Now is the time to address Britain's colonial legacy

The death of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest-serving monarch, has been marked by a global outpouring of grief with civilians and leaders across the world praising the monarch for her 70 years of dedicated service to the United Kingdom and her position internationally as a fixture of stability. Emotions have been particularly high as it came on the heels of her platinum jubilee celebrations.

- BEL TREW

But accompanying the wave of support have been calls for the acknowledgement of the deadly legacy of the British empire and discussions on the extent to which recent British regents, including Queen Elizabeth, were directly implicated in it. There have also been calls from some corners of the Commonwealth for a fresh debate over the future of the monarchy in their lives, following the proclamation of a new king.

In the UK, meanwhile, rights groups, members of parliament and Britain's former counterterror chief, have expressed alarm about the erosion of free speech following a series of arrests of anti-monarchy protesters. Criticism of the Queen has been met with vicious backlash online with some commentators saying they have faced racism and threats to their safety.

Since the Queen's passing over a week ago, social media has been alight with fraught debates over how to mourn the passing of a monarch, who was a constant for many and worked right up until the last days of her life, while at the same time addressing the wrongdoings of the institution she was part of, and the role she might have played.

Maya Jasanoff, a professor of history at Harvard and author of three books about the British empire, told The Independent she faced fierce backlash online for an essay in The New York Times entitled, "Mourn the Queen, not the empire."

In it, she argued that while the Queen should be rightly remembered for her life's work "we should not romanticise her era".

"The Queen helped obscure a bloody history of decolonisation, whose proportions and legacies have yet to be adequately acknowledged," the piece argued.