“Symbol Of Colonialism”: Petition To Remove “Clive of India” Statue In UK

London:

Hundreds of individuals signed a web-based petition on Monday demanding the removing of a statue of Robert Clive, who performed a key function in establishing Britain’s colonial domination over India, in Shrewsbury, western England.

The petition on Change.Org is addressed to the native Shropshire County Council and got here inside hours of dramatic scenes of a former slave dealer Edward Colston’s sculpture being pulled down and dragged right into a river in Bristol on Sunday, throughout a weekend of fiery “Black Lives Matter” anti-racism protests.

“Robert Clive was one of the early figures of the British imperial domination of India, Bengal and much of South-East Asia,” reads the petition, which has already attracted over 1,700 folks of its 2,500 goal inside hours.

“Clive as a symbol of British colonialism is significantly offensive to Indian, Bengali and south-east Asian descent and to attempt to justify it as a celebration of British pride and nationalism is only justifiable if one revels in the persecution and murder of millions of innocent people,” it reads.

Robert Clive served as the primary Governor of Bengal Presidency underneath the East India Company within the 18th century, incomes the title “Clive of India”.

The petition highlights his function within the “looting” of Bengal within the early years of the British Empire, with most of the area’s riches discovering their means again with him to Britain.

“To have a statue commemorating the man that ruined a nation and held innocent people to his barbaric orders is both offensive and embarrassing. Just because a figure is historical, that doesn’t make him good. He is nothing more than a figure of oppression and white supremacy that has, whether consciously or not, been celebrated and commemorated in Shrewsbury town centre for hundreds of years,” it notes.

Local Shrewsbury MP, Conservative Party’s Daniel Kawczynski, known as for a peaceable dialogue on the statue and pledged to conduct a “blow by blow” analysis on the lifetime of locally-born Clive.

“We are doing a research paper and while I won’t comment on his life until after it’s written, the British Empire was a tremendous source for good during its time,” mentioned Mr Kawczynski, who mentioned he can be utilizing the House of Commons library for the analysis.

“We honour and celebrate those who helped establish this empire. They are part of our history and should be treated with respect and dignity. I know some people will want to eradicate all traces of the British Empire, but I’ve seen huge pluses of things it did around the world,” he mentioned.

The MP additionally paid tribute to Britain’s war-time Prime Minister Winston Churchill, whose statue on Parliament Square in London was amongst these focused by protesters over the weekend with graffiti studying “was a racist”.

The steps under Mahatma Gandhi’s statue close by have been additionally left marked with the phrase “racist”.

Peter Nutting, the chief of Shropshire Council, mentioned that consistent with the council”s structure, all petitions that achieve 1,000 signatures are debated to find out any motion required.

“In the meantime, while we recognise the strength of feeling around the Black Lives Matter campaign, and acknowledge people’s right to protest, we ask them to do so peacefully and safely, abiding by the social distancing guidelines,” he mentioned.

There is an analogous life-size statue of Clive close to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) constructing on King Charles Street, Whitehall, in central London.

The plinth information his two main profession spurts in India, together with the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and the Treaty of Allahabad in 1765.

Clive, born in Market Drayton in Shropshire earlier than his education in London, travelled to India for the East India Company in 1743 earlier than returning to his London house later in life the place he died in 1774 — believed to have dedicated suicide.

The Black Lives Matter protests over the weekend came about throughout completely different components of the UK in solidarity with comparable protests within the US and around the globe in opposition to the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man who was a sufferer of police brutality.