The Queen and Brown folks

Queen Elizabeth II’s death highlights the complicated relationship between South Asians and the British monarchy.

Issue #44

Hi all —

After Queen Elizabeth II died Thursday at the age of 96 and after 70 years of leadership, I felt like I was seeing starkly different reactions from various communities.

One one hand: The mainstream global media was in full breaking-news mode, commemorating the British monarch with hours of live coverage, special pages and full-spread web designs — as well as making plans to cover the full implications of this death for days to come. Her biography. Her legacy. Her fashion. President Joe Biden ordered American flags to fly at half-staff out of respect for the queen.

But across social media, I also saw the reaction from many communities of color — including several South Asians — who voiced complicated feelings about the British monarchy and its legacy of colonization. It’s not just about the queen, several said, it’s what she represents — a system of white supremacy and unrestrained power that colonized our ancestors’ native lands across South Asia for so many years.

South Asian Americans also have an additional complexity to consider: The United States, after all, was literally founded to leave the tyranny of King George III and Britain.

“It’s not the time,” some argue, to bring up these things.

But when is it ever the right time? History, like humans, is complex.

Maybe it is time to better understand the impacts the British monarchy’s colonial endeavors have had for generations of South Asians (and countless other communities), even as we respectfully recognize a fellow human’s passing.

Read more:

• Queen Elizabeth’s death revives criticism of Britain’s legacy of colonialism (NBC News)

• Queen Elizabeth II and the end of Britain’s imperial age (The Washington Post)

• Calls grow for return of crown jewels to India, Africa after Queen’s death (Newsweek)

• Amartya Sen on what British rule really did for India (The Guardian)

Thanks for joining the conversation,
Vignesh Ramachandran (@VigneshR)
Co-founder of Red, White and Brown Media

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