Historical background to prejudices
- 1 day ago
- 9 min read
Prejudices: Christian Privilege, Constitutional Tradition and the Legacy of Empire and Colonialism: An Examination of Historical Legal Evidence
Introduction
Britain's constitution is often described as pragmatic, unwritten and politically neutral. Yet many of its institutions originated in an era when England was explicitly a Christian state and the British Empire governed much of the world. This article examines historical legal evidence suggesting that Christianity enjoyed institutional privileges extending beyond matters of worship into constitutional practice, public office and legal administration. It also considers how these constitutional traditions intersected with Britain's imperial history, and argues that some of their effects remain visible today.
This article also examines whether colonial history with their discriminatory practices, constitutional and legal institutions historically reflected preferences that would today be regarded as discriminatory.
1. The Christian Constitution in UK
The monarch is head of the Church, Parliament and the Army. The monarch has to approve and sign bills – this is extended to the Dominions, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand. In practice the monarch does not refuse but amendments are often a compromise. The last time a British monarch refused to sign a bill passed by Parliament was on11th March 1708 when Queen Anne vetoed the Scottish Militia Bill.
The Church of England is the established religion in UK. Many regard the King as defender of The Faith.
There are 26 reserved seats for Church of England Christian Bishops in the House of Lords known as the Lords Spiritual. Religious leaders of other faiths - Rabbis, Imams or Pandits do not have seats allocated or reserved, however there are many individuals of other faiths having seats in the House of Lords as Independent Life Peers
Under UK constitution law, the sovereign must be a Protestant and the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.
The monarch is consecrated at Westminster Abbey in a religious ceremony spanning 1,000 years, involving an anointing, taking statutory Coronation Oaths and swearing to maintain the Protestant Reformed Religion.
2. Old statutes, law and religious identityA leading legal encyclopaedia (Halsbury's Laws of England, 4th ed., Vol. 28, para. 23) stated that the College of Arms would not enrol a deed poll purporting to change a person's Christian name. Whatever the legal basis of this practice, it demonstrates that official institutions continued to attach legal significance to baptismal names well into the late twentieth century. It describes a practice that would clearly have disadvantaged someone who wished to adopt a non-Christian identity or name. Though it referred to the College of Arms, wider connotations could be perceived. As an example, during the British rule in India, it was a policy that only indigenous Indians who were Christian by name could be promoted above the basic grade in the Civil Service.
However, the ordinary law allowed people to change their names by deed poll. The Central Office of the Supreme Court would enrol such deed polls even though The College of Arms had its own policy of not enrolling (or recognising for heraldic purposes) a deed poll that purported to change a Christian name given in a ceremony of baptism.
That distinction matters because the College of Arms has always been a specialised heraldic body rather than the authority that determines everyone's legal name.
It describes a practice that would clearly have disadvantaged someone who wished to adopt a non-Christian identity or name.
If, for example, a Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Buddhist, or non-religious person who had been baptised as a child wanted the College of Arms to recognise a deed poll changing "John" to "Arjun" or "Muhammad", this policy—as described in your extract—would indeed have treated them differently from someone merely changing one Christian name to another or altering a surname.
That is a form of religious preference in an official institution, even if it was confined to heraldic practice.
From what I know, I do not believe this policy survives today. Modern guidance from the College of Arms on name changes no longer refers to any prohibition on changing Christian names, and such a policy would sit uneasily with modern equality and human rights principles. It may have changed after the 1998 Human Rights Act 1998, after the 2010 Equality Act 2010, or simply through an internal policy change.
3. Colonialism, Empire and Constitutional Thinking
The Americas:
Pope Alexander VI issued the Inter caetera decree on May 4, 1493. It granted Spain (Castile and Aragon) exclusive rights to colonize and trade in all lands west and south of an imaginary meridian 100 leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde islands. The bull provided religious justification for European colonization and the subjugation of Indigenous peoples.
The decree essentially divided the non-European world between Spain and Portugal, aiming to prevent conflict between the two rising Catholic empires. It dictated that any lands not already claimed by a Christian ruler could be seized. It also mandated that Spain send missionaries to convert the Indigenous populations to Christianity.
The Papal bulls formed the foundation for the Doctrine of Discovery, a legal framework that justified the seizure of Native lands and the exploitation of Indigenous peoples. Other European Kings/ countries adopted this too, including Britain, France and Germany. It regarded indigenous people as sub-human and led to the virtual genocide of Native inhabitants. It was only in 2023 that The Vatican officially repudiated this doctrine and apologised.
Slavery:
Slavery - a condition in which one human being was owned by another. A slave was considered by law as property, or chattel, and was deprived of most of the rights ordinarily held by free persons. They were forced to work, often beaten, tortured, etc.
Between 1500 and 1860, an estimated 12.5 million Africans were captured and forced into the transatlantic slave trade. Approximately 10.7 million survived the horrific Middle Passage to be enslaved in the Americas, millions died on the way, Millions more were enslaved across the Sahara and Indian Ocean during historical Arab-led trade routes.
The abolition of slavery occurred gradually across different countries, heavily driven by shifting economic realities, political pressure, and resistance by enslaved people. Revolutionary France abolished slavery in 1794, and Haiti became the first independent nation to permanently outlaw it in 1804. Britain formally outlawed the buying and selling of enslaved people in 1807 and abolished the institution of slavery itself in most of its colonies on August 1, 1834. The US nationally abolished slavery in 1865 with the ratification of the 13th Amendment.
Indentured labour:
Indentured labour was a system of bonded service where workers signed contracts to work for a specific period (usually 5 to 10 years) in exchange for passage, food, and a small salary. Following the abolition of slavery in 1833, colonial empires widely used this practice to secure cheap manpower for distant plantations.
