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= Rashmi Samant =

Rashmi Samant (born 04 November 1998) is a student leader and activist who first came into limelight following a landslide election making her the first Indian female President of the Oxford University Students' Union in February 2021. She ran on a platform which promised to decolonise the syllabus and decarbonise the world famous university. The election marked a historic turnout of which Samant grabbed most votes.

Rashmi faced severe bullying and harassment due to her faith in Hinduism (the oldest surviving indigenous non-Abrahamic faith in the world) following her election to the office of the President. She was also mobbed by a member of faculty at the University who wrote a racist essay about her parents and tried to make notorious allegations about their affiliations. Samant had to resign mere six days after the historic election but the entire case opened a wide debate on Hinduphobia and racism against Indian students in Western Universities including a debate in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) of the Indian Parliament. The matter was investigated by the Thames Valley Police and the University of Oxford upon Samant's requests and the later held up her complaint of harassment and bullying on account of Hinduphobia.

She has since drawn immense support from the wider community including that from the Minister of External Affairs for India, Dr. S. Jaishankar, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw , former Karnataka Chief Minister B. S. Yediyurappa, and British Parliamentarian Bob Blackman among many others. She continues to be socially active and vocal about faith-based persecution and is a regular panellist in leading news channels including Republic TV, Times Now in addition to writing columns with Times of India, First Post and The Sunday Guardian.

Early Life
Rashmi Samant was born to Vathsala and Dinesh Samant in Udupi, Karnataka, which is also known as the temple town of India. She completed her early education and bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Manipal where she was a student at Manipal Institute of Technology. She has been a popularly elected student leader since her Manipal days.

In September 2020, Samant joined Linacre College at the University of Oxford in England to pursue her MSc in Energy Systems.

Activism
Rashmi has been extremely vocal and strong in her advocacy for Hindu Human Rights and has used national and international platforms from time to time for issues such as predatory proselytization, assault, prejudice, harassment and other symptoms of Hinduphobia. She was seen leading a protest for the human rights of an 8-year-old Hindu boy unfairly charged with blasphemy Infront of the Pakistan High Commission in London. She spoke to a crowd of over 400 British Hindus and was quoted saying : "“For the first time in history we spoke openly about Hindu persecution and how little children are paying the price with forced conversions, blasphemy charges and rape in Pakistan”"Samant has also been a legal petitioner with the Karnataka High Court over the Hijab Controversy which originated in her hometown, Udupi.