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Tipu Sultan

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To live like a lion for a day is far better than to live like a jackal for a hundred years.
My victorious sabre is lightning for the destruction of the unbelievers. Haidar, the Lord of the Faith, is victorious for my advantage. And, moreover, he destroyed the wicked race who were unbelievers. Praise be to him, who is the Lord of the Worlds! Thou art our Lord, support us against the people who are unbelievers. He to whom the Lord giveth victory prevails over all (mankind). Oh Lord, make him victorious, who promoteth the faith of Muhammad. Confound him, who refuseth the faith of Muhammad; and withhold us from those who are so inclined. The Lord is predominant over his own works. Victory and conquest are from the Almighty. Bring happy tidings, Oh Muhammad, to the faithful; for God is the kind protector and is the most merciful of the merciful. If God assists thee, thou wilt prosper. May the Lord God assist thee, Oh Muhammad, with mighty victory. ~ Inscription of Tipu's sword
Tipu Sultan

Sultan Fateh Ali Tipu (20 November 1750 – 4 May 1799), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the de facto ruler of the Indian Kingdom of Mysore from 1782 until his death in 1799. He was a scholar, warrior and poet. He is celebrated for his wars against the British.

Quotes

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  • To live like a lion for a day is far better than to live for a hundred years like a jackal.
    • As quoted in Encyclopedia of Asian History (1988) Vol. 4, p. 104
    • Variants:
    • It is far better to live like a lion for a day than to live like a jackal for a hundred years.
    • It is far better to live like a tiger for a day than to live like a jackal for a hundred years.
      • Variant mentioned in Tipu Sultan : A Study in Diplomacy and Confrontation (1982) by B. Sheikh Ali, p. 329
  • People who have sinned against such a holy place are sure to suffer the consequences of their misdeeds at no distant date in this Kali age in accordance with the verse: Hasadbhih kriyate karma rudadbhir-anubhuyate (People do [evil] deeds smilingly but suffer the consequences crying).
    • Tipu expressing grief against the raid on Sringeri temple and matha by a contingent of the Marathas, called the Pindaris. Quoted in Annual Report of the Mysore Archaeological Department 1916 pages 10–11 and 73–6 and History of Tipu Sultan by Mohibbul Hasan, p. 358
  • [ ….In a proclamation issued to the people in 1788 Tipu Sultan outlined his new scheme of social reform as follows:] 'From the period of the conquest until this day, during twenty-four years, you have been a turbulent and refractory people, and in the wars waged during your rainy season, you have caused number of our warriors to taste the draught of martyrdom. Be it so. What is past is past. Hereafter you must proceed in an opposite manner, dwell quietly and pay your dues like good subjects and since it is the practice with you for one woman to associate with ten men, and you leave your mothers and sisters unconstrained in their obscene practices, and are thence all born in adultery, and are more shameless in your connections than the beasts of the fields: I hereby require you to forsake these sinful practices and be like the rest of mankind; and if you are disobedient to these commands, I have made repeated vows to honour the whole of you with Islam and to march all the chief persons to the seat of Government.'
    • Kerala District Gazetteer, quoted in IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY Writ Petition No. 5435 of 1989, in : Tipu Sultan - Villain or Hero (1993) Also in TW Arnold, Preaching of Islam p. 261 ff. and in Titus: Islam in India and Pakistan
  • To begin the so much desired work of the conversion of the Hindoos and to seize on the Brahmins, ... and make them examples to the other inferior castes, in becoming Mussulmans, by suffering circumcision and being compelled to eat beef: accordingly many Brahmins were seized in or about the month of July 1788...
    • Frenz M. From contact to conquest contact 2003, in Jain, M. (2010). Parallel pathways: Essays on Hindu-Muslim relations, 1707-1857. 66

From Tipu Sultan's Decrees

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  • Looting a conquered enemy enriches a few, impoverishes the nation and dishonors the entire army. Wars must be linked to battlefields. Do not carry them to innocent civilians. Honor their women, respect their religion, and protect their children and the infirm
  • Agriculture is the lifeblood of the nation. This land, rich and fertile, will reward those that work on it. Famine and want are either the result of sloth and ignorance or of corruption. The 127 Regulations of this Revenue Code are intended for your immediate implementation. In particular, your urgent attention is drawn to the provisions which relate to cash advances to needy peasants for buying ploughs, steps for taking over derelict land and protection to the cultivator and his descendants. Non-traditional crops must be specially encouraged and the formula for tax concessions to those who grow crops such as sugar cane, beetle and coconut must be brought into effect without delay. Also essential it is to encourage the planting of valuable trees-mangoes and the like-at the rate of 200 per village
  • I have given detailed instructions for the establishment of silk industry in Mysore. Silk worms and men well versed in the art of rearing them have already arrived from foreign lands to train our people. Eighteen centres have been set up for development of the industry. Many more are needed. Every encouragement is being given to plantation of mulberry trees. I would like you to take direct interest in this developmental activity. My goal is clear: I want Mysore to be the foremost amongst silk producing nations.
  • A pearl fishery is being established on the Malabar coast. Expert pearl divers are coming to Mysore from foreign lands. They will be with us for a short while until our own people can be trained. Believe me, there is glitter and romance in those pearls—and there is wealth and profit in them. Government is prepared to subsidise your training the youth in this field of work. You will also be assisted in case you suffer any financial losses in the pioneering years. Can I count on your cooperation?
  • The temples are under your management; you are therefore to see that offering to the gods and the temple illumination are duly regulated, as directed out of government grants.
  • [It appears that circular orders for the conversion of the Hindus were issued to all the different detachments of his troops. The original of one of these orders found in the records of Palglmut fort, after its capture in 1790, ran as follows : — ] “It directed (all military detachments) that every being in the district, without distinction, should he honored with Islam, that the houses of such as fled to avoid that honor should be burned, that they should be traced to their lurking places, and that all means of truth and falsehood, fraud or force, should be employed to effect their universal conversion.”—
    • Circular/Order sent to various army contingents by Tipu, it was found among the records from Palghat Fort, after its capture by the English Company in 1790.
    • Malabar Manual by William Logan, quoting Wilks, Historical sketches.[1] Quoted in Ravi Varma, " Tipu Sultan: As Known In Kerala" in Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993). Also quoted in TW ARNOLD, Preaching of Islam p 261 ff . and in Titus: Islam in India and Pakistan
  • If any person, whether before or after marriage, shall keep a prostitute or a female-slave, you shall, after ascertaining the fact, take the slave for the Government,' and, if any person objects to it, he will be punishable
    • Circular of Tipu Sultan to local administrators, quoted by K.N.V. Sastri, in his essay Moral Laws under Tipu Sultan, in The Proceedings Of The Indian History Congress 6th Session, 1943
  • In the whole of the territories of the Balaghat (i.e., in the country below the ghats) most of the Hindu women go about with their breasts and heads uncovered. This is animal-like. No one of these women should hereafter go out without a fuller robe and a veil.
    • Circular of Tipu Sultan to local administrators, quoted by K.N.V. Sastri, in his essay Moral Laws under Tipu Sultan, in The Proceedings Of The Indian History Congress 6th Session, 1943

