Two hundred and thirty-three years after his death in 1799 at the hands of the British forces, Tipu Sultan continues to remain in the eye of political debates in the state of Karnataka. The BJP and Congress have often locked horns over the legacy of this 18th-century ruler of the Mysore kingdom, but with elections around the corner in the state, Tipu Sultan is turning out to be just another political tool.
So is Tipu still relevant in Karnataka’s politics? The answer is complex, but the issue gains political significance every year on November 10 which was once declared as ‘Hazrat Tipu Sultan Jayanti’ day during the Congress regime.
The often debated question of whether he is to be considered a tyrant or a hero who fought against the colonial British finds its highest pitch on November 10 which was once declared as Tipu Jayanti by the Congress government. Within three days of taking over as the BJP chief minister, BS Yediyurappa cancelled the decision, stating that Tipu was a “tyrant” and “anti-Hindu”.
TIPU A POLITICAL TOOL
Come November 10, and the controversy surrounding the “Tiger of Mysore” has raised its head. Just as the courts settled the row over celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi at the Idgah Maidan in Karnataka’s Hubballi, the AIMIM has rekindled the Tipu debate once again after it sought permission from the local authorities to celebrate Tipu Jayanti at the maidan, which was granted on Wednesday evening.
The Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation granted the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and Samata Sainik Dal permission to hold Tipu Jayati celebrations at the Idgah maidan. The BJP ruled corporation took the decision after consulting all stakeholders on the issues. The application to conduct these celebrations was opposed by right-wing outfits led by Sri Rama Sene chief Pramod Muthalik.
The HDMC also granted permission to hold celebrations to honour Veerarani Onake Obavva and Bhakta Kanakadasa on the same ground on Friday. Idgah maidan had been embroiled in legal battles over its ownership for several years until the courts delivered their verdict in September stating the grounds belonged to the city corporation. Since then, there has been a beeline by different organisations to host celebrations or Jayantis on this ground. Until the court order, the ground was restricted to Muslims offering prayers twice a year at the venue. This year, for the first time, Ganesha festivities were allowed to be held at the Idgah maidan.
The organisers have been allowed to use posters and photographs of Tipu sultan at the venue. They have been given a warning that no controversy should be created by putting up posters or hoardings in the vicinity of the grounds apart from the venue as it could cause unnecessary unrest.
BJP’s Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha maintains that calling Tipu the “Tiger of Mysore” is not only wrong but factually incorrect.
“First of all, who gave him the title of Sultan? He is not a Sultan and so why glorify him? Tipu never fought a war in his life but only commissioned his army to do so. He died inside a fort and his biggest and most cruel contribution has been forced religious conversions and atrocities against the Hindus. He is a barbaric ruler who should be shunned and not unnecessarily glorified by historians and politicians,” he told News18.
Popular historian and author Vikram Sampath believes that Tipu Sultan’s relevance to Karnataka’s landscape will be as he is made to be relevant by his proponents and opponents because he is a character of the past who should just remain in the pages of history books.
“In today’s political landscape, his name is invoked by those who support and oppose him. The relevance then gets dragged in for obvious reasons. There is nothing to take away from the fact that Tipu was a brave warrior, but the social report card of the person is also very important when one assesses the legacy of a ruler of the past,” said Sampath.
“There are memories even today of the Mandyam Iyengars whose families were butchered, the Syrian Christians of Mangaluru, Nairs of Malabar, the Coorgis and Konkanis — all these people came up in spontaneous protest when Tipu Jayanti was announced by the then Karnataka government. I think these memories are rife in the minds of the people of Karnataka,” he added.
Back in 2016, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government announced that Tipu Sultan’s birthday celebration would be a state-sponsored event as they considered him a nationalist whose contributions to the development of the state of Mysore made him worthy of being honoured. Siddaramaiah recalled how the foundation of the KRS dam was laid during Tipu’s period, his contribution towards upgrading India’s artillery system and building the first rocket apart from developing industries, agriculture, and trade in the Mysore region.
While hearing the petitions against the celebrations of Tipu Jayanti in 2016, the Karnataka High Court questioned the logic behind celebrating the birth anniversary of the 18th-century Mysore ruler.
Chief Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee observed: “What is the logic behind celebrating Tipu Jayanti? Tipu was not a freedom fighter, but a monarch who fought the opponents to safeguard his interests.”
Four years, several protests, and innumerable legal cases later, BS Yediyurappa’s BJP government put an end to the celebrations. The BJP objected to the celebrations as they considered Tipu Sultan a bigot who during his tyrannical rule demolished numerous temples and forcibly converted several Hindus to Islam.
TIPU’S RELEVANCE IN EDUCATION
Tipu’s relevance in education was also a point of heated debate in Karnataka. The BJP-ruled state government made plans to revise school textbooks and delete chapters including the one in which Tipu Sultan is allegedly shown in a “glorified” manner.
“As a historian, I certainly do not approve of this stand of removing someone from textbooks. We cannot excise people or elements of our history, we cannot wish away our past how much we may like it or not. I think the students of Karnataka deserve to know all facets of Tipu. He is a soldier and warrior who made strategic mistakes, moving from one disaster to disaster including from the Third Mysore War to the final Mysore war which he lost. I would place his father Hyder Ali much more strategic, one who built his empire from scratch, whereas Tipu got a lot of it on a platter and he squandered it all away,” Sampath said when asked about removing him from textbooks.
