What would Harivansh Rai Bachchan make of the fact that St Catherine’s, his old Cambridge College, has removed a bell from public display because of its likely association with the slave trade? Although Amitabh Bachchan’s father found fame essentially as a Hindi poet and in particular his poem Madhushala, he was at St Catherine’s from 1952-54 doing a PhD in English on the occult and mysticism in the works of Y.B. Presumably, it has been used to control slaves unlike bells in Cambridge which summon undergraduates either to prayer or to dinner. The investigation, the email explained, comes “as part of the ongoing reflection taking place about the links between universities and slavery. “Consultation is taking place across the college community about the appropriate and proportionate course of action in relation to the bell”.

Source: The Telegraph May 09, 2019 20:03 UTC