From Tipu Sultan's letters

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  • Over 12,000 Hindus were 'honoured' with Islam. There were many Namboodiris (Brahmins) among them. This achievement should be widely publicised among the Hindus. There the local Hindus should be brought before you and then converted to Islam. No Namboodiri (Brahmin) should be spared. Also they should be confined there till the dress materials sent for them, reach you.
    • Tipu Sultan's Letter dated March 22, 1788, to Abdul Kadir. cited in Bhasha Poshini of Chingam 10, 1099 (August, 1923), Article on Tipu Sultan by Sardar K.M. Panicker. Also quoted in Ravi Varma, " Tipu Sultan: As Known In Kerala" in Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993). [2] Also quoted in [3]
  • I am sending two of my followers with Mir Hussain Ali. With their assistance, you should capture and kill all Hindus. Those below 20 may be kept in prison and 5,000 from the rest should be killed by hanging from the tree-tops. These are my orders.
    • Tipu Sultan's Letter dated December 14, 1788, to his Army Chief in Calicut: cited in Bhasha Poshini of Chingam 10, 1099 (August, 1923), Article on Tipu Sultan by Sardar K.M. Panicker. Also quoted in Ravi Varma, " Tipu Sultan: As Known In Kerala" in Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993). also in Tipu Sultan in History: Revisionism Revised. Narasingha Sil, 2013.
    • also translated as: To the Commander of Army at Kozhikode, sent on 14th December 1788. —Have sent Mir Hussain Ali with two assistants. By the grace of God he will reach there without more delay. With his help you should imprison all nonbelievers and kill them. All men below 20 years of age should be kept in prison. The rest of them should be hanged on trees. Sardar K.M. Panicker, the renowned historian and political analyst has translated Tippu’s letters into Malyalam which were published in Bhasha Poshini magazine of 1099 Chingam 1st (Malayalam era) Tirur Dinesh - Moplah Riots (2021)
  • 242 Nairs are being sent as prisoners. Categorise them according to their social and family status. After honouring them with Islam, sufficient dress materials may be given to the men and their women.
    • Letter dated December 21, 1788, to Sheik Kutub. cited in Bhasha Poshini of Chingam 10, 1099 (August, 1923), Article on Tipu Sultan by Sardar K.M. Panicker. Also in TIPU SULTAN: AS KNOWN IN KERALA by RAVI VARMA
  • With the grace of Prophet Muhammed and Allah, almost all Hindus in Calicut are converted to Islam. Only a few are still not converted on the borders of Cochin State. I am determined to convert them also very soon. I consider this as Jehad to achieve that object.
    • Tipu Sultan's Letter dated January 18, 1790, to Syed Abdul Dulai: cited in Bhasha Poshini of Chingam 10, 1099 (August, 1923), Article on Tipu Sultan by Sardar K.M. Panicker. Also quoted in Ravi Varma, " Tipu Sultan: As Known In Kerala" in Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993). [ Ravi Varma (1923) was a member of Kerala’s historic royal family, the Zamorins) [4]] also in Tipu Sultan in History: Revisionism Revised. Narasingha Sil, 2013. (Renowned historian and statesman Sardar K M Panicker had translated these letters and were published in Bhashaposhini 1099 Chingam vol. I Letter – 6 : Sent to Ziyad Abdullah on 1790 January 18th) also in Destroyed temples of Kerala Vol 1 by Tirur Dinesh
  • Don't you know I have achieved a great victory recently in Malabar and over four lakh Hindus were converted to Islam? I am determined to march against that cursed Raman Nair (Rajah of Travancore) very soon. Since I am overjoyed at the prospect of converting him and his subjects to Islam, I have happily abandoned the idea of going back to Srirangapatanam now.
    • In Tipu’s letter of 19 January 1790 to the Governor of Bekal, Budruz Zuman Khan (Badroos Saman Khan). quoted in K.M. Panicker, Bhasha Poshini, August 1923
  • "Your two letters, with the enclosed memorandums of the Naimar (or Nair) captives, have been received. You did right in ordering a hundred and thirty-five of them to be circumcised, and in putting eleven of the youngest of these into the Usud Ilhye band (or class) and the remaining ninety-four into the Ahmedy Troop, consigning the whole, at the same time, to the charge of the Kilaaddar of Nugr…"
    • In a letter dated 8th Eezidy (February 13, 1790) addressed to Budruz Zuman Khan. (Selected Letters of Tipoo Sultan by Kirkpatrick)., also in C. NANDAGOPAL MENON, TIPU'S OWN TESTIMONY, 1990. in Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993).
  • In his letter of February 10, 1799, to the Grand Seignior of Constantinople Tipu claimed that “near five hundred thousand of the infidels of the district of Calicut, Nuzzuraband, Zufferabaud, and Ashrufabaud . . . have been converted at different times” (Martin, 1837, p. 30).
    • in Tipu Sultan in History: Revisionism Revised. Narasingha Sil, 2013. Martin, M. (1837). The despatches, minutes and correspondence of the Marquess Wellesley, K. G. during his administration (Vol. 5). London, England: Wm. H. Allen.
  • It has lately been represented to us, that the Koorgs have committed some excesses .... You are, in conjunction with him, to make a general attack on the Koorgs; when, having put to the sword, or made prisoners of, the whole of them, both the slain and the prisoners are to be made Musulmans. In short, you must so manage matters, as [effectually]] to prevent them from exciting any further sedition or disturbance.
    • Command to Mir Zainul Abidin Shustari, (Kirkpatrick, 1811, Letter # 117, ). quoted in Tipu Sultan in History: Revisionism Revised. Narasingha Sil, 2013. and [5]
  • He wrote a letter to the Mughal Emperor, which read as follows: This steadfast believer, with a view to the support of the firm religion of Muhammad, undertook the chastisement of the Nazarene tribe, who, unable to maintain the war I waged against them, solicited peace in the most abject manner. With the divine aid and blessing of God, it is now again my steady determination to set about the total extirpation and destruction of the enemies of the faith.
    • in Sandeep Balakrishna. 2013. Tipu Sultan : The Tyrant of Mysore. Chennai: Rare Publications. (Colonel William Kirkpatrick’s collection of Tipu’s letters )
  • During the same war, he wrote a letter to the head of a regiment, which had laid siege to Naragund: In the event of your being obliged to assault the place, every living creature in it, whether man or woman, old or young, child, dog, cat, or anything else, must be put to the sword, with the single exception of Kala Pandit (the commandant).
    • in Sandeep Balakrishna. 2013. Tipu Sultan : The Tyrant of Mysore. Chennai: Rare Publications. (Colonel William Kirkpatrick’s collection of Tipu’s letters )
  • In another letter, addressed to an officer in Coorg, Tipu remarks: You are to make a general attack on the Coorgs, and, having put to the sword or made prisoners the whole of them, both the slain and the prisoners, with the women and children, are to be made Musalmans.
    • in Sandeep Balakrishna. 2013. Tipu Sultan : The Tyrant of Mysore. Chennai: Rare Publications. (Colonel William Kirkpatrick’s collection of Tipu’s letters )
  • Again, in an uprising against Tipu at Supa in the Canara region, Tipu instructs his general, Badruz Zaman Khan as follows: Ten years ago, from ten to fifteen thousand men were hung upon the trees of that district; since which time the aforesaid trees have been waiting for more men. You must therefore hang upon trees all such of the inhabitants of that district as have taken a lead in these rebellious proceedings.
    • in Sandeep Balakrishna. 2013. Tipu Sultan : The Tyrant of Mysore. Chennai: Rare Publications. (Colonel William Kirkpatrick’s collection of Tipu’s letters )
