University Of Edinburgh Confronts Racist Past And Profits From Slavery: Renames David Hume Tower Amid Global Calls For Reparations

In an era marked with escalating violence due to growing regionalism and ethnic divide, which threatens to disrupt world peace at large, the news of a world-renowned university, the University of Edinburgh, owning its past misdemeanours pertaining to racism and slavery and course-correcting it comes as a welcome relief.

A Race Review by the university’s Equality & Diversity Committee and its Race and Anti-Racist Sub-committee has thrown light on the prestigious university’s dark past, which links it to the “histories of enslavement, colonialism, and the development of racial pseudo-sciences.”

The university played a major role in creating “racist theories” and profited from slavery, the review found. In an attempt to right the wrongdoings, the management has, as part of ongoing reparations, sought to rename the David Hume Tower, christened after the famous 18^th century Scottish philosopher, to 40 George Square.

Hume, one of the central figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, has been criticised for his comments on matters of race. As the review committee noted, “It is important that campuses, curricula and communities reflect both the university’s contemporary and historical diversity and engage with its institutional legacy across the world.”

Though some academicians have criticised the university for being hypocritical and have questioned its associations with countries indulging in modern-day human exploitation, such as China, which is accused of suppression of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the very fact that the management has accepted past wrongdoings and has resolved to make them right speaks volumes.

The university principal and vice-chancellor, Prof. Sir Peter Mathieson, has vowed to “learn and move forward”. He has reiterated his commitment to making the university free of “racism, racial discrimination, and racialised inequalities.”

For the past few years, the talk of reparations has become central to discussions not only within the UK but internationally too. In 2015, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor delivered a speech at the Oxford Union, citing the negative impact of the British rule and stating that Britain did owe reparations to India.

The speech, which was widely circulated on social media, generated both positive and negative reactions. In October last year, UN judge Patrick Robinson concluded that Britain owed more than 18 trillion pounds in reparations to the Caribbean and African nations for its involvement in slavery.

While the voice for reparations grows louder, the British government has maintained a stoic silence on the subject. And although the Church of England, the Bank of England, and the Guardian have issued apologies to this effect, Britain has yet to make a formal apology.

Now, with the university acknowledging its murky past and looking to address the issue through meaningful action, the change marking British society seems imminent.

The lesson here is evident: history is to be learnt from and not to be repeated. Only then can we have true progress.