Tipu a misunderstood patriot: Historians

In the town of Kombai at the foothills of the Western Ghats in Theni district, it is common to see Muslim women taking part in temple festivals during which men from the community are honoured. The presiding deity of the main temple is Lord Ranganathar, but what's unusual about it is that the idol was sent by Tipu Sultan from Srirangapatna in present-day Karnataka.
“When Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan were invading the south, the zamindars of Kombai, who are Kannada-speaking Vokkaligas, presented Tipu with Combai dogs for their army,” says S Anwar, a documentary filmmaker with an interest in history. The dogs, known for their ferocity, were trained to rip the hamstrings of enemy horses. To show his gratitude, Tipu sent the town an idol of Ranganathaswamy .
“These are the stories both sides forget when they argue over whether Tipu was a patriot or a tyrant and say he hated other religions,” says Anwar. “In St Mary's Church in Fort St George, a British plaque mentions Tipu's kindness to Christian fathers.”
A little more than six months after Tipu Sultan was in the midst of a storm over the Karnataka government wanting to mark his birthday, the 18th century ruler is in the news again this time with Tamil actor Rajinikanth for company. Kannada producer and Bidar South MLA Ashok Kheny said he'd like to see Rajinikanth play Tipu Sultan in his film. BJP and other parties have warned the superstar against taking the role as Tipu was “anti-Tamil“ and any film glorifying him would be “a distortion of history“.
Tipu and his father Hyder Ali's raids on present-day TN and the British holdings there were numerous -they attacked as well as launched strikes from North Arcot, Ambur, Tiruvannamalai, Dindigul, Salem, Erode, Coimbatore, Thanjavur and other parts during the four Anglo-Mysore Wars against the British in the late 1700s.
During the First Anglo-Mysore War (1767-69) Hyder Ali reached the gates of Madras and withdrew after signing a treaty with the British. At its peak, Tipu's kingdom included large parts of western Tamil Nadu. The Nawabs of Arcot allied with the British as did the Travancore kings against Tipu.
One of Tipu's biggest victories against the British came in September 1780, at the Battle of Pollilur, near Kancheepuram, during the Second Anglo Mysore War. Tipu, known for adapting Chinese fireworks technology to create the world's first weaponised rockets, launched them at the East India Company army led by William Baillie.
The British had never seen rockets with iron tubes holding the propellant that travelled as far as 2km. The barrage of rockets set fire to the Company's ammunition to the Company's ammu dumps and the British suffered one of their worst defeats in India.
“Tipu's war was against the British, and the Nawabs and Marathas who supported them,” says R Venkataramanujam, assistant professor of history at Madras Christian College.
“He captured enemy soldiers, sent them to Srirangapatna, converted them to Islam and inducted them into his infantry. It was cruel, but it was the practice followed by many rulers and it was his standard procedure whether he was dealing with Tamils, Kodavas from Coorg, Mangalore and Malabar Christians, or British soldiers,” he says.
Historians say Tipu's actions have to be viewed in the context of war, and not language, religion and region. “Tipu's aim was to gain power,” explains T Satyamoorthy , former ASI archaeologist and founder president of heritage conservation group Reach Foundation.
“His actions are now interpreted as a fight against Tamils but it was purely a fight for power and land against the British.“ This is not a view that all historians hold, however. “Tipu was not a benevolent, secular ruler,“ says Bengaluru-based historian Chidananda Murthy . “In Mysore, for instance, he replaced Kannada with Persian as the administrative language. That is an example of how he enforced his views of Islam.“
However, records show that Tipu patronised hundreds of temples within his territory .“A series of 28 letters between Tipu and the Sringeri mutt head prove that the Marathas plundered the mutt after the third Anglo-Mysore War and it was Tipu who paid for its restoration,“ says Venkataramanujam.
But, Tipu is always likely to stir up passions and make people take extreme positions. “This is one of the problems of inheriting your history from Westerners,“ says Anwar, who has made an award-winning film on the unique Tamil Muslim heritage. “Tipu was a stumbling block to the British so they painted him as a villain. We continue to carry this disservice to our past into our future.”
(With inputs from SunithaRao)