  • In yet another letter, written on the occasion of seizing a part of the Nizam’s calvary at Kadapa, Tipu says: Let the prisoners be strangled, and the horses, after being valued, be taken into Government service.
    • in Sandeep Balakrishna. 2013. Tipu Sultan : The Tyrant of Mysore. Chennai: Rare Publications. (Colonel William Kirkpatrick’s collection of Tipu’s letters )
  • In letters to Muslim rulers, he abused the Marathas addressing them as “those worthless Sardars of the Poona infidels.” Here is a representative letter addressed to Zaman Shah of Kabul: Your Majesty would soon proceed…to prosecute a holy war against the infidels…should those infidel Brahmins [Marathas] direct their power…the hands of the heroes of the Faith [Muslim soldiers] in this part of the world shall be raised for their chastisement. We should unite in carrying on a holy war against the infidels…Delhi, the seat of the Government of the Muhammadan faith has been reduced to this state of ruin so that the infidels altogether prevail…we should unite in carrying a holy war against the infidels and free these regions of Hindustan.
    • in Sandeep Balakrishna. 2013. Tipu Sultan : The Tyrant of Mysore. Chennai: Rare Publications.
  • The imbecility and ruinous condition of the kingdom of Delhi are more obvious than the sun. Delhi, which is one of the seats of the Government of the Muslim faith, has been reduced to this state of ruin so that the infidels altogether prevail; it has become proper and incumbent upon the leaders of the Faithful that uniting together they exterminate the infidels.
  • I am very desirous of engaging in this pursuit, but there are three sects of infidels in the way of it, and although when we are united there is little ground for apprehension, yet the union of the followers of the Faith is necessary. If that Ornament of the Throne, that conqueror of kingdoms, should adopt (one of the) two plans for effecting this, it will tend to the glory of the Faith. One of the plans is as under.
  • That your Majesty should remain in your capital and send one of your Number; a man in whom you have confidence, to Delhi with an army; that, this person on his arrival there should make the necessary arrangements, and after deposing the infirm king who has reduced the Faith to this state of weakness, select from among the family someone properly qualified for the Government; he should remain one year for the purpose of settling the country and taking with him the chiefs of the country who are the Rajputs and … direct his standard towards the Deccan, so that the Brahmins and others may come forward and present themselves to him, whilst I, from this quarter, with the aid of God, will raise the standard of the Holy Wars and make the infidels bow under the sword of Faith. After these shall have been sacrificed to the sword, and no longer exist, the remaining infidels will be nothing. Afterwards, the settlements of the Deccan may be concluded in any manner which shall be mutually agreed upon.
  • If none of your Majesty’s noblemen should be sufficiently in your confidence or equal to the undertaking, and if your Majesty should be entirely at ease with respect to the state of your country… it is proposed that you should in person proceed to Delhi, and having made the necessary arrangements there, establish one of your confidential servants in the office of the Vizier and return to your own capital. The person who may be selected…[as the] Vizier must be a man of enterprise and status, that remaining twelve months with his army in Delhi, he may be able to bring under subjection the chiefs of the neighbouring country. The second year, your Majesty should also send from your capital a small army as a reinforcement so that the Vizier…may proceed with the chiefs of Hindustan towards the Deccan. Should those infidel Brahmins direct their power to that quarter, by the grace of God, the hands of the heroes of the Faith in this part of the world shall be raised for their chastisement. After their extirpation, it will be proper to enjoin the Vizier…to fix upon a place of rendezvous and there to meet me and then a proper means may be adopted for the settlement of the country.
  • His 5 February 1797 letter to Zaman Shah is more fervent, severer in tone and morbid in its violence against Hindus: I have the satisfaction to hear that your Majesty, the Ornament on the throne, the promoter of Faith, the destroyer of the heretics, etc, employs your whole time and exerts every faculty in the support of the enlightened Religion, and is wholly devoted to its cause… In return to this [Zaman Shah’s religious piety] nearly a hundred thousand followers of the Faith, nay more, assemble every Friday at the mosques of the capital [Srirangapattana], called the Allah and Aksha mosques, and after the prescribed forms of prayer…as “Grant thy aid, O God, to those who aid the religion of Muhammad….and destroy those who destroy the religion of Muhammad…and pray that the Almighty will render your Majesty who is the supporter of the Faith.”
  • Your Majesty must doubtless have been informed that my exalted ambition is to wage a Holy War…In the midst of this land of heretics, the Almighty protects this tract of Muhammadan dominion like the Ark of Noah and cuts short the extended arm of the abandoned heretic.
  • Your Majesty’s gracious letter…has given increased [value] to our friendship…You were pleased to write that it was the object of yours to crush the infidels and to propagate the religion of Muhammad; please God, your Majesty would soon proceed with the conquering army to prosecute a holy war against the infidels and heretics…It is my hope…that the oppression of the infidels and polytheists may be destroyed by the avenging sword of those who have been selected by God to exercise dominion… The English having received intimation of the arrival of the ambassadors of the Sarkar [Tipu’s ambassadors] at your Highness’s court…have taken umbrage, and in concert with the infidels, taken up arms against me and they have written that they entertain the design to subvert Islam. Many are the words that proceed from their lips but their words are nought but lies.
    • Letters to Zaman Shah , quoted from Sandeep Balakrishna. 2013. Tipu Sultan : The Tyrant of Mysore. Chennai: Rare Publications.
  • I have the secret information that the Kings of Kodanger and Kadathanad have allied with Bajirayir. Either by deceit or design when you get them in hand, they should be immediately imprisoned and dispatched to hell as expenses. If these dogs come to hands, the above action should be carried out. This is my command.
    • Letter to Commander Mir Hyder of Kodanger, dated 14th December, 1788.
    • Sardar K.M. Panicker, the renowned historian and political analyst has translated Tippu’s letters into Malyalam which were published in Bhasha Poshini magazine of 1099 Chingam 1st (Malayalam era) Tirur Dinesh - Moplah Riots (2021)
  • To Sheikh Kuttub dated 1st December 1788. I am happy finding the report you have sent. Whoever has come in your hands, all above age of twenty should be hung on trees. If they hide in nooks and corners and forests, to find them out, instruct Dilkhan to split his force in to three.
    • Sardar K.M. Panicker, the renowned historian and political analyst has translated Tippu’s letters into Malyalam which were published in Bhasha Poshini magazine of 1099 Chingam 1st (Malayalam era) Tirur Dinesh - Moplah Riots (2021)
  • To Siyad Abdulla, Dated 18th January 1790. With the grace of God and help from Muhammad, we have almost entirely converted the non-believers. A few are remaining in areas near to Kochi. I have decided to make them too Mohammadans. I have considered this as a religious war.
    • Sardar K.M. Panicker, the renowned historian and political analyst has translated Tippu’s letters into Malyalam which were published in Bhasha Poshini magazine of 1099 Chingam 1st (Malayalam era) Tirur Dinesh - Moplah Riots (2021)

