Labourite Wants to Tear Down Robert Clive of India Statue in London

In June, the Foreign Office’s most senior diplomat privately admitted that the Clive of India statue in Whitehall, pictured above, ‘may have to go’

Labour peer wants Clive of India statue outside Foreign Office torn down

A Labour peer has called for a statue of Clive of India outside the Foreign Office to be torn down.

Robert Clive was hailed by contemporaries for securing 200 years of British rule in India.

Baroness Debbonaire served as shadow culture secretary before losing her seat at the last general election.

Bronze sculpture of Clive

Robert Clive was hailed by contemporaries for securing 200 years of British rule in India

Baroness Debbonaire, who served as shadow culture secretary before losing her seat at the last general election

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'I'm not sure you achieve much by going round taking statues down.'

Historian Robert Tombs criticised Baroness Debonnaire's comments.

'Many of Clive's contemporaries had huge respect for India's cultures, and helped to save major parts of its heritage from neglect and destruction. 

'It is absurd to say that they "closed down" the subcontinent's economy - they were there to trade and make money, and India's businessmen supported the British presence as the best chance of restoring law and order amid a collapsing Mughal empire.'

Clive's statue was erected more than 130 years after his suicide (due to persecution by his enemies) in 1774.

Despite having no military training, the Shropshire-born clerk rose up the ranks of the East India Company after a series of stunning strategic victories over the Siraj-ud-Daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal.

Clive eventually returned to Britain and served as MP and Mayor of Shrewsbury, rich but deeply depressed, due to persecution by his enemies

Facing 50,000 men in 1757, Clive's 3,000-strong private army was woefully outnumbered, but through tactical cunning and by bribing the Nawab's cavalry commander, he routed the Bengalis, leading directly to British dominance across India.

Clive eventually returned to Britain and served as MP and Mayor of Shrewsbury, rich but deeply depressed, due to persecution by his enemies.

He was eventually brought up on corruption charges. Despite seeing these off, he took his own life in 1774 and was buried in an unmarked grave.

His actions in India were the foundations of the empire.

Professor Robert Tombs, a Cambridge historian, said there was a 'craven and mindless attitude being taken towards the British Empire by many public institutions'.

And Lord Robathen said school chiefs should be 'ashamed' of themselves for 'cancelling' Clive.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14992435/Labour-peer-wants-Clive-India-statue-outside-Foreign-Office-torn-not-helpful-diplomacy.html

The most dazzling oligarch in the world, 260 years ago, was Clive Of India, the spectacularly daring English governor of Bengal.

After one victory on the battlefield, Clive was taken by a grateful Indian ruler into the palace treasury and told to help himself from the mountains of gold and silver plate, jewels and priceless rarities.

He walked off with the modern day equivalent of about £400 million.

Clive’s East India Company (EIC) was the largest corporation in the world at the time, and was based in the City of London.

In the 18th century, the rising political power of The Company was driven through the booming trade with Asia.

Portrait of the 1st Baron Clive, commonly referred to as Clive of India

Robert Clive and Mir Jafar after the Battle of Plassey, 1757. Painted by Francis Hayman, 1760

The East India Company possessed wealth beyond imagination, which generated vast power for its leaders.

Though it morphed over time into a military and political arm of the state, The Company began in 1600 as a project triggered by the excitement of global exploration.

Queen Elizabeth I granted a royal charter to the East India Company in 1600.

During the next two centuries, the EIC came to dominate world trade in tea, cotton and spices, and generated vast profits for its backers. Londoners with money to invest in The Company could expect yearly returns of up to 30 per cent.

At its peak, the EIC was larger than several nations – but that dominance did not come without a fight. The turning point came in 1756, when 123 British and allied Indian prisoners of war were massacred in the notorious Black Hole of Calcutta.

From then on, the East India Company used increasingly aggressive tactics. 

By 1765, at the age of 35, Clive’s personal fortune was estimated at around £800 million in today’s money. Though he was regarded as a national hero, he had many enemies.

Under Clive, the East India Company built up its private army to 260,000 soldiers, double the size of the British Army.

The EIC brought many benefits. The building of India’s railways began under its administration, as did major cultural, educational and infrastructure projects, including the first ever museum in India, the country’s first engineering college, the first medical college teaching Western medicine outside Europe, law courts, banking, postal services and much more.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14466793/ROBERT-TOMBS-todays-rapacious-tech-barons-recall-private-company-overmighty-TWICE-soldiers-British-Army.html

Shropshire councillors voted in favour of keeping a statue of Clive (pictured in Shrewsbury's town centre)