Episode 3: The colonial foundations of contemporary wealth gaps: What are the links between past injustice and present inequality?

Colonialism played a huge role in shaping the modern world, but it’s often left out of the discussion when we talk about today’s inequalities of wealth. Looking at Europe's colonial past is essential to understanding the wealth disparities we see today. Professor Gurminder K. Bhambra is a Professor of Historical Sociology at the University of Sussex. Her research focuses on global historical sociology and the political economy of colonialism.

In this episode Gurminder talks to Sarah Kerr about how national assets, like the British welfare state, were partly built on money taken as taxation from colonies, with no benefits returned to the people who paid. They talk about how a better understanding of this history might change the way we think about who has a right to public resources like healthcare and education today, and about what the obligations might be of countries who became rich by making other countries poor.

The discussion covers everything from land ownership patterns before and after 1066, to colonial taxation and famine, the history of land ownership, philanthropy, and the political power of the wealthy. Gurminder argues that wealth in countries like Britain has always been linked to poverty elsewhere, and that we need to see justice as a global issue, not just a national one. Understanding these connections, she says, is the first step to building a fairer world – one where our public services and living standards aren’t sustained by the exploitation of others.