Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Clive’s legacy at Powis Castle to be made ‘culturally sensitive’

National Trust keen to have British Asian perspective on colonial collection

Clive’s legacy at Powis Castle to be made ‘culturally sensitive’

AS WITH Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, the National Trust is keen for British Asians to visit Powis Castle in Welshpool in Wales, because it is taking a critical look at how Britain came to establish colonial rule in India.

From the Asian point of view, they are perhaps two of the most important of the more than 500 properties looked after by the National Trust.


Kedleston Hall was the home of Lord (George Nathaniel) Curzon, viceroy of India from 1899 to 1905. He moved the capital from Calcutta [now Kolkata] to Delhi, and deliberately created communal tension by partitioning Bengal to poison previously harmonious HinduMuslim relations. On the credit side, he rescued the Taj Mahal from ruin.

LEAD Inset 6 Powis Castle pic five peacock 10 June 2024 Nigel the peacock

Powis Castle, on the other hand, with its imposing red drum towers, is most closely associated with Robert Clive’s loot and plunder of India.

‘Clive of India’, as he is known, didn’t actually live in Powis Castle, but his son Edward did after marrying Lady Henrietta Herbert and becoming part of the Herbert family, which still owns the estate. The Herberts had social standing but the money badly needed to modernise and repair Powis Castle, which dates back to the 13th century, came from India.

The conquest of the country had made father and son wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. But money did not buy Clive peace of mind. He cut his own throat with a penknife at his London house in Berkeley Square and was hastily buried in St Margaret’s Church, Moreton Say, in Shropshire.

Accused of corruption by the House of Commons in May 1773 on his return to England, Clive defended himself with characteristic bravado: “By God, at this moment, do I stand astonished at my own moderation!”

LEAD Inset 8 Tipu Sultan wall panel 82364 A section of Tipu Sultan’s tent

His “moderation” is reflected in the 1,000 artefacts dating from 1600 to the 1830s displayed in the Billiard Room turned Clive Museum cum South Asian gallery at Powis Castle.

The National Trust is now taking steps to display the treasures in a more “culturally sensitive” way. For example, the old British view of colonial rule is reflected in a large portrait of Clive dominating a mantelpiece lined with the statutes of such Hindu deities as Vishnu, Krishna, Ganesh and Hanuman – “minor Gods,” said a helpful volunteer.

Shane Logan, who has been general manager at Powis Castle and Garden for three years – the landscaped gardens, incidentally, are among the most spectacular in the UK – wants to work with Asian communities and experts to relabel and rearrange the display. London is a four-hour journey by train but Birmingham is 90 minutes away.

LEAD Inset 2 Powis Castle pic four Clive dominates Hindu Gods 10 June 2024 Portrait of Robert Clive with Hindu deities

The Trust took ownership of Powis Castle in 1952-53. But it has apartments occupied by John George Herbert, eighth Earl of Powis (born 1952), and his heir, Jonathan Nicholas William Herbert, Viscount Clive (born 1979). The orangery has a red flower, Clivia, named after Clive’s granddaughter, Lady Charlotte Florentia Clive, Duchess of Northumberland.

In collaborating with the Trust, his Lordship and the Viscount are “on a journey”, Logan commented.

“I’d like more people to associate with ‘what does the collection mean’?” Logan said. “And how would they like to see it displayed? That is trying to move the Trust from being just curators. We’re very good as curators, saying, ‘here’s an object, this is what you’re getting, this is what we’re telling you’.

“We want people to tell us what they want to see, what they want to talk about and what it means to them. To contemporise it more would be my ask.”

A model is the way the South Asian gallery at the Manchester Museum has worked with the local Asian community.

Jenny Botha, senior marketing and communications officer at Powis Castle, said that “Rhea Tuli Partridge is currently working with us as a PhD student from Cambridge to study and learn more about the background of some of the items within the South Asian collection”.

LEAD Inset 1 4 A Tiger in the Castle Exhibition at Powis Castle and Garden Welshpool Wales Credit Daniel Trivedy Daniel Trivedy in ATiger in the Castle


Rebecca Spooner, the Trust’s cultural heritage curator for South Wales, added that it might be a mistake to assume everything in the collection was looted.

“I think the work that PhD student has been doing has been really important, because it’s separating out these strands and looking at all these kinds of terminologies. What was ethically right or wrong is highly complex, isn’t it?

“We can’t say for definite because we don’t have the actual evidence about how some objects were acquired, perhaps we never will. But we can say what was happening at the time, the political or military context, at that place, at that time to get a sense of how those objects were moving around.”

