TRUTH ABOUT TIPU SULTAN
(by Ved Pal, IRSE, FIE, FIPWE, former Chief Administrative Officer, Ministry of Rlys, Govt of India)
Introduction: Tipu is eulogised as a great patriot and hailed by some as ‘Shere Mysore’. Official Leftist historians have been painting Tipu Sultan as a great Indian King, saviour of India and a freedom fighter. Some Political parties are vouching for that. But was he a patriot? How he became Sultan of Mysore? Which dynasty he belonged to? The so called historians remain silent. Let us try to understand the facts and truth.
Background of Tipu: Tipu’s father Hyder Ali was an illiterate Sepoy in Nizam’s Army (Nizam of Hyderabad at that time was Asaf Jah II, Mir Nizam Ali Khan). By 1755 Hyder became a Fauzdar of 3000 strong infantry. In 1757 he was sent to assist reorganisation of Mysore Army where impressed by his organisational skills Krishnaraja Wodiyar II, the king of Mysore, gave him title of Fath Hyder Bahadur and made him Commander in Chief of Mysore Army. In 1761 Hyder, the ungrateful army chief, virtually overthrew his own King Krishnaraja Wodiyar II and got proclaimed himself as Sultan Heder Ali Khan in his correspondence with Mugal Emperor Shah Alam II.
Tipu’s Advent: Hyder Ali died on 6 December 1782 and Tipu became the ruler of Mysore on 22 December 1782. On 29 December 1782, Tipu crowned himself Badshah or Emperor of Mysore with the title Nawab Tipu Sultan Bahadur. Tipu fought a number of wars with Marathas, some he won and others lost, and a unsuccessful war with King of Travancore, Kartika Thirunal Rama Varma I (Dharam Raj) that he lost as Britishers came to help Rama Varma as Britishers had had recognised Rama Varma as king. But ultimately Tipu couldn’t succeed in gaining any territory, albeit he caused destruction of number of temples and loss of large number of lives.
Massacre of Hindus, Forced Conversion and Destruction of Temples: Tipu’s 17 year long regime was a tenure of military and economic terror for Hindus. He attacked Malabar, Kodagu (Coorg), Calicut, Kozhikode, Cochin etc and wiped out entire population of Hindus, who refused to convert. Here is a testimony from the horse’s mouth. Regarding his massacre and conversions in Malabar in 1788, Tipu Sultan in letters to Syed Abdul Dulai and his officer Budruz Zaman Khan respectively, gloated thus:
“With the grace of Prophet Mohammed and Allah, almost all Hindus in Calicut are converted to Islam. Only on the borders of Cochin State a few are still not converted. I am determined to convert them also very soon. I consider this as Jehad to achieve that object. Your two letters, with the enclosed memorandums of the Naimar (or Nair) captives, have been received. You did right in ordering a hundred and thirty-five of them to be circumcised, and in putting eleven of the youngest of these into the Usud Ilhye band (or class) and the remaining ninety-four into the Ahmedy Troop. have achieved a great victory recently in Malabar and over four lakh Hindus were converted to Islam.”
Another description about excesses in the Malabar is available in William Logan’s Malabar Manual, the Malabar Gazetter by the Portuguese missionary Fr. Bartholomew. An excerpt from Bartholomew provides us a representative glimpse:
“First a corps of 30,000 barbarians who butchered everybody on the way... followed by the field-gun unit... Tipu was riding on an elephant behind which another army of 30,000 soldiers followed. Most of the men and women were hanged in Calicut, first mothers were hanged with their children tied to necks of mothers. That barbarian Tipu Sultan tied the naked Christians and Hindus to the legs of elephants and made the elephants to move around till the bodies of the helpless victims were torn to pieces. Temples and churches were ordered to be burned down, desecrated and destroyed. Christian and Hindu women were forced to marry Mohammadans and similarly their men were forced to marry Mohammadan women.Those Christians who refused to be honoured with Islam, were ordered to be killed by hanging immediately. These atrocities were told to me by the victims of Tipu Sultan who escaped from the clutches of his army and reached Varappuzha, which is the centre of Carmichael Christian Mission.”
Gory Tale of Destruction of Guruvayur Temple: There are many misdeeds to credit of Hyder and Tipu. Let me elaborate one of those. Hyder had a dream, not just an ordinary dream but a gory one. By 1765, he had become the Nawab of Mysore. He wanted to be the Indian version of Muhammad of Ghazni. He wanted to be a Ghazi and a Butshikan (Iconoclast). His dream was to raze the grand Guruvayur temple of Kerala down to dust. He had done that to many temples but Guruvayur was special. It was the most popular pilgrimage center of Southern India in those days and hence the special attraction.
Hyder Ali attacked Kozhikode and Guruvayur in 1766. The local rulers and temple administrators approached him with an offer he couldn't have refused. A ransom of 10,000 Fanams (silver coins) to spare the temple. Hyder Ali needed the money to continue his wars. Hence he took the money and left. When Hyder was on his deathbed in December 1782, he told Tipu about his unfulfilled dream. Tipu promised to make his father's dream a reality.
In the summer of 1789, Tipu raided Kozhikode and Guruvayur. It was all too easy for him. His army torched whole town and tortured caretakers of the temple. Corridors and outer Gopurams of the temple were razed down by Tipu’s soldiers. As a parting gift, Tippu set the temple sanctum sanctorum and remaining structures on fire before his army left.
Thus Tipu thought that he had finally fulfilled the dream of his father. But unfortunately for Tipu and his father, a sudden and unseasonal torrential rain put the fire out and core of the temple survived. The scared Hindus had smuggled the Deity of Guruvayurappan out to a secret location and buried it to prevent the deity getting defiled and destroyed by Tippu and his Army.
For over 3 years, Guruvayurappan (the deity of the Guruvayur temple) remained hidden because of constant threat from Tipu. In February 1792, the Travancore army and British allied forces vanquished Tipu and he was forced to sign a treaty with British in March 1792. Perhaps Tipu’s efforts to realize his father's dream lead to a catastrophe for him and his family. As part of the treaty with British, he had to pay them 3.3 Crore Rupees and part with half of his kingdom. The British took two of his sons as guarantee till Tipu executed all the conditions in the treaty. Punar-Pratishthan of Guruvayurappan was done on 17th September 1792.
Death of Tipu: Tippu died in a stampede in a dormitory of his slaves on 4th May 1799 during 4th Anglo-Mysore War fighting combined forces of East India Company, Hyderabad Deccan and some Marathas. After death of Tipu, Wadiyar dynasty was restored in Mysore (with a British commissioner to advise the King on all issues) that continued to rule Mysore state till 1950.
Conclusion: Tipu became ruler of Mysore because of his father Hyder Ali’s ungratefulness towards his own king, who made Hyder as military chief. Like his father Tipu was an iconoclast who destroyed temples and massacred Hindus on refusal to convert. Tipu was killed during 4th Anglo-Mysore war and rule of Wodiyars was restored in Mysore.
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