Quotes about Tipu Sultan

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(Sorted alphabetically by author/source)

A

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  • Tipu Sultan is probably the Muhammadan monarch who most systematically engaged in the work of forcible conversion.... early in 1789 Tipu Sultan prepared to enforce his proclamation (for conversion of Hindus) with an army of more than twenty thousand men.... Thousands of Hindus were accordingly circumcised and made to eat beef... most of the Brahmans and Nayars who had been forcibly converted subsequently disowned their new religion.
    • T.W. Arnold, Preaching of Islam. p. 261 ff. [6]
  • Tipu was not happy with the social conditions of the day. There was wide disparity between different castes. The rigidity of the caste system was intensely high at the time. As far as land relations were concerned, the jagirdari system was prevalent. In Kerala, for example, there were communities where women did not cover the upper part of their bodies. Tipu was concerned about the inequalities in society. Tipu was in contact with the French during the time of the French Revolution. He was aware of events in Europe and was attracted to the maxims of the revolution, which called for equal rights for everyone in the world: liberty, equality and fraternity. He referred to himself as “Citizen Tipu” and saw himself as a revolutionist. In Srirangapatnam, he had a club consisting of 59 French soldiers and himself. In this club, everyone was equal, including the king. Through his friends among the French, he was aware of social movements in Europe. He was influenced by three European movements: Renaissance [Italy], Reformation [Germany] and Revolution [France]. He wanted to blend the salient features of these movements in his reign.
    Tipu was aware of the role of the French in the American War of Independence [1775-1783]. The French offered crucial support to the Americans. They went to America, fought the war for American independence and came back. Likewise, Tipu was under the assumption that Napoleon would drive the British out of India and go back. That did not happen. That was the reason for his embassy to Louis XVI in 1787 and the invitation to Napoleon in 1798.
    Tipu Sultan was the first Indian ruler to envisage state control of trade and industry. He established manufacturing and trade centres in several parts of his kingdom and also in Muscat, Jeddah, Basrah and Pegu.
    Tipu Sultan conceptualised a system of state capitalism that was far ahead of his times. Mysore silk, which has become a recognised industry in Karnataka, had its roots in Tipu’s success in introducing sericulture. Tipu’s army also had iron-cased rockets that were far more advanced than what the East India Company was equipped with at the time. He is also credited with forming a navy with the intention of fighting sea battles as opposed to the merchant navies that other rulers had. He undertook a series of reforms such as the abolition of the jagirdari system.
    The English saw Tipu as an impediment to their plans of conquering India. The early British sources on Tipu were the ones written by soldiers who had been imprisoned by him during the Anglo-Mysore Wars. This formed the basis for prejudiced accounts of Tipu’s reign that cast him as a despot. There was a constant campaign against Tipu by the English. No one in India had humiliated and dictated terms to the English as Tipu and Hyder had done. The intensity and hostility had gone to such a level that the English regretted that their language was not copious enough to find sufficient epithets to condemn him with.
  • From the foregoing it is quite evident that Tipu vouched a decided hatred against the Christians only after the siege of Bangalore because they rendered both active and pecuniary help to the English who were his enemies, and this infuriated Tipu to such an extent that in his frenzy he resorted to savage Persecution and forcible conversion of the Kanara Christian, to be Mohammedan religion and he makes use of religious pretext to justify their captivity at Seringapatna in 1784.
    • Marinho Avazedo, in his article on All India Modern History Congress, 1935, Pune
  • Major Allan, who knew the Sultan at firsthand, observed, It is impossible that Tippoo could have been loved by his people. The Musselmen [Musalmans] certainly looked up to him as the head of their faith; by them, perhaps, his death is regretted but they could not have been attached to him, by affection. (cited in Rao, 1948, p. 1025).... Major Alexander Allan (1764-1820) reports on Tipu’s murdering the European captives on April 28, 1799, the very day he was negotiating with Lieutenant-General Harris for peace terms. “Of the real character of this Prince,” Allan writes, we hitherto have been ignorant! But now it will be placed in its true light. That he was suspicious, vindictive, cruel and hurried away by the sadder impulse of passion, to which he was subjected even without any apparent provocation, is certain and probably it will be found that he was more deficient in military talents, and others as essential to govern an extensive kingdom than has been generally imagined. (cited in Rao, 1948, Vol. 3, p. 1025)
    • Major Allan, quoted in Tipu Sultan in History: Revisionism Revised. Narasingha Sil, 2013. Rao, H. (1948). History of Mysore (1399-1799 A.D.) (Vol. 3). Bangalore, India: Government Press.

