Private school renames its Clive of India house
HEADMASTER CITES QUESTIONABLE ACTIONS BUT HISTORIANS CRITICISE MOVE
A PRIVATE school has renamed its Clive of India house, after its name was linked to Robert Clive, who played a key role in establishing British rule in the subcontinent.
Merchant Taylors’ School for Boys, based in Hertfordshire, announced their decision to rename the school house following a consultation by previous and current students at the school.
In a letter to former pupils, the school’s headmaster Simon Everson confirmed the change and explained the reasons behind it. “Robert Clive has always been a controversial figure,” he said. “His actions in India were the foundations of the empire, but were also questioned by his own contemporaries. From this moment on, Clive House will be renamed.”
The decision to rename Clive House was an “opportunity to debate rather than cancel,” Everson added.
A plaque dedicated to him will remain in the school, it was confirmed.
Clive House will instead honour former pupil and first-class cricketer John Raphael, who died as a war hero during the first world war. However, the move has been criticised by some historians.
In response to the news, Robert Tombs, professor emeritus of French history at the University of Cambridge, said there was a “craven and mindless attitude being taken towards the British Empire by many public institutions.” He added that history is to help us understand the past and “not impose our values on it”.
Historian Dr Zareer Masani has also slammed the decision to remove Clive’s name from the school house. “It’s absurd that people are now demonising (Clive),” he said. “(…) He is a model of someone who really pulled themselves up. We should be honouring people like this who made something of themselves.”
Conservative peer and former Merchant Taylor pupil Lord Andrew Robathan also claimed the faculty should be “ashamed” for “cancelling” Clive.
Clive attended the elite private school himself – although he was expelled for fighting after one year.
However, the military commander was accused of plundering the Bengali population and causing starvation by mismanagement. He is thought to have committed suicide when he was 49 years old.
Following the global Black Lives Matter protests last year, a number of historical monuments and memorials allegedly associated with racial injustice have been removed or destroyed. Last June, a statue of slave trader Edward Colston was thrown into the Bristol Harbour by protesters.