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India Cancels Scholarships Of 2,000 Ghanaian Students Over Removal Of Gandhi’s Statue

India Cancels Scholarships Of 2,000 Ghanaian Students Over Removal Of Gandhi’s Statue

Written by Ann Brown

Jan 03, 2019

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When a group of Ghanaian students at the University of Ghana tore down a statue of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi that had been erected on the campus, India allegedly retaliated by canceling scholarships for nearly 2,000 Ghanaian students studying in India.

“The Mahatma Gandhi Scholarship provides eligible students all over the world with full financial support throughout a University education in India and partner universities across the globe,” the Organiser reported.


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The Mahatma Gandhi Scholarship Secretariat issued a statement, which read in part: “Ghanaians cannot continue to enjoy a scheme set to honor someone they describe as racist, someone they hate to see his statue.”

The students at the University of Ghana said they took down the Gandhi statue because of seemingly racist remarks made by Gandhi.

Gandhi
FILE-In this Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016 file photo, a statue of Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi in Accra, Ghana, Ghana has expressed its intention to remove a statue of Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi from a university in the capital, citing a controversy over what critics call his “racist identity.” (AP Photo/Christian Thompson, File)

 

“A group of students and faculty members of the University of Ghana have been protesting against the statue which was unveiled in 2016. The protesters claimed that Gandhi was “racist” and African figures should be put up first. Finally, the statue was pulled down on December 11,” the Organiser reported.

Some on campus are praising the act by the students.

“His utterances when he was alive show he did not want to be with us black folks,” Obadele Kambon, head of language, literature and drama at the Institute of African Studies of the University of Ghana, told CNN. “Why would we want to be with him after his death by having his statue on our campus?”

But the students who had their scholarships canceled are fighting back. They have launched a petition to have the statue re-mounted on the University of Ghana campus.

The controversy over the statue of Gandhi at the University Ghana has been going on since 2016 when the government said it would relocate it. That apparently never happened and the students decided to take matters into their own hands.

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