British peer announces LSE scholarships commemorating Mahatma Gandhi

Published on Authored by C to I News Desk

Senior British Indian academic and peer Lord Meghnad Desai on Wednesday announced the launch of scholarships in memory of Mahatma Gandhi to coincide with the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of the Father of the Indian nation.

The Gandhi Statue Memorial Trust was set up to raise funds for the Indian Independence Movement leader to be recognised with a statue in Parliament Square, which was inaugurated in 2015 by then British Prime Minister David Cameron and the late Arun Jaitley, then Finance Minister of India.
The Gandhi Statue Memorial Trust was set up to raise funds for the Indian Independence Movement leader to be recognised with a statue in Parliament Square, which was inaugurated in 2015 by then British Prime Minister David Cameron and the late Arun Jaitley, then Finance Minister of India. Photo courtesy: Guide London

Chair of the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Trust, Desai announced that the Trust will donate a sum of GBP 100,000 as an endowment towards a number of Mahatma Gandhi scholarships to be set up at the London School of Economics (LSE).

The scholarships would go towards supporting Indian students in their educational journey at the London institution, with which Lord Desai has had a long association as an economist.

"This is the seed money which would then be added to by others so that a large corpus would be built up in time," Trustee Lady Kishwar Desai said in a statement.

"This would enable deserving Indian students to study at the LSE and has been welcomed by the Director of the LSE, Minouche Shafik, who is at present on a visit to India," the statement noted.

She said the scholarships would be a reflection of the LSE's very strong India connect, which counts Dr B R Ambedkar – the architect of the Indian Constitution – among its many Indian alumni. Gandhi himself had delivered a well-attended lecture at the LSE in the Old Theatre of the university during his 1931 UK visit.