B

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  • It is difficult to pinpoint the areas worked during 1400.,..-1800.but there is ample evidence that active mining for reef gold was going in many of the gold fields of southern India. such as Bellara, Kabligatti, Wynad and elsewhere, during the reign of Vijayanagar Kings (1336-1560) and later during the regime ofTipu Sultan.
  • The most charitable assessment of Tipu Sultan after a survey of these sources is to call him the tyrant of Mysore. His seventeen-year long regime was primarily a tenure of military and economic terror as far as Hindus were concerned. He razed entire cities literally to the ground and depopulated them.... The intensity of Tipu’s raid was so terrifying that hundreds of temple priests fled to Mangalore along with their families. Worship came to a permanent halt in several temples. Some temples were covered with leaves in order to conceal their presence. The Maletirike Bhagavati temple at Virajpet is a good example of this. Equally, the renowned Omkareshwara temple in Madikeri was about to meet the same fate—the then ruler at Madikeri panicked at the approach of Tipu, removed its tower and replaced it with a dome so that it resembled a mosque from afar. The temple continues to retain this appearance till date.
    • S. Balakrishna, Seventy years of secularism. 2018.
  • When the British defeated Tipu Sultan in 1799, they were astonished by the quality of his cannons. Nearly 927 cannons were captured after the fall of Srirangapatnam in 1799. Out of these, nearly 400 brass cannons were manufactured in Tipu's foundries (one located at Bangalore and two in Seringapatna). His cannons were cast by the 'cast-on' construction in which the inner core was held in position using iron chaplets. Water powered boring machines were used in Tipu's arsenals and this produced perfect finish to his guns ". Although some French technicians were employed by Tipu Sultan, as noted by Francis Buchanan, the foundries of Tipu Sultan were operated by the Indian engineers.
    Most of the cannons that were captured by the British were melted and reused (i.e. recast) as British cannons. Therefore, we have lost valuable evidences of how the wonderful cannons of Tipu Sultan looked like, but for few surviving models. For example, at the Rotunda museum in Woolwich in England is displayed a wonderful cannon of Tipu Sultan seized during the British capture of Srirangapatnam'. His remarkable cannons reveal iconic tiger motifs (on the muzzle, trunnion ends, cascable and tiger stripes) apart from inscriptions providing the date of manufacture and the engineer responsible for the manufacture of the cannon. Several of Tipu Sultan's cannons are still preserved in the museum at Srirangapatnam and they need to be studied.
  • First a corps of 30,000 barbarians who butchered everybody on the way, followed by the Field-Gun Unit under the French Commander, M. Lally. Tipu Sultan was riding on an elephant behind which another army of 30,000 soldiers followed. Most of the men and women were hanged in Calicut. First mothers were hanged with children tied to the necks of their mothers. That barbarian Tipu Sultan tied the naked Christians and Hindus to the legs of elephants and made the elephants move about till the bodies of the helpless victims were torn to pieces. Temples and Churches were ordered to be burnt, desecrated and destroyed. Christian and Hindu women were forced to marry Muhammadans and similarly their men were forced to marry Muhammadan women. Those Christians who refused to be 'honoured' with Islam, were ordered to be killed by hanging then and there. The above version of the atrocities was obtained from the sorrowful narration by the victims who escaped from Tipu's army and reached Varapuzha (near Alwaye) which is the centre of Carmichael Christian Mission. I myself helped many victims to cross the Varapuzha river by boats.
    • Fra Bartolomaco, in his well-known book, Voyage to East India, Cited in History of Cochin State by K.P. Padmanabha Menon, Mathrubhoomi Publication, 1989. p. 573. Also quoted in Ravi Varma, " Tipu Sultan: As Known In Kerala" in Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993).
  • During the end of the 18th century the Peshwas continued to purchase cannions from the English, and Tipu Sultan switched over from purchase to manufacture of guns.
    Buchanan might have thought that the Indians would remain non-violent and docile for ever. Forty-six years later, the Nation which had produced Sivaji and Tipu Sultan, used gunpowder against the British during its first struggle for independence.
  • As soon as he had conquered Egypt, he will establish relations with the Indian princes and, together with them, attack the English in their possessions.
  • Having occupied and fortified Egypt, we shall send a force of 15,000 men from Suez to India, to join the forces of Tipu-Sahib and drive away the English.
  • "To show his ardent devotion and steadfast faith in Muhammaddan religion, Tipu Sultan found Kozhikode to be the most suitable place. It was because the Hindus of Malabar refused to reject the matriarchal system, polyandry and half-nakedness of women that the 'great reformer' Tipu Sultan tried to honour the entire population with Islam."
    • Lewis B. Boury quoted in LATE P.C.N. RAJA, RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE OF TIPU SULTAN (This is the English translation of the Malayalam article by P.C.N. Raja first published in Kesari Annual of 1964. The late Raja was a senior member of the Zamorin Royal Family.) in : Tipu Sultan - Villain or Hero (1993)
  • For thirty years, first Haidar Ali, Tipu’s father, then Tipu himself, had been at the forefront of the British public’s consciousness…. So by the time he died at the hands of General Harris’s troops, as they besieged his island capital in 1799, Tipu Sultan was probably the most famous Indian, if not villain, in the United Kingdom.
  • He likewise issued a proclamation, prohibiting all marriages in the kingdom of Mysore until such time as the wedding of his son should take place, being determined to celebrate that day by the consummation of 25,000 marriages at his own charge. To be ignorant of every other feature in the character of this extraordinary man, and to be informed of this circumstance alone, would certainly inspire a high opinion of his munificence, liberality, and philanthropy, but the moment we are told that he tarnished all the glory which accompanied such a splendid act, by a piece of contemptible, fanatical, and tyrannical despotism, compelling 100,000 of his defenceless Hindoo subjects to embrace Mahometism on the same day, our admiration changes into merited detestation. It is his constant and favourite practice to insult and persecute the Hindoos on the score of religion: he has demolished many of their temples and sanctified places of worship, particularly a much-revered pagoda near the bazaar of Seringapatam, where he found, it is asserted, 150,000 coined pagodas, buried under the stone out of which the oval was hewn. He frequently orders calves to be brought before the doors of their temples, and sheds the sacred blood under the very nose of the offended deity. Such as are acquainted with the enthusiastic attachment of the Hindoos to their ancient religion and its rites, and their veneration for both, will guess at the extreme horror with which such frightful sacrileges must fill them, and will easily be persuaded that Tippoo, as I have once observed, is detested by the majority of his subjects...
    • James Bristow, in Captives Of Tipu Survivors Narratives" Lawrence 1929 also in Jain, M. (2010). Parallel pathways: Essays on Hindu-Muslim relations, 1707-1857.
  • In the Tamil land and in Malabar, he earned the sobriquet of “a Brahman-killer and a despoiler of south Indian temples”.
    • Brittlebank, K. 1997, quoted from Tipu Sultan in History: Revisionism Revised, N. Sil, 2013 [7] also in Jain, M. (2010). Parallel pathways: Essays on Hindu-Muslim relations, 1707-1857.
  • [Lewin Bowring mentions a “remarkable proclamation” that Tipu issued in 1786, ]…calling upon all true believers to ‘extract the cotton of negligence from the ears of their understanding,’ and, quitting the territories of apostates and unbelievers, to take refuge in his dominions, where, by the Divine blessing, they would be better provided for than before, and their lives, honour, and property remain under the protection of God,” and that he had resolved that the “worthless and stiff-necked infidels, who had turned aside their heads from obedience to the true faith, and openly raised the standard of unbelief, should be chastised by the hands of the faithful, and made either to acknowledge the true religion or to pay tribute. As, owing to the imbecility of the princes of Hind, that insolent race (presumably the English) had conceived the futile opinion that true believers had become weak, mean, and contemptible, and had overrun and laid waste the territories of Musalmans, extending the hand of violence and injustice on the property and honour of the faithful, he had resolved to prosecute a holy war against them.
    • Lewin Bowring Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan – Lewin B. Bowring in Sandeep Balakrishna. 2013. Tipu Sultan : The Tyrant of Mysore. Chennai: Rare Publications.
  • Tipu…had no compunction in cutting [the prisoners’] throats, or strangling and poisoning them; while…numbers of them were sent to die of malaria and starvation on the fatal mountain of Kabaldrug [Kabbaladurga]. The English prisoners were specially selected as victims of his vengeance, not omitting officers of rank such as General Matthews; while, in direct contravention of the treaty made at Mangalore in 1784, he did not scruple to retain in captivity considerable numbers of Europeans. Many of these, particularly young and good-looking boys, were forcibly circumcised, married haphazard to girls who had been captured in the Coromandel districts, and drafted into the ranks of the army, or compelled to sing and dance for the amusement of the sovereign... those who conspired against him were put in a cage… [and] were allowed half a pound of rice a day, with salt, but no water, so they soon expired under this frightful ordeal.. There were other punishments nearly equally dreadful, such as making men bestride a wooden horse on a saddle studded with sharp spikes. 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.
    • Lewin Bowring Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan – Lewin B. Bowring in Sandeep Balakrishna. 2013. Tipu Sultan : The Tyrant of Mysore. Chennai: Rare Publications.

