Things in Karnataka turned
ugly when a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activist named DS Kuttappa was
allegedly killed in Madikeri, after clashes broke out over the birth
anniversary celebrations of 18th century Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan. According to
the police, Kuttappa suffered head injuries and died on the spot.
The
violence erupted after the ruling congress government
in the state announced statewide celebrations for Tipu Jayanti for the
first time, which were boycotted by the BJP and their ideological
brethren, who see Sultan as a religious bigot. However, Karnataka CM
Siddaramaiah defended the move, saying Tipu was a secular leader. “Tipu Sultan
was a secular ruler. He was a model king in the entire country. A section of
people criticise him out of prejudice,” he said.
Tipu
Sultan’s actions in history are up for debate, and it’s impossible to place him
into comfortable modern brackets like whether he is secular or communal.
Tipu’s very name has become contentious for two
reasons: first, his controversial steps in dealing with different communities
and people who rose against him. Second, different perspectives through which
history was constructed and his image built.
Colonial historians have projected Tipu as a
“religious bigot”, who was instrumental in killing and converting to Islam
thousands of Nayars of Kerala, Catholics of Dakshina Kannada and Coorgis of
Kodagu. Even Kannada chauvinists have projected him as anti-Kannadiga as he was
instrumental in changing the local names of places and introducing Persian
vocabulary into administration. Marxist historians, on the other hand, have
viewed him as “one of the foremost commanders of independence struggle” and a
“harbinger of new productive forces”.
History is unkind to Tipu Sultan. The fact is that
Tipu cannot be reduced to a singular narrative or tradition of intolerance or
bigotry as he represented multiple traditions. He combined tolerant
inter-religious traditions, liberal and secular traditions, anti-colonialism
and internationalism. He could do this as he had strong roots in Sufism, which
is not explored much by historians. He belonged to the Chisti/Bande Nawaz
tradition of Sufism.
In fact, Tipu was radical in more than one sense.
He was the first to ban consumption of alcohol in the entire State, not on
religious grounds, but on moral and health grounds. He went to the extent of
saying: “A total prohibition is very near to my heart.” He is credited with
introducing missile or rocket technology in war. He was the first to introduce
sericulture to the then Mysore state. He was the first to confiscate the
property of upper castes, including Mutts, and distribute it among the Shudras.
He is also credited with sowing the seeds of capitalist development at a time
when the country was completely feudal. He thought about constructing a dam
across the Cauvery in the present-day location of Krishnaraja Sagar. He
completed the task of establishing a biodiversity garden named Lal Bagh.
Apart
from these the Editor of Mysore Gazetteer Prof. Srikantaiah has listed 156
temples to which Tipu regularly paid annual grants. There is such evidence as
grant deeds, and correspondence between his court and temples, and his having
donated jewellery and deeded land grants to several temples.. Between 1782 and
1799 Tipu Sultan issued 34 “Sanads” (deeds) of endowment to temples in his
domain, while also presenting many of them with gifts of silver and gold plate.
The Srikanteswara Temple in Nanjangud still possesses a jewelled cup presented
by the Sultan. He also gave a greenish linga; to Ranganatha temple at
Srirangapatnam and donated seven silver cups and a silver camphor burner. This
temple was hardly a stone’s throw from his palace from where he would listen
with equal respect to the ringing of temple bells and the muezzin’s call from
the mosque; To the Lakshmikanta Temple at Kalale he gifted four cups, a plate
and spitoon in silver.
Why
was Tipu, a staunch secular king, later demonised and branded as communal?
Obviously because he fought against the British to the last. It is British
historians and their faithful Indian followers who have done this mischief.Communalism
was injected into our body politic by the British policy of divide and rule,
after suppressing the Great Mutiny of 1857 in which Hindus and Muslims jointly
fought against the British.
It
is time we re-write our history books correctly and show that in fact upto 1857
there was no communal problem at all in India.
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