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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World

Resculpting the past by removing statues

The Clive of India statue outside the Foreign Office in London, Britain, 15 August 2025. Calls to remove the starue are growing. Brithis politician Thangam Debbonaire said the statue commemorating Robert Clive’s British rule in India presented the UK in a poor light. EPA/ANDY RAIN
The Clive of India statue outside the Foreign Office in London. The Labour peer Thangam Debbonaire has called for it to be removed, arguing that visiting Indian citizens and dignitaries should not be forced to walk past it. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

You published a letter from someone wishing to remove a statue of Clive of India (18 August) on the same day as a story that Donald Trump is seeking to suppress “signs or other information that are negative about either past or living Americans” (Trump’s move to sanitize US history gets little support with national park visitors, 18 August). The motives are different, but the effect of the dismantling of a statue of Clive would be to remove from public view something drawing attention to the worst aspect of British dealings with India (and the statue is the only thing that most passersby will come across that does this). The proposed removal therefore seems to me to be open to the same objection as the US president’s attempts to prettify the grimmer aspects of American history.
Jeremy Paul Dixon
Addiscombe, Surrey

• Oh dear! “Clive’s not welcome”. My namesakes and I will feel excluded and lonely. I propose an anti-imperialist mutual support group to reclaim our name. “Clives Against Clive” anyone?
Clive Barrett
Leeds

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