C

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  • Therefore we have to conclude that he did not necessarily make use of the rebellions as lame excuses for expansion of Islam or Hindu persecution and that the only instance of conversion of the Malabar Hindus was due to other than religious reasons.
  • [Colonel Fullerton was serving in the British army, which was rendering assistance to the Rajas of the Malabar and petty chieftains in Tamil Nadu. Some of his observations and experiences have been recorded in Colonel Castell’s History of India. Colonel Fullerton’s report to his superiors with respect to his unit’s battle with Tipu is very revealing. ]7There a very steep fort at a town near Coimbatore. Near it was a Shiva temple made entirely of black stone. Tipu fell upon this temple which contained beautiful Hindu sculptures, destroyed it completely, and looted all the gold, ornaments, and valuables in it... Fullerton continues: This temple was extremely sacred to the Hindus. Tipu had despoiled this temple so badly that it had greatly enraged the Hindus. Until then, nobody had done an iota of harm to the temple.
    • Colonel Fullerton in Sandeep Balakrishna. 2013. Tipu Sultan : The Tyrant of Mysore. Chennai: Rare Publications.

D

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  • According to Dhanagare: Tipu Sultan, who was both more ruthless and more ambitious than his father, Hyder Ali, resumed the invasion of Malabar in the 1780s, persecuting and forcibly converting the Hindus. Moplahs seized this opportunity to further their economic interests, as well as improve their numerical strength.
    • D.N. Dhanagare, ‘Agrarian Conflict, Religion and Politics: The Moplah Rebellions in Malabar in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries’, Past & Present, February 1977, no. 74, pp. 112–141, p. 115. quoted from J. Sai Deepak, India, Bharat and Pakistan - THE CONSTITUTIONAL JOURNEY OF A SANDWICHED CIVILISATION, 2022

G

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  • Mussulmans were exempted from paying the housetax and taxes on grain and other goods meant for their personal use and not for trade. Christians were seized and deported to the capital, and their property confiscated. Converts to Islam were given concessions such as exemption from taxes...[Tipu] removed Hindus from all administrative posts and replaced them with Mussulmans with the exception of Diwan Purnaiah...
    • M.H. Gopal in his Tipu Sultan’s Mysore: an Economic History, in : S. Balakrishna, Seventy years of secularism. 2018.
  • [M.H. Gopal’s excellent Tipu Sultan’s Mysore: An Economic Study published in 1971 echoes McLeod:] Even in the Revenue Code…Tipu exhibited his communal tendencies. Mussulmans were exempted from paying the house tax, and taxes on grain and other goods meant for their personal use and not for trade. Christians were seized and deported to the capital, and their property confiscated. Converts to Islam were given concessions such as exemption from taxes… If a person who converted to Islam was a peasant, he was entitled to a 50% tax rebate on his agricultural income. He was completely exempt from house tax. Lands seized from various persons as well as Government lands were given to Qazis and other Muslim officers as “Inaam” (gift). Lands were freely gifted away for the purpose of constructing Mosques. On the other hand, lands given to temples and Brahmins were taken back... Another evil which later assumed huge proportions was the appointment of inexperienced people as officers and the lenience with which he sometimes treated them. In 1785 he ordered his Diwan of Bangalore not to take rigid measures to recover the balance due from Mir Futah Ali, the talukdar of Chikkaballapur, but to realise it gradually as the officer “has never before exercised the functions of that office, and…he is…a stranger and inexperienced in business.”
    • M.H. Gopal in his Tipu Sultan’s Mysore: an Economic History quoted from Sandeep Balakrishna. 2013. Tipu Sultan : The Tyrant of Mysore. Chennai: Rare Publications.
  • Unfortunately, there are no memorials erected anywhere in Kodungallur, or Trichur, or Alwaye to honour Dharma Raja who gave shelter in his state to thousands of Hindus escaping from the Islamic brutalities of the fanatic Tipu Sultan; or Ayyappan Marthanda Pillai who was the architect of the historic Nedumkotta; or Raja Keshavadas under whose direct command a comparatively small army humbled and defeated the invading army of Tipu Sultan; or scores of valiant Hindu soldiers who laid down their lives to protect their country and faith. The most despicable and shameful act of the anti-Hindu secularist government of Kerala since Independence was that instead of honouring the legendary heroes of the land, a memorial in the form of a flagstaff was erected near the historic Trichur Palace to perpetuate the memory of the Islamic bigot Tipu Sultan who was instrumental in the forcible mass circumcision and killing of Hindus, destruction of Hindu temples, and devastation of the Malabar, Trichur, Alwaye and Kodungallur regions.
    • S.R. Goel in : Tipu Sultan - Villain or Hero (1993)
  • Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore, had been everyone’s icon. The recent efforts of the Hindu right to project him as a Muslim bigot show that their political stakes in him have changed.
    • Chandan Gowda, Professor of Sociology, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru in his article All about Tipu Sultan The Hindu, 09 November 2016.
  • 'Accompanied by an army of 60,000, Tipu Sultan came to Kozhikode in 1788 and razed it to the ground. It is not possible even to describe the brutalities committed by that Islamic barbarian from Mysore."
    • The German missionary Guntest, quoted in: LATE P.C.N. RAJA, RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE OF TIPU SULTAN (This is the English translation of the Malayalam article by P.C.N. Raja first published in Kesari Annual of 1964. The late Raja was a senior member of the Zamorin Royal Family.) in : Tipu Sultan - Villain or Hero (1993) (C.A. Parkhurst also noted that 'Almost the entire Kozhikode was razed to the ground.")