Karnataka’s education minister BC Nagesh told News18 that the reference to Tipu Sultan as the “Tiger of Mysore” has been taken off; however, the content on Tipu Sultan will continue to remain in the school syllabus.
OBJECTIONS TO TIPU
The objections to Tipu Sultan are many. From being called a ruthless bigot who indulged in forced conversions, manslaughter, and forcing Persian as the administrative language instead of Kannada in his kingdom, to how his father Hyder Ali usurped power from the Mysore Wodeyar kings, the Tipu regime is seen as a tyrannical one. Historians recall instances on records of how the “religious bigot” Tipu forced the people of Kodagu (Coorg), Malabar, and Mangaluru regions to convert to Islam or face execution. Tipu has been accused of slaughtering thousands of those who opposed him.
In Kodagu, Tipu was seen as a religious bigot who seized and held people and subjected them to torture and ultimately death as he forced them to convert to Islam. A courtier and biographer in Tipu’s court detailed raids on villages in modern-day Kushalnagar, Talacauvery, and Madikeri and the number of Coorgi prisoners who were incorporated into his Mysurean army.
In Melkote, 150 km from Kodagu, the Mandyam Iyengars accuse the former ruler of executing 700 families on the day of Deepawali because they supported the Maharaja of Mysuru, the Wodeyars.
In neighbouring Kerala, it is said that in 1789, Tipu Sultan marched into Kozhikode with an army of 60,000, and destroyed the fort while massacring all those who came in the way. Historian Herman Gundert in his Kerala Pazhama says it is just not possible to describe the barbaric atrocities perpetrated by Tipu and his army on the Nairs there. He talks of how men were forcibly circumcised and converted to Islam to survive in the region. Another historian, Elankulam Kunjan Pillai described Kozhikode as the centre of Namboothiri Brahmins. Nearly 7,000 Namboodiri households were destroyed by Tipu Sultan’s army and they wreaked havoc and fear in the region.
THE OTHER SIDE OF TIPU
Tipu is credited as the “Pioneer of Rocket Technology” in India and these rockets that he innovated helped defeat the British in the Second Anglo-Mysore war of 1782. Tipu also wrote a military manual called Fathul Mujahidin which detailed the building and operation of the Mysore rockets. His “firecracker-like rockets” were projectiles using explosive chemical propellant filled in metal tubes and tied to long flagpoles. They were mounted on wheel carts used by cannons for better aim, accuracy, and range.
Known to be a good administrator like his father, Tipu also established a network of banks and cooperatives where people were encouraged to invest in a deposit that would be returned with interest or Nafa on an annual basis. He also encouraged trade between centres and would often trade products from his Mysore kingdom with traders from Europe, Karachi, West Asia, etc. An unnamed historian once recorded how Tipu was well aware that if he traded using currency, his coffers would empty quickly, and Mysore’s purchasing power would also decline, and so he encouraged barter during trade. He brought in reforms like eliminating middlemen in the collection of land revenue. He helped build key industries like silk, sugar, and sandalwood which Mysuru today is famous for apart from gold and precious metals, tobacco, iron and salt in his kingdom.
His passion to upgrade technology drove him to ask the ambassador of countries visiting his court to bring him literature and manuals on the latest technology in trade and warfare from their countries rather than gifts like jewellery and gold.
He also laid the foundations for the construction of the Krishnaraja Sagar dam in Mandya, which today is a major water source for the Mysuru and Bengaluru regions.
Prof Sheikh Ali, who was an authority on Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan and had carried out extensive research on the Mysuru kingdom during their rule had given a detailed account to this reporter on Tipu’s contribution to temples, contrary to being called a bigot. Prof Ali spoke about an annual grant that Tipu gave to 156 temples across Karnataka including the famous Sringeri Mutt which he saved from the hands of the Marathas. It is also a known fact that Tipu provided a financial grant for the reinstallation of the idol at the temple apart from generous donations to the famous temples of Srikanteshwara temple at Nanjangud, Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham in Kanchipuram, and the Lakshmikantha temple at Kalale.
Prof Muzaffar Assadi, political analyst and chairperson, departments of political science and public administration at Mysore University, says that Tipu has been used in politics to play one against the other.
“One group portrays him as a progressive thinker who was anti-British or anti-colonial. The second important counterposing group is the BJP or the Hindutva groups which is using the meters of the conversion or pillage for political means. In the middle of all this, Tipu has been reduced to a particular community and communal politics is being played on it. This has been the tragedy of this political fight,” Prof Assadi told News18. “Tipu was a man who ruled for 16 years, but now he is a contemporary problem for which he is imagined and feared. He has become an icon who has been reproduced either as a destroyer or a progressive ruler.”
Tipu was born in a fort in Devanahalli on the outskirts of modern-day Bengaluru. A stone tablet placed in Devanahalli marks his birthplace, which is called Khas Bagh. His descendants say that his contribution as an innovator and administrator cannot be erased.
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