Queen elizabeth ii’s funeral pomp around the event is symptomatic of a nation in identity crisis

Queen elizabeth ii’s funeral pomp around the event is symptomatic of a nation in identity crisis

Who would have imagined that a monarch would have such a strong hold over a modern democracy that its life practically grinds to a halt? But perhaps it’s not just the loss of a queen that is being mourned

The British tradition of the Queue, always in uppercase, might have once meant the decades-old Wimbledon practice, with thousands of spectators lining up to get tickets for the Grand Slam event. Since Elizabeth II’s coffin was placed in Westminster Hall on September 14 for the lying-in-state, the Queue now refers to the 10-mile-long line of people, who waited for upto 24 hours in some cases, to catch one final glimpse of the late queen. Thousands of British citizens, and several visitors, bore cold weather, exhaustion and aching legs, to become part of a phenomenon that is unlikely to ever occur again.

Elizabeth II was, without doubt, a popular monarch. And the Queue — more than the pomp and ceremony of the funeral event — represents the unique place she occupied in the country’s imagination. She became Queen at a time when the Empire was fast losing its dimensions as well as its relevance, and the monarchy itself started to seem increasingly antiquated during her long reign. While the wave of grief that has swept through the country since her death on September 8 says much about the affection that Elizabeth II inspired, it also says a lot about the country itself.

Several of the scenes that have come out of the UK this past week — the Queue, of course, but also museums, theatres and even food banks closing to mourn the late queen; hospital appointments cancelled and funerals put off, protestors arrested — are astonishing to the 21st century mind. Who would have imagined that a monarch would have such a strong hold over a modern democracy that its life practically grinds to a halt? But perhaps it’s not just the loss of a queen that is being mourned. As the second Elizabethan Era ends, what the world is witnessing is a nation grappling with the loss of a defining aspect of its identity.