no less. The fact that that colonising force had collaborators is a story as old as time itself. Many of those collaborating were of the Scottish ruling class and had class interests in common with the English oppressors. Our ruling class has over time been assimilated into the English ruling class and migrated to their ideological home leaving Scotland almost free from an indigenous Scottish ruling class. Their modern base consists of aristocratic estate owners, bug eyed Tory loons and the more rabid elements of the Orange Order.
Scotland is not a colony. It is a sovereign state in an international treaty. Yes, garrisons were placed all over Scotland and all things Scottish were outlawed but not due to colonisation. It was at the request of the Scottish government of the time who needed to quash the rebellion once and for all.
The victim mindset of Scots is a direct result of having grown up with a false narrative. Even now Scots refer to England as UK/Westminster/Britain. Even The National is guilty of it and it claims to be pro-indy! When talking of government, folk refer to the English government as UK/Westminster Government as though England has sole authority and to a devolved nation/country/government when referring to Scotland placing Scotland as subservient to the English government and its establishment but England is a mere treaty partner. And all this while refusing to hold the Scottish government to account for their dereliction of duty to the Scots who have imbued them with their sovereignty. They permit the Scottish government to defer governance and turn a blind eye to the failure of the Scottish government to assert Scotland’s true status as a sovereign state and signatory party to a treaty. Scots need to stop blaming others. They can only do to you what you allow them to do. If you act subservient then you will be treated accordingly.
“If you act subservient then you will be treated accordingly.”
Subservience of ‘a people’ (to another culture, language, values etc) relates to the ‘colonial mindset’, Gayle. By implication such a ‘condition’ does not occur without colonialism. If you take away colonialism ‘the people will be something else’.
Many colonies held a treaty agreement of some form with a dominant Imperial power, this giving native elites at least some basis for their hypocrisy and deceit. However, this does not alter the day to day reality for an oppressed people, much as Maggie Chetty states in her letter to The National.
If we apply postcolonial theory to Scotland’s predicament – something which our historians have omitted to do – we can come to only one conclusion. We might then also accept that the UN is correct in its description of self-determination independence as ‘Decolonization’.