Tippu Sultan: An Analysis as to whether he was a Secularist
On 10th Novemeber the Karnataka Government is to celebrate the birthday of Tippu Sultan and highlight his secular nature. To my mind this is a political ploy by the ruling Congress government and this action can be summed up in one word namely "politics".
Despite what the RSS or the Congress say, the question that must be answered is ; Was Tippu Sultan a secularist? Did he treat his Hindu subjects equally vis a vis the Muslims in his court and realm? it is the job of the disspassionate historian to present the evidence for the people to decide.
Many apologists for Tippu point out that TIppu gave grants to some Hindu temples. Very true, but so did Aurangzeb, yet no one says that Aurangzeb was a secular character. Mind you the entire army and the main generals of Aurangzeb were Rajputs, yet by no stretch of imagination can Aurangzeb be classified as a secularist.His most famous general was Raja Jai Singh, who was a Hindu Rajput and he was the man who even defeated Shivaji. Despite this Aurangzeb is known as the breaker of Hindu idols and destroyer of temples.
Tippu Sultan ruled over a much smaller area and also he has escaped attention as compared to Aurangzeb, he was a pygmy. Yet, we must analyse his rule to see the true nature of this ruler of Mysore state in Southern India.
A fact that cannot be denied is that Hindus were worse off under Tippu Sultan. The famous Coorg writer and historian CF Belliappa says that Tippu was a treacherous tyrant. How does such a famous historian who wrote many historical books form this opinion.? Historical facts are available that Coorg was the direct reciepent of the tyranny of Tippu Sultan. This area at that time was ruled by the Haleri dynasty. Coorg was invaded by Tippu who called for destruction of all temples and churches. He also instructed his troops to kill the 'infidels' or convert them to Islam.
Most of the evidence of the atrocities of Tippu comes from the court records of Tippu Sultan himself. Tippu's biographer and courtier Mir Hussain Kirmani notes with glee that Tippu destroyed the temples of the "infidels" . He also mentions how 8000 Hindus were captured and taken to Mysore and forcibly circumcised as well made to eat beef. In a letter to the Nawab of Kurnool, Tippu says that he took 40,000 Coorgs as prisoner and forcibly converted them to Islam.
His actions in the Malabar region were worse. All this is documented by Father Bartholomew in his book " Voyage to East Indies". He records that children were killed by the army of Tippu and their bodies hung around the neck of their mothers. He also tied naked Hindus and Christians to elephants and the elephants were made to move about till their bodies were crushed. He brought in the Arabic system of measurement and replaced the court language of Kannada with Farsi.
The biggest piece of evidence is almost 2000 letters which were discovered by the British and are available in the Archives. These letters are in Tippu's handwriting and in them he frequently refers to Hindus as Kafirs. He also opines that Christians need to be civilised and converted to Islam. He calls for spread of Islam in his realm.
The Hindus and Christians were thus waiting for the overthrow of Tippu Sultan and they sided with the English. The tyranny of Tippu was ended by the English who stormed his fortress and killed him. Lastly I will point out that in Pakistan Tippu is regarded as a hero and ships of teh Pakistan Navy are named after him.
I just fail to understand how Tippu was a secularist. We cannot just keep parroting and falsefying history in the name of secularism. Its about time right thinking people highlighted the facts. This is not the monoply of only the RSS, but of every Indian
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