Ousted student prez Rashmi Samant calls Oxford racist in new book, successor Anvee Bhutani calls her out

Remember Rashmi Samant? You probably can't recall. In 2021, Rashmi Samant from Udupi was supposed to become the first 'Hindu' Indian student to hold the position of Oxford University Students Union President. But she was forced to step down after a series of racist, anti-Semitic and transphobic remarks made by her were uncovered.

Despite giving an apology letter to Oxford University for her remarks, Samant later went on to claim to the Indian media that she was denied her position because of racism and Hinduphobia. 

What's new?

• Well, it looks like Samant has not stopped milking this incident from her college days. In the latest, she's released a book detailing her experience of alleged racism at Oxford University. 
• The book is titled, A Hindu in Oxford and doesn't mince any words when it comes to her identity as first a Hindu and second an Indian national. 

• But her book has also courted controversy, with many reminding Samant of what she forgot to mention in her tweets promoting her book.
• And the most damning response has come from Anvee Bhutani, an Indian Hindu who succeeded Rashmi Samant as the President of the Oxford University Students Union. 

• Bhutani said that Samant's novel propagated a false narrative. She also said that while racism is a problem at Oxford University, Rashmi Samant was not bullied for her 'race, religion or nationality'. 

Reactions

• On X, people are busy reminding Rashmi Samant that she wrote an apology letter to Oxford University. 

• Others are accusing Samant of spreading deliberate misinformation, playing the victim card, and instigating communal violence.  

Refreshing Rashmi Samant's memory

Rashmi Samant claims that she was forced to step down because "Oxford students are not ready for a Hindu President". However, Samant was forced to resign after students at Oxford University raised objections against her racist and insensitive remarks made on social media. 

• Chinese and other east-Asian students at the University took offense to Samant captioning a 2017 post from a trip to Malaysia as 'Ching Chang'. 'Ching Chang' is an ethnic slur to mock the Chinese language, Chinese, and other East Asian people. 
• In another post from the Berlin Holocaust Memorial, Samant used the caption, "The memorial *CASTS* a *HOLLOW* dream of the past atrocities and deeds," which was supposed to be a pun on the Holocaust, but was deemed insensitive. 
• And in yet another post, Rashmi Samant was perceived as transphobic for separating "women" and "transwomen" in a caption of a post uploaded before the election. 

In 2021, the Oxford India Society, Oxford University Hindu Society (HUMSoc), and Oxford South Asian Society made a statement calling the narrative put forth by Rashmi Samant on her resignation to be untrue. 

They said that while they recognised the institutional racism prevalent at the University, they also clarified that Samant was not asked to resign for issues related to racism, her religion, or her nationality. 

Rashmi Samant's whole campaign following her forced resignation was to paint the narrative that Oxford University did not allow her to become the President of the Student Union because she's Hindu and an Indian. However, those charges don't seem to hold any veracity given that her successor was an Indian Hindu. 

In fact, Samant wasn't the only candidate who was accused of racism in the 2021 elections. A frontrunner Pierce Jones also had to drop out of the race after allegations of racism were made against him.

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