H

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  • Tipu succeeded to a large kingdom that was bounded in the north by the river Krishna, in the south by the state of Travancore and the district of Tinnevelly [Tirunelveli], in the east by the Eastern Ghats and in the west by the Arabian Sea.
    • Mohibbul Hasan, in his book History of Tipu Sultan, quoted in Tipu—fact & fiction, Frontline Magazine, 06 January 2016.
  • Tipu proclaimed: "It is our constant object and sincere intention that those worthless and stiffnecked infidels (Hindus) who have turned aside their heads from obedience to the true believers, and openly raised the standard of infidelity should be chastised by the hands of the faithful and made either to acknowledge the true religion or to pay tribute."...He proclaimed that his commanders should serve Islam: "Promoting the prosperity and advantage of the people of Islam and the overthrowing of unrighteous infidels, you will do whatever may be in your power to increase the lustre of the firm religion of Mohammed.... He was out to humuliate the Hindus and glorify Islam: "By the blessings of Allah and the aid of the Prophet, the forces of the accursed, having experienced a signal defeat and chastisement, have turned their faces to flight, and the troops of Islam are victorious over the enemies of the faith. Thus the army of the accursed infidels has been trodden underfoot by the hoofs of the horses of Islam and rendered vile and miserable, while the religion of Mohammed has been thereby made to flourish. You, Sir, will, therefore, apply with all your heart the best means of advancing the religion of Mohammed and of administering to the support of Islam.".... He wrote to Zaman Shah, the king of Afghanistan, that "we should come together in carrying on a holy war against the infidels, and for freeing the region of Hindustan from the contamination of the enemies of our religion (Hindus)".
    • High Court, Bombay. From the September, 1990, Petition for special leave to appeal (Civil) which was filed against the judgement dated August 30, 1990 passed by Bombay High Court. quoted in : HISTORY OF LEGAL BATTLE AGAINST THE T.V. SERIAL - The Sword of Tipu Sultan by Madhavrao D. Pathak, in: Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993).
  • Tipu, after a feeble resistance in the field, retired into Seringapatam, and, when his capital was stormed, died fighting bravely in the breach, 1799. Since the battle of Plassey no event had so greatly impressed the native imagination as the capture of Seringapatam, which won for General Harris a peerage, and for Wellesley an Irish Marquisate.
    The silk-worm is said to have been introduced into Mysore by Tipu Sultan, and for many years continued to prosper. But recently the Mysore worms have been afflicted by an epidemic.

I

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  • 'In consequence, the Hindus of Malabar had to suffer the most severe enormities the world had ever known in history' ... "When the second-in-line of Zamorins, Eralppad, refused to cooperate with Tipu Sultan in his military operations against Travancore because of Tipu's crude methods of forcible circumcision and conversion of Hindus to Islam, the enraged Tipu Sultan took a solemn oath to circumcise and convert the Zamorin and his chieftains and Hindu soldiers to Islamic faith."
    • K.V. Krishna Iyer, in his famous book, Zamorins of Calicut, quoted in : LATE P.C.N. RAJA, RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE OF TIPU SULTAN (This is the English translation of the Malayalam article by P.C.N. Raja first published in Kesari Annual of 1964. The late Raja was a senior member of the Zamorin Royal Family.) in : Tipu Sultan - Villain or Hero (1993)

