An end of a tumultuous era

Ishtiaq Ahmed

London: Her Majesty, Elizabeth II, The Queen of UK and territories is laid to rest at St George’s Chapel at Windsor. The final rites involved a funeral prayer at West Minister Abbey, a short walk from the West Minister Hall where her body has been lying in state for the past four days. Hundreds of thousands Britons and non-Britons filed past her coffin to pay their respects, involving on occasions up to sixteen hours of wait in the queue which stretched over miles.

The funeral at the West Minister Abbey was attended by two thousand guests including the five hundred foreign heads and dignitaries. A handful of countries which included Syria and Afghanistan were not invited because of Britain not having formal diplomatic relations with them.

Elizabeth II reigned for seventy long years, making her the longest serving monarch in the history of UK. The period, since her becoming the Queen following her father’s death in 1952, has been one of tumultuous change.

There are over 4 million persons of Asian heritage residing in Britain. The first generation of these from Pakistan and India were Invited over by Her Majesty’s government in the 50’s and 60’s to help to rebuild Britain’s industrial base which had been decimated by the Second World War. In 1972, a fresh wave of South Asians (East African Asians) was added from Uganda and Kenya following the 90 days exit order by the Ugandan President Idi Amin.

Today, Asians into their fourth and fifth generations are an unavoidable part of the British ethnic, religious and cultural landscape.

On the international front , Elizabeth II ‘s  era witnessed the Soviet occupation and exit of Afghanistan (1979 – 1989), the Islamic revolution in Iran (1990), the unification of Germany ( 1990), the disintegration of Soviet Union (1991), the ending of apartheid in South African (1991), the undoings of Libya, Iraq and Syria (2000 onwards), the USA led occupation and exit from Afghanistan (2019) and the current Ukraine war to mention a few salient history defining milestones.

Her Majesty’s reign was also paralleled by some iconic women leaders and heads of states such as Fatima Jinnah  , Golda Meir, Indra Gandhi , Be Nazir Bhutto, and Angela Merkel , the recently retired chancellor of Germany to name a few.

On home front, she oversaw 15 Prime Ministers come and ago, the Winter of discontent (1978), the civil agitations of Black and Asian Britons to challenge racism and discrimination in the 80’s, the Good Friday Agreement to bring to an end the factional war in Northern Ireland (1998), devolution of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (1997 onwards to date), and the accidental death of Princess Diana (1997), the membership of European Community in 1973 followed by exit in 2020. Throughout all this, Her Majesty was a constant factor.

The Queens seventy years reign was also a period of phenomenal social and cultural change hastened by developments in media and communication technology- the age of mobiles, Wi-Fi, Google, Twitter, Facebook, Emails, and much more. The information and communication is literally at our finger tips. The world in more ways than one has become a ‘global village’. The first landing on moon in 1969 opened up a real possibility of inhabiting the galaxy.

It is loged that Elizabeth II undertook around 114 state visits to different parts of the globe, two of these involved visiting Pakistan in 1961 and 1997 to underline the strength of relations between the two countries. There are over one million people of Pakistani heritage in Britain, making them the second largest and growing community. We cannot over emphasise the importance of British Pakistanis to Britain and Pakistan.