Tipu Jayanti - voices against ’Tiger of Mysore’ grow louder

Bangalore Mirror

Bengaluru, 03 Nov 2016: As the debate on celebrating ‘Tipu Jayanti’ on November 10 gets more urgent, intellectuals want to know why the government should impose a hero on the state. The Siddaramaiah government is all set to celebrate the 18th Century ruler of Mysore for the second time, but many still find the idea politically motivated, and wasteful.

 

Noted historian Ramachandra Guha, clearly doesn’t see the need for it. “In my opinion, Tipu Jayanti shouldn’t be backed by the state government. I have no issues if an individual or a group celebrates it, but in India, which is a democracy, there shouldn’t be celebration of a monarch or for that matter any kind of feudal lord. If the government has to celebrate, it should be the democrats who have had their share of contribution for the nation as we see it today.”

 

Writer Gauri Lankesh minces no words when she calls it a “vote bank gimmick”. She says no government has any business organising jayantis of any kind. “It’s a political game to appeal to communities. I fear that such vote bank gimmicks will only lead to more violence by pitting communities against one another. From Kodagu, the violence might spread to other places too. Putting people’s lives at risk for larger political gain is not done. As much as I respect Basavanna or Tipu, I think jayantis of all kinds are unnecessary. People who want to celebrate them can do so anyway,” she says.

Popular writer Shashi Deshpande also says he sees no reason in celebrating Tipu Jayanti. “History is reinterpreted over and over again; so it’s better to just leave him in peace. Let us learn about him, but a celebration of this kind is a waste of money; just politically motivated, done with an eye on the vote bank. Instead, collect money and build some schools in Kashmir. This is a waste of time, we don’t need it,” he says.

 

The latest to join the opposition is tech czar and member of the state government’s Vision Group Mohandas Pai. Taking a dig at the government’s decision, Pai on Tuesday said that the move is like celebrating the anniversary of Mughal emperor Aurangazeb—“a tyrant and staunch religious fundamentalist.”

 

Even though the opposition BJP and a few Christian community members have strongly criticised the celebrations, Padma Shri award-winner Pai’s opposition has come as a surprise to many. Slamming the government for playing politics with events such as Tipu Jayanti, Pai challenged the government to celebrate anniversaries of philanthropic leaders such as the Wodeyars of Mysore, Diwan of Mysore, Mirza Ismail.

 

Interacting with media persons on the sidelines of an RSS meeting on Hindu Spiritual and Service Fair in Bengaluru, Pai said: “I feel the government is playing politics. If at all they feel like celebrating anniversaries, let them celebrate Mirza Ismail, Wodeyars of Mysuru, [those] who did well for the people. The government’s duty is to rule the state as one. Not by [dividing communities] -- Coorgis, Mangalurean Christians or any other community.”

 

Pai also took a jab at the BJP over its opposition, saying: “Both BJP and Congress are playing politics. They have got their own interests [in mind]; let them do whatever they want.”

 

Pai said he feels offended that the government should celebrate the birth anniversary of a “bigot” and a “tyrant” who killed people from different communities, including his own Konkani community. “I am Konkani and I feel very offended that the government is celebrating somebody who did wrong to both the communities.”

 

Pai, who is also a member of the government’s Vision Group on Tourism Policy, alleged that Tipu Sultan killed Coorgis and Christians living in Kodagu, Kerala, besides destroying Konkani temples on the Kerala-Karnataka border.

 

“The Coorgis still have angst against him. In Mangaluru, Catholics are angry because more than 25,000 of them were put in dungeons,” he said. Last year, there were widespread protests across the state, in which two people had died. This year, Chitradurga district too has joined the protests. Citizens and activists in Chitradurga have called for mega protest rally on Wednesday. According to activists, Tipu along with his father Hyder Ali attacked Chitradurga and cunningly defeated Madakari Naika, chieftain of Chitradurga. The valorous warrior Obavva, fought against Tipu’s army by holding just a pestle. And, so, hundreds of women will stage the protest in Chitradurga, wielding a pestle.

 

Meanwhile, the BJP will hold a statewide protest on November 8. Robert Rosario, member of the United Christian Association, said: “We will be observing Tipu Jayanti as a black day. A protest will be taken out. We have also written to the bishop to make an announcement about the protest, so that the public gets to know about the event through churches.”

 

BU’s history professor Shadaksharai-ah says: “It is my duty to tell children about the rulers who made India what it is. He was not just the ‘Tiger of Mysore’, but very much a part of the state and the entire country. He was known for his bravery in the wars against the British East India Company. He was regarded as the first freedom fighter of India for his fierce battles against the British who tried to conquer the territories under the sultan’s rule.”

 

Between 1761 and 1799, Hyder Ali and Tipu ruled the Mysore state. After Hyder Ali died, Tipu took over the throne. While Hyder Ali called himself a representative of Mysore state, Tipu called himself a ruler. This new ruler, who had already fought two wars… knew that British forces were a threat to the independent Kingdom of Mysore. He, therefore, focused more on military advances, especially Mysorean rockets which were successfully used by his father in the Second Anglo-Mysore War. Later on, third and fourth Anglo-Mysore war. During the fourth Anglo-Mysore war, Tipu Sultan died defending his capital on 4 May 1799.

 

According to Professor Chandan Gowda of Azim Premji University, for much of the 20th Century, most people in Karnataka saw Tipu as the ‘Tiger of Mysore’ or encountered delightful stories of how he called Nanjundeshwara, the deity of Srikanteshwara Temple in Nanjangud, ‘Hakim Nanjunda’ for curing his favourite elephant of an eye disease. Schoolchildren learnt about his bravery against the British. Even the 1979-comic book on Tipu Sultan in the ‘Amar Chitra Katha’ saw him as a brave Indian patriot, not a religious bigot.

 

“Even the booklet on Tipu published by RSS in the late 70s, in its ‘Bharata Bharati’ series, praises his heroic personality,” said Gowda.

 

“A recent thesis by Michael Soracoe, a doctoral student in history at the University of Maryland, USA, shows in detail how absolutely central the vilification of Tipu Sultan was for Britain to see itself as an imperial power in India. The large body of phobic material on Tipu that English officials, writers, painters, and cartoonists created in the last two decades of the 18th Century, i.e. when Tipu challenged the English in successive military combat, cast him as a Muslim fanatic who shattered Hindu temples and converted local Hindus and Christians into Muslims.

 

“He was so ruthless, in these accounts, that it appeared only proper for the British to take over Mysore and save his subjects. This new sense of imperial purpose replaced the earlier image of the East India Company officials, like Robert Clive and Warren Hastings, as corrupt and degenerate and not worthy of embarking on political rule in India. Tipu continued to evoke images of cruelty and villainy in English writings all through the 19th Century. And, as we have seen, these images have recently found ready consumers among the right-wing Hindu activists,” he said.