Tuli, who grew up in Delhi and did her BA and MA in history and the history of art at University College London, applied successfully for the doctoral project at the Clive Museum. She was first interviewed by Mark Elliott, senior curator, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge, and Elizabeth Green, the Trust’s lead curator in Wales.

She told Eastern Eye that she was seeking “a more complex and nuanced understanding of the Clive collection”.

She said: “I first visited the Clive collection and Museum in 2019. I left feeling uncomfortable and perturbed. The collection and its curation conveyed messages of the triumphalism of the British empire, embodied and evoked by the dominant character of Robert Clive.”

LEAD Inset 3 80761 Lady Henrietta Herbert credit NT Lady Henrietta Herbert, countess of Powis, by Sir Joshua Reynolds

Tuli went on: “As a British Indian, I felt a sense of responsibility to myself and my community in addressing the collection’s racial hierarchies and revealing its untold stories. At the same time, I saw the risks of producing an abridged victim/perpetrator narrative because that can feed into racialised colonial ideals and it doesn’t critically exhaust the histories and relations of colonial conflict.”

She added: “The collection is not just about Robert Clive or just a particular colonial period in south Asia. It represents and impacts how British colonialism over the Indian subcontinent has been comprehended, reasoned, envisioned and engaged with over centuries.

“The procedures through which Robert Clive obtained objects that form part of the collection, and their moral implications, were matters of great debate in the British political and public forum. These practices were ultimately used to defend colonial rule and they influenced the strategies through which generations of the family obtained objects, which also became part of the Clive collection.

LEAD Inset 4 90961 Maharaja Pratap Singh credit NT A portrait of MaharajaPratap Singh of Tanjore


“It itself was constructed in the 1980s as a museum collection that emphasised Robert Clive and constructed an image of British colonialism as a triumphant civilising mission over an exotic and backward Indian subcontinent. The Clive collection is and has always been an ongoing rewriting of colonial history.”

The Trust has also engaged in an innovative experiment by working with Daniel Trivedy, a multi-disciplinary artist of Guyanese Indian descent based in Swansea. After negotiations between the Trust and Artes Mundi, a visual arts organisation, Trivedy was filmed prowling the ballroom and grounds of Powis Castle dressed as a tiger. The film, A Tiger in the Castle, will be showing at Powis Castle until November 3, 2024.

The Trust said: “Throughout Daniel’s work the tiger acts as a powerful motif, connecting to the artist’s identity as a person of Indian descent and directly referencing objects in the South Asian Collection. Specifically, these include those connected to Tipu Sultan who adopted the tiger as his emblem.”

Trivedy explained: “Essentially the crux of my work is to bring a subjective south Asian voice to bear on the collection, albeit through a creative response. I see the collection as being of huge importance. It is essentially a key part of the early story of the colonisation of India and everything that followed. It is fair to say that the vast majority of it links to colonial violence in some way.

“From a personal family point of view, my mother’s ancestors were shipped from India to Guyana to work as indentured labourers in the fields. Ultimately, I trace this history back to these early actions of the East India Company.”

LEAD Inset 10 Tipu Sultan throne finial 36491 A tiger head finial from the throne of Tipu Sultan

It has to be said that cut-outs of tigers, strategically hidden in bushes, have been a huge hit with children.

To be fair to the Trust, its 2020 report, which had Professor Corinne Fowler as lead author, addressed “our histories of colonialism and historic slavery” and included a section on “the Clive family and the East India Company”.

The report stated: “In the 18th century, under Robert Clive (1725-74), the Company used its wealth and armies to forcibly invade and conquer the Indian subcontinent to exploit its rich natural resources. As well as creating the British Empire in India, this ensured that Clive became vastly wealthy.

“Robert’s son, Edward Clive (1754–1839) as governor of Madras, bears responsibility for the defeat and death of Tipu Sultan (1750-99), the ruler of Mysore. Both Robert and Edward Clive’s colonial legacy can be seen today in a collection known as the ‘Clive Museum’ at Powis Castle.

“Edward Clive’s son, who is also called Edward, inherited Powis when his maternal uncle, the Earl of Powis, died. The collection of Indian objects includes Tipu Sultan’s magnificent state tent and a gold and jewelled tiger’s head finial from his throne.”

At Powis Castle, there is a portrait of Clive by Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland in 1773. Clive was awarded an Irish peerage in 1762, created Baron Clive of Plassey, County Clare; he bought lands in County Limerick and County Clare, Ireland.

