Some sections in Karnataka, especially in Kodagu, are incensed at the celebration of Tipu Jayanthi on November 10. Two lives have already been lost in the disturbances. Death threats have been hurled at literary icon Girish Karnad. How do we look at Tipu whose repeated invasions of Kerala caused many more upheavals than in the old Mysore state?
One reason why such adverse conclusions are now being drawn is because war strategies prevalent in the 18th century are being re-interpreted against current human rights norms. Noted military historian Caleb Carr has analysed the war strategies that have evolved through human history, in particular, the “Absolute Wars” immortalised through von Clausewitz’s writings.
We will be shocked to know that the British colonial army indulged in untold excesses in 1812-14, following the “Absolute War” concept when America was struggling for its independence: “The British assaults were astoundingly savage; women and children were mutilated and murdered along with civilian men and soldiers in a deliberate attempt to break the American people’s will to fight.” The conclusion is that we now consider those wars abhorrent, which the leaders practiced in the past.
Kerala Campaigns
What is also forgotten in this controversy is that Tipu merely followed the strategy of his father Hyder Ali, who successfully attacked Kerala five times between 1756 and 1782. He had attacked the present state of Kerala thrice between 1783 and 1790. His military tactics were exactly identical to his father.
Tipu ruled Mysore and parts of South India from 1782 to 1799. Like Hyder, Tipu was also invited to interfere in the Kerala region by feuding local rulers who wanted his help to stave off the other marauding chieftains, in particular, the expansionist Zamorin of Kozhikode.
Both Hyder and Tipu were also embroiled in the expansionist rivalries of the English, Dutch and Portuguese trade cartels. Although Tipu’s 1790 Kerala campaign was very successful and he could capture areas till Kodungallur, he had to retreat when British troops started marching towards his capital Srirangapattanam.
Tipu Spared Temples
Prima facie the charge that father and son were religious bigots does not stand. Historian A Sreedhara Menon says that Hindus like Anand Rao, Srinivas Rao and Madanna were Hyder’s trusted emissaries and governors in the region of Kerala since 1864. Menon also says that upper castes who were then dominating Kerala were forced to flee when the Mysore invaders came.
Hyder and Tipu showed scant respect for these high castes and even took steps to deprive them of their time honoured privileges.A Sreedhara Menon
Their troops tried to take refuge in temples as, in the past Hindu invaders never attacked religious shrines. But Tipu decided not to follow that practice and decided to flush them out of the temples by using force.
It is Menon’s contention that it was not a religious bias which made him do forcible conversions.
Only a few prisoners of war were converted to Islam as a punishment for opposing Mysorean authority.A Sreedhara Menon
He does not deny the possibility of Mysorean troops looting some temples where enemy soldiers hid, but also points out that Tipu made endowments of land and cash to famous temples in Guruvayur and Tiruvanchikulam.
A similar assessment was also recorded by famous historian RC Majumdar who denies that Tipu resorted to wholesale conversions but “forced it only on those recalcitrant Hindus on whose allegiance he could not rely.” He quotes Major Alexander Dirom, Deputy Adjutant General of British forces in India who had participated in the 1792 war against Tipu:
His cruelties were in general inflicted only on those whom he considered as his enemies.Major Alexander Dirom
An Able Administrator
Tipu was an able administrator in Kerala. A system of land tax based on actual produce was introduced. This was directly collected by the government and not through absentee landlords who were sidelined. He was also a master builder of roads. Menon quotes Colonel A Dow, later the Chief Magistrate of Malabar, that the condition of roads in 1796 was excellent.
Besides, Tipu prevented the European trading companies from exploiting local cultivators by manipulating prices of agricultural commodities. The prices of spices were fixed by the state.
(The writer is a former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, and also member of the high-level committee which inquired into the police performance during 26/11 Mumbai.)
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