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Criticism

Clive's actions have been criticised by modern historians due to actions in India, particularly his involvement in the Bengal Famine of 1770 and his economic management of India. The famine killed between one and ten million people. Changes caused by Clive to the Indian revenue system and agricultural practices, designed to maximize profits for the East India Company, increased poverty in Bengal. Clive commented on the poor conditions of Bengal under Company rule,

I shall only say that such a scene of anarchy, confusion, bribery, corruption, and extortion was never seen or heard of in any country but Bengal; nor did such and so many fortunes acquire in so unjust and rapacious a manner. The three provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa producing a clear revenue of £3 million sterling, have been under the absolute management of the company's servants, ever since Mir Jafar 's restoration to the subahship; and they have, both civil and military, exacted and levied contributions from every man of power and consequence, from the Nawab down to the lowest zamindar.

In January 2021, the private school that Clive attended, Merchant Taylors' School, renamed Clive House to "Raphael House" (after the sportsman John Edward Raphael). Petitions have called for removal of a statue of Clive from The Square in Shrewsbury. No more than 20,000 signatures supported such a move, and on 16 July 2020 Shropshire Council voted 28–17 to retain the statue. A similar petition for removal of Clive's statue from outside the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Whitehall, accrued some 80,000 signatures.

In light of criticism of Clive's legacy, in 2020 Haberdashers' Adams school in Newport, Shropshire announced that Clive House was to be renamed "Owen House" (after the Shropshire poet Wilfred Owen).