LEAD Inset 5 Powis Castle pic two flower 10 June 2024 The red flower Clivia in the orangery

Close by is a portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds of his daughter-in-law, Lady Henrietta Herbert, Countess of Powis, whom his son, Edward had married.

On a tour of Powis Castle, Logan commented that on marriage, “Edward Clive became Edward Herbert. So he actually took his wife’s name.”

The Clive collection, the Trust says, “includes ivories, textiles, statues of Hindu gods, ornamental silver and gold, weapons and ceremonial armour”.

“There was considerable local resistance to Clive’s activities in India, which he quashed using violence. At the pivotal battle of Plassey, Clive overthrew Siraj ud-Daulah (1727-1757), nawab of Bengal, and replaced him with his own ally, Mir Jafar (c 1691-1765).

“The story behind the objects in the collection is not always clear. Although some items were purchased or received as gifts, others were acquired as spoils of war following the defeat and death of Tipu Sultan at the Siege of Seringapatam in 1799. After Tipu Sultan was killed, the British army swept into the city. Tipu Sultan’s treasury of precious objects and artefacts were taken to be distributed among the victors, and some of them are now in the Clive Museum at Powis.

“The presence of an opulent palanquin, or travelling couch, in the Clive Collection is closely connected to the British seizure of power at the battle of Plassey. When, in 1757, Siraj ud-Daulah was overthrown at the Battle of Plassey, the palanquin, said to have been abandoned on the battlefield, was seized by the British and subsequently brought to Britain by Clive.

LEAD Inset 7 Ceremonial staff 495691 A ceremonial staff (chub) with ivory shaft

“Edward continued his father’s colonial activities in India, adding to the family’s collection of Indian treasures. Edward was appointed governor of Madras in 1798. Unusually for that time, Henrietta and their two daughters joined him in India, staying for three years.”

Also in the collection are Tipu Sultan’s tent, “cotton chintz with a white ground, patterned with acanthus cusped niches, each enclosing a central vase with symmetrical flower arrangement, predominantly in reds and greens”; and portraits including the Maharajah Pratap Singh of Tanjore (1739-65) and of Prince Azimud-Daula, Nawab of the Carnatic (1775- 1819) and his son Azam Jah (1800-1874) by Thomas Hickey.

There are miniature portraits of family members, including Edward.

“Powis Castle is home to one of the world’s great collections of art and historical objects with over 13,500 items in its collection,” the Trust says.

Logan said: “Sixty-three per cent of the collection still belongs to His Lordship.”

The Trust is responsible for 70 acres of the estate, including Powis Castle, but the other 6,000-7,000 acres are owned by the Herbert family, according to Logan.

During Eastern Eye’s tour of the property, Botha said: “Queen Victoria stayed here when she was a teenager”.

And in the 1990s, the then Prince of Wales also visited Powis Castle.

Logan drew attention to the Roman Pietra Dura table, made in 1580 with inlaid in marble and brought from the Pope’s palace in Rome.

“The experts from the Antiques Roadshow tell me that they reckon this is probably the best example in the world,” said Logan.

Last year, about 195,000 people visited Powis Castle, five-seven per cent of whom were Asian.

Anyone familiar with Rambagh Palace, the home of the Jaipur royal family in Rajasthan, would immediately recognise Nigel’s screeching sound on arrival at Powis Castle.

Logan, who has a characteristically Irish sense of humour, quipped: “Nigel is one of our more interesting peacocks.

He’s very much king of the property. We’ve got about six or seven peacocks.” When Fiona Bruce spent a long day at Powis Castle filming with the Antiques Roadshow crew, “there was Nigel headbutting the limousine. Nigel is used to the crowds – he plays up to the crowds. He’s almost too used to the crowds. People just love him.”

More For You

Dhanush & young son Linga
Instagram Screengrab/life_of_aakash/redgiantmovies_

Dhanush stuns fans as young son Linga joins him for impromptu dance at 'Idli Kadai’ audio launch

Highlights:

  • Actor-director Dhanush performed live with composer GV Prakash at Chennai event.
  • Youngest son Linga joined his father on stage, dancing alongside him.
  • Dhanush recounted childhood memories that inspired the story of Idli Kadai.
  • The film, featuring a star-studded cast, is set to release on 1 October.

