The tale of Tipu Sultan
The king of Mysore was a just leader and a military genius from India. However, he is also the target of the Hindu rightwing, which is determined to rewrite history and portray Muslim rulers as evil.
A nearly life-size wooden tiger mauling a European soldier, an automaton with an organ keyboard that plays a haunting melody as the soldier cries and waves for help, is one of the many kingly treasures piled up in London’s Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum. This peculiar piece is unlike anything else in the museum.
However, this wooden tiger reflects the work of an Indian military genius whose goals went far beyond his time and is much more than just a mechanical toy to be marveled at by onlookers.
Haider Ali, an illiterate soldier of fortune who rose through the ranks of the Mysorean army to take the Maharaja’s authority and declare himself Sultan in 1761, was the father of Tipu Sultan. Haider, a strong leader, used French mercenaries to aid his army in implementing European military methods, boosting their effectiveness and enabling him to expand his kingdom, which corresponds to the modern city of Mysore in the state of Karnataka.
In the second of Haider’s two wars with the British East India Company, his son Tipu showed his mettle at the Battle of Pollilur and dealt the British their worst defeat on the subcontinent. From Europe to the founding fathers of the United States, where they became well-known figures, tales of the father and son’s victories travelled the world.
After rising to the throne in 1782, Tipu quickly dispatched the British, seizing one in every five of their commanders stationed on the subcontinent. Tipu was one of only two men in South Asia to impose treaty terms on the British, who were eager to file a claim for peace.
Like his father, Tipu recognized the reasons and mechanisms for why the West had made greater strides than the East. Topped off with immense ambition, Tipu continued building on his father’s achievements by emulating the European system of government despite inheriting a sizable 80,000 square mile kingdom, six million subjects, and the best military in the area. He viewed his role as Sarkar-i- Khudadad (God-given), and it was his duty to make his people’s lives better. And he achieved great success.
From chief trader to commander-in-chief, Tipu Sultan wore multiple hats while personally overseeing each division of his government. Tipu boosted the economy of Mysore by importing silkworms and pearl divers, establishing over a dozen factories from Mysore to Jeddah, and producing everything from armaments to cutlery to candy to gunpowder with quality surpassing even the English. Tipu recognized that manufacturing and trade made European economies superior.
In one fell sweep, Tipu’s efficient governance increased land cultivation, reduced hereditary land holdings, and reduced densely crowded cities. Mysore “was the best cultivated and its populace the most flourishing in India,” the English couldn’t help but remark in admiration.
Mysore was an outlier—a prosperous state—when compared to his native contemporaries, the Marathas, and weakened Mughals (now British pensioners).
Tipu was a great patron of the arts, commissioning architectural marvels and luring scholars and poets to court. He was well-read and brilliant, and he possessed a library filled with hundreds of books, including two he had authored on dreams and astrology. The tiger served as the focal point of his control, and he made it the symbol of his authority by stamping tigers on everything from weaponry and clothing to a solid gold throne.
Tipu, a particularly pious Muslim who ruled over a sizable population of Hindu people, was very tolerant of all religions. He gave minorities entire freedom of worship, appointed Hindus to important positions, and gave expensive gifts and land concessions to temples.
Tipu sent diplomatic missions to various kingdoms as his isolation from jealous neighbors grew. He received legal investiture from the Ottoman Empire to rule in the Caliph’s name, and from France, he received engineers and craftsmen to help him build his industries and armies. However, due to their own internal conflicts, neither of these nations could give him the military alliance he so desperately needed.
Tipu’s performance on the battlefield was similarly noteworthy. A pioneer in rocketry, he forced his two near neighbors, the Marathas and the troops of Hyderabad, to request peace in 1787 by repelling their alliance. He was also renowned for treating his prisoners of war with decency.
The challenges Tipu Sultan faced were insurmountable despite his drive and exceptional intelligence. Unlike his contemporaries, the sultan recognized the British for what they were: colonizers, despite warnings that went unheeded. The British saw Tipu Sultan as their greatest threat to domination and were threatened by him.
A coalition of the Marathas, Hyderabad, and the English overpowered and defeated Tipu in 1792, capturing half of his empire and limiting his capacity to retain his armies, though Tipu was able to swiftly recover his financial losses. The English, though, had not given up on him.
They again attacked in 1798, and Tipu made his final stand at his castle in Srirangapatna, dying in battle on May 4, 1799. His army had decreased, and his officers had betrayed him after being paid by the British. Mysore developed to become a princely state while caving into the demands of its English rulers.
The news of Tipu’s death was celebrated in Britain, and when his wealth was sent back to India, it became the stuff of mythology, inspiring authors like Dickens and Keats.
Without a doubt, Tipu Sultan is the most capable leader in Asia. His passing gave the English the opportunity to rule the continent and toast “the corpse of India.”
Despite this, the Hindu right-wing BJP government, which is currently in power, has sought to erase all references to heroic Muslim figures as part of its effort to rewrite Indian history to its liking. This effort is intended to lay the groundwork for the justification of a Hindu Rashtra (nation), along with the inevitable violence against Muslims and other minorities that would follow.
As a result, Tipu Sultan’s denunciation as a Muslim king who promoted tolerance and built a prosperous state has become central to the BJP’s effort to rewrite history. It has criticized everything in his honor over the past few years on the basis that Tipu purportedly targeted Hindus while disregarding the fact that many of his own important bureaucrats were Hindus, including birthday festivities, statues, and even portraits unveiled in his likeness.
The Wodeyar dynasty was a colonial pawn of the British, which the BJP has humorously ignored by renaming a popular train the “Tipu Express” to the “Wodeyar Express” this year. The BJP has also condemned the opening of a sports complex named after Tipu in early 2022.
Aside from historical evidence refuting the BJP’s assertions, revisionism of Tipu’s legacy is a relatively new idea. Up until 2015, the BJP enthusiastically supported the Karnataka state celebrations of Tipu’s life, even commissioning a 425-page book in his honor. In 2017, Ram Nath Kovind, the BJP’s hand-picked candidate for President of India, praised Tipu as a courageous military leader and anti-colonial hero. History clearly demonstrates that the “controversy” surrounding Tipu’s legacy is merely a creation of the BJP, a pathetic effort to change history to suit its interests.
Tipu is known for being the pioneer in several fields among the Indian aristocracy. He was also the first, it would appear, to present the British with a potent foe whose few trinkets they would continue to awe at for generations.
