Tipu Sultan Jayanthi, a joke of the first order

When I first heard that Karnataka had plans to celebrate Tipu Sultan Jayanthi it seemed like a bad joke. It did not sound like a joke after hearing that the state government had every intention of fulfilling this ridiculous agenda of reviving a tyrant. Having been born and educated in Bangalore, history and local talk has always taught us what a despot this Tipu chap once was, never did I hear anyone sing anthems in his praise irrespective of what their religious affiliations were. It was the gospel truth that this man plundered and looted the state and surrounding states to satiate his gormandizing traits. Tipu Sultan was evil, he was no saint and neither did he have an ounce of largess in him that now certain people have suddenly discovered.

God knows what has gotten into a sleeping Siddy to wake up suddenly to this preposterous idea of turning a bigot Tipu into a state hero. The government of Pakistan has displayed its admiration by naming a ship in their navy after Tipu. Is this the motivation behind Siddy and his think tank and pseudo intellectuals like Girish Karnad who is tempted to rename Bangalore’s International airport after Tipu, which is now aptly named after the great Kempegowda? I would be absolutely aghast if our airport is named after a brutal murderer. The Kodavas of my state more so. Not sure if I would feel comfortable to even hear that my plane is descending into Tipu Sultan International Airport, sounds quite ominous as it is. Where would I be led to after I arrive at TSIA? Would I be beheaded or rolled off to Nandi hills and tossed down the steep Tipu’s drop where once Tipu propelled his condemned prisoners? Not a very exciting prospect to say the least.

Joke apart. Tipu had a mass conversion agenda. Not only were Hindus targeted, even the Christians were. Tipu’s persecution extended to even the British troops who were captured and circumcised, made to wear ghagra cholis and dance around in his court. In a letter to Runmust Khan, Tipu himself stated, “We proceeded with the utmost speed, and, at once, made prisoners of 40,000 occasion-seeking and sedition-exciting Coorgis, who alarmed at the approach of our victorious army, had slunk into woods, and concealed themselves in lofty mountains, inaccessible even to birds. Then carrying them away from their native country (the native place of sedition) we raised them to the honor of Islam, and incorporated them into our Ahmedy corps.”

History has well documented evidence of Tipu’s display of tyranny, persecution and cruciation of his non-Islamic subjects and prisoners alike. This discovery of his largess to Hindu temples is not surprising, especially his contributions to the Sringeri Mutt which was more strategic than anything else. It was all done with an intention of recovering a vast portion of his kingdom that had to be surrendered to the British post the 1792 treaty. Tipu had to win the majority Hindu’s over. An excerpt from Sandeep Balakrishnan’s book Tipu Sultan: The Tyrant of Mysore. If Aurangzeb was the most fanatical Muslim king who reigned on the Mughal throne in Delhi at the start of the 18th century, his counterpart who matched him in both bigotry and cruelty in South India at the close of the same century was Tipu Sultan. Aurangzeb inflicted untold atrocities on Hindus, their way of life, their traditions, and their places of worship over a long period of 50 years. However, when we recall that Tipu inflicted the same – if not greater – kind of barbarism on Hindus in just 17 years, we realize the breadth and depth of his religious zealotry. Aurangzeb had almost all of India as the playground for his fanatical cruelty – Hindus in Delhi, Agra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Kashmir, Punjab, and Haryana bore the extremities of his fanaticism. However, Tipu held sway over large parts of Karnataka, a few regions in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh. Within this comparatively small area, he managed to foist every kind of brutality imaginable in such a short span of time. His atrocities were not limited to the lives of Hindus – it was all-pervasive; it targeted their traditions, places of worship, society, and women. The British historian Lewis Rice who wrote the History of Mysore and Coorg says how in the”…vast empire of Tipu Sultan on the eve of his death, there were only two Hindu temples having daily pujas within the Srirangapattanam fortress. It is only for the satisfaction of the Brahmin astrologers who used to study his horoscope that Tipu Sultan had spared those two temples. The entire wealth of every Hindu temple was confiscated before 1790 itself mainly to make up for the revenue loss due to total prohibition in the country.”

I still fail to understand why Tipu is being suddenly paraded as a national hero? Obviously it is being done to antagonize those who are rational and create more chaos and divide amongst the largely peaceful inhabitants of the state of Karnataka. It is also about time that pro Tipu followers are made to understand that those who oppose this nonsense called Tipu Jayanthi are not anti-muslim. They would beam with pride and joy if airports and monuments of national importance zigzagging across the country are named after Abdul Kalam or even after Shah Jahan’s eldest lesser-known son , the liberal Dara Shikhoh. Let common sense prevail before we waste our time celebrating jayanthis over those who don’t deserve the commemoration. What next may be in the offing? Afzal Guru jayanthi perhaps?