Dhanush delighted fans at the Idli Kadai audio launch in Chennai with a touching father-son moment, performing the film’s hit song Enjami Thandhaane alongside music composer GV Prakash. The actor’s youngest son, Linga, joined him on stage, creating a heartfelt moment that resonated with audiences. Dhanush also shared personal childhood memories, revealing how his love for idlis inspired the upcoming film.

Dhanush & young son Linga Dhanush stuns fans as young son Linga joins him for impromptu dance at 'Idli Kadai’ audio launch Instagram Screengrab/life_of_aakash/redgiantmovies_

Keep ReadingShow less
Trump

Trump said the suspect had been arrested earlier for 'terrible crimes,' including child sex abuse, grand theft auto and false imprisonment, but was released under the Biden administration because Cuba refused to take him back.

Getty Images

Trump says accused in Dallas motel beheading will face first-degree murder charge

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has described Chandra Mouli “Bob” Nagamallaiah, the Indian-origin motel manager killed in Dallas, as a “well-respected person” and said the accused will face a first-degree murder charge.

Nagamallaiah, 50, was killed last week at the Downtown Suites motel by co-worker Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, a 37-year-old undocumented Cuban immigrant with a criminal history.

Keep ReadingShow less
AI art

Two leading AI tools shaping digital art

Seedream 4.0 / Nano Banana

Seedream 4.0 and Nano Banana fuel AI art craze themed around Bollywood

Highlights

  • Two leading AI tools shaping digital art, Seedream 4.0 and Google’s Gemini Nano Banana
  • Seedream 4.0 generates high-resolution imaginative visuals in multiple styles
  • Nano Banana transforms selfies into retro Bollywood-inspired portraits
  • Viral on Instagram, TikTok, and X, with global audiences engaging
  • Experts highlight data privacy, authenticity, and ethical concerns

AI-powered creativity is sweeping social media, with Seedream 4.0 and Nano Banana AI capturing the imagination of users worldwide. Seedream 4.0 is designed for digital artists and hobbyists who want to create detailed, high-quality visuals in a wide range of styles, from realistic landscapes to abstract scenes. Nano Banana, on the other hand, allows users to turn selfies into 1990s Bollywood-inspired portraits, often featuring traditional South Asian attire and nostalgic retro backdrops.

A global viral phenomenon


Both tools have seen rapid adoption in 2025. Seedream 4.0 attracts those seeking versatile, high-resolution creative outputs. Nano Banana has gone viral for its playful, culturally resonant edits. Social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and X are flooded with creations from influencers, celebrities, and everyday users, showing the broad appeal of AI-driven art.

Keep ReadingShow less
James Bourne quits McFly tour

James Bourne confirms his exit from the McFly and Busted joint tour hours before opening night

Getty Images/Instagram/busted

James Bourne quits McFly tour just hours before launch sparking shock over mystery health battle

Highlights:

  • James Bourne announces exit from the joint tour just hours before its launch
  • The Busted star says he is not well enough to perform
  • McFly and Busted will continue the tour as planned without him
  • Fellow bandmates and fans send messages of support and encouragement

In an unexpected turn, James Bourne has pulled out of the much-anticipated McFly tour, just hours before the opening show in Birmingham. The Busted star shared that ongoing health issues have forced him to withdraw from the joint run, which was due to see both bands performing their greatest hits on the same stage. His decision comes as a major blow to fans who had been awaiting this collaboration.

James Bourne quits McFly tour James Bourne confirms his exit from the McFly and Busted joint tour hours before opening night Getty Images/Instagram/busted

Keep ReadingShow less
Street Fighter

Street Fighter is now in production

Vidyut Jammwal steps into 'Street Fighter' arena as Dhalsim to face Hollywood heavyweights in brutal 1993 tournament

Highlights:

  • The live-action Street Fighter film will release in October 2026 via Paramount Pictures
  • Indian star Vidyut Jammwal plays Dhalsim in the multicultural ensemble cast
  • The film is directed by Kitao Sakurai and shot for IMAX
  • Set in 1993, the story follows Ryu and Ken returning for a high-stakes World Warrior Tournament

The upcoming Street Fighter movie is gearing up for a worldwide release in October 2026 under Paramount Pictures, and the buzz around Vidyut Jammwal in Street Fighter is already hyping fans. Bringing together a diverse international line-up, this live-action adaptation aims to reintroduce the beloved gaming saga to a new generation while tapping into the nostalgia of its 1990s arcade roots.

Street Fighter Street Fighter is now in production Instagram/streetfightermovie

Keep ReadingShow less