The post-slavery demand for cheap labour led to the largest global migration of indentured workers in the 19th and 20th centuries. The scope and impact of this system was huge:
Between 1834 and 1920, the British Empire transported over 1.5 million Indian labourers to 19 colonies, including Mauritius, Fiji, Trinidad, Guyana, and South Africa. Smaller groups were also recruited from China and the Pacific Islands.
Living Conditions were sub-standard. While technically contracted, the reality was often brutal. Workers frequently faced deception upon recruitment, harsh travel conditions, and severe exploitation on sugar, cotton, and tea plantations. Sometimes force was used to make them work. Many died during the travel or of illness or being beaten. Critics at the time, including Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa, condemned the indenture system as a form of "new slavery" due to the lack of worker freedoms and penal contracts. Many had no funds to travel back home and ended up settling in the countries they were shipped to; some now hold prominent positions economically an politically.
Aboriginal Australians:
Many scholars have argued that the British colonisation of Australia and subsequent actions of various Australian governments and individuals involved acts of genocide against Indigenous Australians. They have used numerous definitions of genocide, including the intentional destruction of Indigenous groups as defined in the 1948 United Nations genocide convention, and broader definitions involving cultural genocide, ethnocide and genocidal massacres. They have frequently described the near-extermination of Aboriginal Tasmanians, mass killings during the frontier wars, forced removals of Indigenous children from their families (now known as the Stolen Generations) and policies of forced assimilation as genocidal. Since 1997 the state, territory and federal governments of Australia have formally apologised for the stolen generations and for other injustices committed against Indigenous Australians.
The relationship between missionary work and imperial expansion:
Missionary work and colonisation were deeply intertwined, sharing a symbiotic relationship where religious expansion frequently provided moral justification for imperial conquest, while colonial infrastructure aided the spread of Christianity. This alliance was heavily characterised by the imposition of Western values and the exploitation of indigenous lands and resources.
Colonizers often justified territorial expansion under the banner of a "civilizing mission," arguing that it was their duty to spread Christianity and Western civilization to "benighted" or "heathen" populations. This allowed nations to rebrand economic exploitation and political domination as acts of benevolence.
Missionaries often sought to transform indigenous communities by enforcing Western philosophies, clothing, and social structures. This process frequently involved forcing local populations to abandon their native languages and traditional cultural practices. Because colonial governments frequently aimed to run their empires on minimal budgets, they often delegated education, healthcare, and agricultural development to missionaries in exchange for state grants. This gave the church massive influence over the daily lives and futures of colonized peoples.
4. Reform
The last few decades have seen modernisation of laws, practices, apologies and reforms.
Most European nations have issued apologies, some formally by governments or heads of states. Many ex-colonial countries have instituted minor reparations through aid and trade references. They are designed to support economic development and typically require beneficiary nations to meet specific social, human rights, or environmental standards. The EU has Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP), with a reinforced framework for 2027 through 2036. The United Kingdom has the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS), offering reduced or zero-tariff access to 65 countries to boost economic development. The United States has several non-reciprocal schemes, including the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
Human rights organisations and legislation:
The top 10 human rights organizations globally, renowned for their research, advocacy, and direct victim assistance, include the following:
Human Rights Watch
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Anti-Slavery International
Freedom House
Human Rights First
Front Line Defenders
Oxfam International
There are major institutions like:
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) which is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, seated at the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands. Established in 1945, its primary functions are to settle legal disputes between states and to provide advisory opinions on international legal questions referred by authorized UN organs.
The European Court of Justice is the highest judicial authority of the European Union. Based in Luxembourg, its primary mission is to ensure that EU law is uniformly interpreted and applied across all member states. It holds the power to invalidate national laws that conflict with EU legislation and rule on disputes involving member states, EU institutions, businesses, and individuals.
Human Rights Act 1998 - The Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) incorporates the rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into UK domestic law. It allows individuals in the UK to bring human rights claims directly before domestic courts rather than taking them to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg
Equality and Human Rights Commission - Equality Act 2010 which covers Age, Disability, Gender reassignment, Marriage and civil partnership, Pregnancy and maternity, Race, Religion or belief, Sex and Sexual orientation
5. Conclusion
Many new laws and institutions offer protections against discrimination or prejudices on grounds of religion, colour or race. However, attitudes long ingrained in the minds of colonials or colonial establishments including some educational institutions have not changed as fast as one would like them to.
The attitudes of the British and Europeans through their occupation of the ex-colonies and those who are currently colonially occupying the Americas, Canada, Australia and New Zealand may take time to change due to the old practices where indigenous native American Indians were regarded as sub-human, as were enslaved Africans and Aborigines in Australia and New Zealand.
In USA Black Americans were legally granted the right to vote with the 15th Amendment in 1870, but full access was effectively secured only with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. White women were allowed to vote in 1920 when the 19th Amendment became law on August 26, 1920. But Native American, Asian American, Latinx and African American women were not given the same rights after the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920. Black women had to wait till 1965.
In Australia, the local aborigines used to be included as flora in the censuses; they were only fully allowed to vote in state and federal elections in 1962 by the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1962.
UK and many countries including some European and Islamic countries are not secular. Major developed countries and democracies that are secular are France, USA and India, though this does not guarantee true secularism on the ground or grassroots level.
Britain is not fully religiously neutral, constitutional preferences remain due to traditional practices and the constitution which has not modernised in line with modern thinking and international legislation.
The above shows the origin of prejudices.
It is important to teach real history, so people understand the origins of prejudices. Hopefully understanding the origins of the prejudices will help in removing racist attitudes and discrimination, promoting greater equality.
I invite the readers to consider the contents and draw their own conclusion.
Professor Naresh Sethi July 2026
Comments