Tipu Sultan - The Tyrant of Mysore - Book Review

Tipu Sultan

I was a kid when Tipu Sultan serial was telecasted in Doordarshan and like many people of that generation I was under the impression that Tipu Sultan was a patriot who fought against the British for India’s Independence, but as time passed and many scholars and historians have questioned the bunkum of Marxist Historians, it became clear that Tipu Sultan was not a saint but the benefit of doubt never made me see him as a villain.

Slowly the truth about Tipu Sultan was being revealed but this was before the Internet Explosion where the truth was confined to doors of true historians but the Internet has radicalized information, the Marxist historians may still perpetuate their lies in text books but they can’t hide the truth from everyone, and ultimately the truth had to come out.

The phony glorification of Tipu Sultan was being done from a very long time and there were some tiny voices which exposed those lies but they didn't get the same attention which the fabricated works got. The first chapter of "Tipu Sultan - The Tyrant of Mysore" recollects the instance when Karnataka Higher Education Minister, D.H.Shankaramurhty somewhat instigated the most needed debate on Tipu Sultan - Girish Karnard entered the picture with his usual Marxist bile, later Girish Karnard is smashed left and right by Dr.S.L.Bhyrappa which eventually leads to Girish Karnard escaping like a rat into the hole of ‘Fact and Fiction game’ without any debate on his concocted views vs. The Truth on Tipu Sultan. This chapter encapsulates the debate which was going in Karnataka over Tipu Sultan for quite some time.

The sagacious Dr.S.L.Bhyrappa asks

"If a historian, like novelist, seeks comfort, what is the fate of the truth?"

Hyder Ali:

Hyder Ali is the father of Tipu Sultan; the author presents us the ambiguity surrounding the ancestral legacy of Hyder Ali whether he was from a royal lineage or from a humble background. The personality of Hyder Ali is lucidly explained by relying on his political moves and strategies, the way he gathered ammunition from the British and the way he looted the treasury of Nizam which helped in raising his own private army which was helpful in exploiting the fragile political situation of Mysore Kingdom and his opportunistic outlook which ultimately helped him to capture the Mysore Kingdom. There is a separate chapter dedicated to explain the incident when Tipu Sultan is flogged by his father Hyder Ali for his cowardice.

Conversions:

The father and son rule of Mysore Kingdom has seen many episodes of people forcefully getting converted to Islam, and the tragic fate of many innocent people who were averse to conversions. Tipu Sultan forcefully converted thousands of Hindus to Islam, captured prisoners were forcefully circumcised and people of his kingdom were forced to eat beef so that they are dethatched for their religion. Tipu Sultan Islamized the Coorg population by transporting 7000 muslim families and also forcefully converted 40,000 Kodavas and were made to join the Ahmadi unit of his Army and author reminds us that why street dogs in Coorg are referred as “Tipu”. Tipu Sultan also pompously said in his own words that he has converted 400000 Hindus to Islam in the Malabar region.

Dumbness and Islamic fanaticism: 

Tipu Sultan is one of the dumbest kings which we often see period-comedy films. His madness for religion has destroyed the economy, administration, armed forces and his dumbness is one of the reasons which led to his fall. Author, gives a brief description of how he changed the names of 30+ towns and cities to Islamic names. He even changed the metric system, official calendar and the currency which was used in the kingdom based on his fanatic love for religion.

Tipu Sultan destroyed 8000 temples in South India and built mosques to propagate his religion. His self flattery, sycophancy and pomposity exposed his weakness, dumbness and his Islamic fanaticism. He called Nizam as “the son of a worthless mother”, he even declared himself as the Prophet Muhammad, and claimed himself to be the Padshah(Master King), he had grand plans on paper to conquer whole of India with the help of French, he wrote letters to French (Napoleon Bonaparte) and to the Grand Caliph of Constantinople filled with pathological lies.

Barbarism:

Author gives a good description based on various sources on the barbaric acts of Tipu Sultan. Hyder Ali was a barbaric- the only place where Tipu Sultan exceeds his father is the amount and brutal acts of barbarity which he unleashed during his 17 year rule. Tipu Sultan forcefully converted lakhs of people to Islam, he forcefully circumcised prisoners, after an invasion he forcefully married women of other religions to Muhammadians, raped women and used them to please his forces, he used to torture prisoners of war, and the author quotes this one

"… There were punishments nearly equally dreadful, such as making men bestride a wooden horse on a saddle studded with sharp knives. On a spring being touched the horse of torture reared, and the spikes penetrated the unfortunate wretches. A more common mode of punishment was to bind tightly the hands and feet of condemned men, and then to attach them by a rope to the foot of an elephant, which, being urged forwards, dragged them after it on the rough ground, and painfully terminated their existence. Some again were ruthlessly thrown into the dens of tigers to be devoured."

Hyder Ali offered reward for people who delivered heads of Coorgs, he was given 700 heads. Christians who refused to convert to Islam under Tipu’s rule were hanged immediately. Tipu used to order his soldiers to display the heads of innocent Hindus who were killed in the fort so that other Hindu followers can see them. The destruction of Coorg and Malabar is neatly described in the book and even today many families recall the barbarism of Tipu Sultan on their ancestors.

Jihad against India:

Hyder Ali was not a religious fanatic but his son Tipu Sultan had grand plans to convert India into an Islamic nation, he often said that he wanted to wage “Jihad” against Hindus, he tried to persuade Muslim rulers of West Asia to attack India and he tried to get support from the French to defeat the British in India but none of them worked for him.

The barbarity, the conversions, religious fanaticism, vicious hatred for other religions and wars with British to spread Islam and capture other kingdoms are the truths of Tipu Sultan, Marxist historians have fabricated the facts, they gave a rosy picture and made him a freedom fighter, tolerant king and we were was told that he was a secular.

One should really commend the work done by Sandeep Balakrisha, the 200 pages book exposes the truth of Tipu Sultan and I can understand the hard work which went into writing the book as various sources have to be discovered, read, checked, re-checked and own writings of Tipu Sultan have to be understood. I would imagine that it was a mammoth task.

I have been reading Sandeep Balakrishna’s blog "Rediscovery of India" for quite some time and I met him once in Chennai with Arun Shoruie’s “Eminent historians” in my hand which I got it from Crossword bookstore, he said that it’s a must read- now I have "Tipu Sultan- The Tyrant of Mysore" with me and I am saying that it’s a must read, its just Rs 170. Let me end this review with a quote which even gets mentioned in the book.

"The Islamic conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history." ~ Will Durant

*****
Things have changed a lot in the last few decades, Sita Ram Goel, Koenraad Elst, Arun Shourie and others have exposed the lies of Marxist historians, now it’s a different world where we need more people like Sandeep Balakrishna who can expose such nonsense which was thrown upon Indians for half century. History should be on facts not on convictions of Marxists or Islamist sympathizers or emotional shit of Left Liberals.
*****