Historian says all claims from right-wing brigade on Tipu ‘baseless’

P V Nanjaraj Urs said the reason the BJP govt talks ill about Tipu is to garner the Hindu vote for elections and create a divide between religions to get a mandate..

Rachana Ramesh | NT .

Bengaluru: The idea to obliterate every evidence of Tipu Sultan from official records and erase his true memory from the consciousness of people has been happening for quite a while now, however, the Sultan has survived all the efforts. The 18th century king who ruled over large parts of the area that is now Karnataka has been a target, especially since the BJP government came to power.

Former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had said that his government was considering removing all the references to Tipu Sultan from school textbooks. The state had previously also cancelled Tipu’s birth anniversary celebrations.

Indian history portrays the ruler of erstwhile Mysore as a brave heart, who fought the British and resisted the advancement of East India Company into the South until his death in the battle of Srirangapatna in 1799. However, the ruling party does not acknowledge this view but rather tarnishes it. According to their narrative, Tipu was a tyrant who persecuted his Hindu subjects.

“The ruling party says all this about him to garner the Hindu vote for elections. It is vote bank politics that is responsible for Tipu’s image to be turned around,” said P V Nanjaraj Urs, a historian and retired professor who has written many books on the Mysuru dynasty.

Providing examples of instances where Tipu brought about efforts to attain social justice, Nanjaraj said, “In regions of Malabar and Kodagu, Tipu helped the Namboothiri and Nayar women, the lower-caste women who were mandated to not cover their breasts, by passing orders to provide them with sarees.”

When upper castes protested against the move, they were told to follow the rule of law, he said. He also provided examples of how Tipu implemented certain Islamic ideals, such as prohibition on drinking alcohol and providing of loans without interest, bringing in much prosperity during his rule.

“He also provided as much as land the farmers required, empowering agriculture, while only seeking a small percentage in return to maintain the kingdom,” he said. Tipu was the first to bring rocket technology to India, which has also been acknowledged by the former president Abdul Kalam.

“When Tipu’s lifeless body was found on the battlefield, the British general said ‘Today, we have won India’. That was the kind of power he lived with,” Nanjaraj said, adding that all the claims made by right-wing sympathisers are baseless.