K

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  • Among the galaxy of heroes and heroines of Indian history the personality of Tipu Sultan will ever shine with a rare lustre. He was the only Indian Ruler who had the courage to challenge the British and had the distinction of dying on the battle field fighting the British and their allies. More than 200 years back Tipu Sultan visualised the birth of a free country. He was inspired by the French Revolution and wanted to put into reality the concepts of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.
  • Tipu's proclamation created universal resentment and the whole country rose in rebellion. Fearing forcible conversion about 30,000 Brahmins alone fled to Travancore. The Kottayam and Kadattanand Rajas sought the English East India Company's protection. Calicut was attacked in November, 1788. Tipu's officers laid hands on the Karanavappad of Manjeri. The Nairs of Calicut and South Malabar headed by Ravi Varma and other princes of the Padinjare Kovilakam turned in despair on their oppressors. Tipu set 6,000 troops under M. Lally to raise the siege, but Ravi Varma could not be driven out of the field. Earlier, in 1789, Tipu himself came down to Malabar via the Tamarasseri Ghat to enforce his proclamation at the point of his sword. General orders were issued to his army that 'every being in the district without distinction should be burned, that they should be traced to their lurking places, and that all means of truth and falsehood, force or fraud should be employed to effect their universal conversion'. The Kadattanad Raja's fortified palace at Kuttipuram was surrounded and 2,000 Nairs, forced to surrender after a resistance of several days, were circumcised and regaled with beef. Several. Rajas and rich land owners fled to Travancore where the Dharma Raja rendered them all help to rehabilitate themselves in their new surroundings. The poor Nairs, however, retreated into the jungles and were relentlessly pursued by Mysorean troops. From their jungle homes the Nairs could engage themselves in a kind of guerrilla warfare against the enemy forces. Hence Tipu organised a regular and systematic Nair hunt with the help of his soldiers. He then proceeded to Cannanore and after celebrating the marriage of his son with the daughter of the Ali Raja, marched along the coast of Chowghat to overawe the native population by a show of his power. From there he retired to Coimbatore after making arrangements for the administrative reorganisation of the province and leaving a permanent army of occupation to frighten the population into passive submission."
    • Kerala District Gazetteer, quoted in IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY Writ Petition No. 5435 of 1989 in : Tipu Sultan - Villain or Hero (1993)
  • Oh Shiva! Shiva Lingam (idol) has gone (destroyed) from the temple,
    and also the Lingam (manliness) from the land:
    • Katathanad Royal Family, poem about the consequences of Padayottakalam, quoted in : LATE P.C.N. RAJA, RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE OF TIPU SULTAN (This is the English translation of the Malayalam article by P.C.N. Raja first published in Kesari Annual of 1964. The late Raja was a senior member of the Zamorin Royal Family.)in : Tipu Sultan - Villain or Hero (1993)
  • "Tipoo knew his will to be a law the propriety of which… would never be questioned or doubted by any of his slaves… He probably measured the sentiments in question by a different standard from that with which we estimate them. Thus the various murders and acts of treachery which we see him directing to be carried into execution, were not criminal, but on the contrary just, and even meritorious, in his eyes."... "The Koran taught him that it was not necessary to keep faith with infidels, or the enemies of the true religion, in which case it was not difficult for him to persuade himself that it was right to include all who opposed or refused to cooperate in his views for the extension of that religion; or, in other words, for his own aggrandisement."
    • William Kirkpatrick, Selected Letters of Tipoo Sultan (published in 1811) quoted in C. NANDAGOPAL MENON, TIPU'S OWN TESTIMONY, 1990. in : Tipu Sultan - Villain or Hero (1993)
  • Lieutenant-Colonel William Kirkpatrick (1756-1813) writes that once the Sultan ordered his brother-in-law Burhanuddin Khan to mount an assault on a region including “every living creature in it, whether man or woman, old or young, child, dog, cat, or any living thing, else, must be put to the sword” (Kirkpatrick, 1811, Letter # 85 dated July 10, 1785, italics in original). Kirkpatrick (1811) writes further, “Colonel Munro [Sir Hector, 1726-1805] assures me, that it is an absolute fact that on one occasion he [Tipu] ordered all the male population of a particular village which had given him offence, to be castrated” (p. 3, translator’s “Observations” on Letter # 1 dated February 17, 1785).
    • William Kirkpatrick (1756-1813) quoted in Tipu Sultan in History: Revisionism Revised. Narasingha Sil, 2013.
  • [The British Colonel, historian, and scholar, William Kirkpatrick who discovered more than 2000 letters (written in Farsi in Tipu’s own handwriting) at the Srirangapattana fort after Tipu’s death makes a devastating assessment of Tipu’s character and personality:] The importance of these letters…consist[s]…in the vivid illustration which they afford of the genius, talents, and disposition of their extraordinary author, who is here successively and repeatedly delineated, in colors from his own pencil, as the cruel and relentless enemy; the intolerant bigot or furious fanatic; the oppressive and unjust ruler; the harsh and rigid master ; the sanguinary tyrant; the perfidious negotiator; tile frivolous and capricious innovator; the mean and minute economist; the peddling trader; and even the retail shop-keeper…the various murders and acts of treachery, which we see him directing to be carried into execution, were not criminal, but…just, and even meritorious, in his eyes. They might… in a great degree, proceed from a disposition naturally cruel and sanguinary: but, perhaps, an intolerant religious zeal and bigotry were not less active motives to them…the Sultan does not appear to have possessed a sufficient stretch of thought upon any subject…to enable him to discuss it, either with logical force or precision. A consecutive train of argument was a thing of which he nowhere seems to have had an idea… Arrogance and vanity were, undoubtedly, among the most prominent features of the Sultan’s mind.
    • William Kirkpatrick (1756-1813) quoted from Sandeep Balakrishna. 2013. Tipu Sultan : The Tyrant of Mysore. Chennai: Rare Publications.
  • …there stood a Hindu temple, the area or space round which was large. The Sultan, therefore, in his infancy being like all children fond of play, and as in that space boys of Kinhiri Brahmin castes assembled to amuse themselves, was accustomed to quit the house to see them play, or play with them. It happened one day that a Fakir (a religious mendicant) a man of saint-like mind passed that way, and seeing the Sultan gave him a life bestowing benediction, saying to him, 'Fortunate child, at a future time thou will be the king of this country, and whey thy time comes, remember my words-take this temple and destroy it, and build a Masjid in its place, and for ages it will remain a memorial of thee.' The Sultan smiled, and in reply told him, 'that whenever, by his blessing, he should become a Padishah, or king, he would do as he (the Fakir) directed.' When, therefore, after a short time his father became a prince, the possessor of wealth and territory, he remembered his promise, and after his return from Nagar and Gorial Bundar, he purchased the temple from the adorers of the image in it (which after all was nothing but the figure of a bull, made of brick and mortar) with their goodwill, and the Brahmins, therefore, taking away their image, placed it in the Deorhi Peenth, and the temple was pulled down, and the foundations of a new Masjid raised on the site, agreeably to a plan of the Mosque built by Ali Adil Shah, at Bijapur, and brought thence.
    • Hussain Ali Khan Kirmani, History of Tipu Sultan Being a Continuation of The Neshan-i-Hyduri, translated from Persian by Col. W. Miles, first published 1864, New Delhi Reprint, 1986, pp. 66-67. Also quoted in S.R. Goel, Hindu Temples - What Happened to them (about the Masjid-i-Ala or Jama Masjid standing in Srirangapatanam on the site of a Shiva temple)
  • Mir Hussein Kirmani (1980) points out that “the Sultan had a great aversion to . . . Hindus and other tribes,” built a mosque in every town, and appointed a muezzin, a moula, and a kazi to each (pp. 154-155)
    • in Tipu Sultan in History: Revisionism Revised. Narasingha Sil, 2013. Kirmani, M. H. A. K. (1980). History of the reign of Tipu Sultan being a continuation of the Neshani Hyduri (Col. Miles, W. , Trans. & Rpt.). New Delhi, India: Oriental Publishers.

L

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  • The Lahore Staff College publication on Tipu recounts his official edict to destroy Hindu temples in his dominions as follows:He [Tipu] issued an edict for the destruction of all the Hindu temples in his dominions excepting those of Srirangapattana and Melukote…he resolved to destroy every monument of the former Government to which end he caused the ancient fort and city of Mysore to be razed, and removed the stones of the temples and palace to a neighboring hill where he laid the foundation of a new fort which he named Nuzerbad. But in the furiousness of his wrath, he spared not the works of the greatest public utility, in the destruction of the celebrated reservoir of Yadavi Nudi because it recorded the wisdom, riches and power of the ancient Hindu sovereigns. (Emphasis added)
    • Lahore Staff College, Life of Tipu Sultan—Pakistan Administrative Staff College, Lahore, translated by Bernard Wycliffe, in Sandeep Balakrishna. 2013. Tipu Sultan : The Tyrant of Mysore. Chennai: Rare Publications.
  • Tippu’s soldiers, therefore daily exposed the heads of many Brahmans in sight of the fort. It is asserted that the Zamorin, rather than witness such enormities (and to avoid further killing of innocent Brahmins), chose to abandon Palghautcherry (Palghat Fort).
    • Malabar Manual by William Logan (p. 500). [8] , citing the official report of Col. Fullarton of the British forces stationed in Mangalore. (Printed and published by Charitram Publications under the editorship of Dr. C.K, Kareem, Trivandrum). p. 500. Also quoted in Ravi Varma, " Tipu Sultan: As Known In Kerala" in Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993).
  • It had been confirmed from Calicut that "200 Brahmans had been seized and confined, made Mussulmen, and forced to eat beef and other things contrary to their caste."
  • It was at Kuttippuram, the head-quarters of the Kadattanad family, that this force surrounded 2,000 Nayars with their families in an old fort which they defended for several days. At last finding it untenable they submitted to Tippu’s terms which were “a voluntary profession of the Muhammadan faith, or a forcible conversion with deportation from their native land. The unhappy captives gave a forced assent, and on the next day the rite of circumcision was performed on all the males, every individual of both sexes being compelled to close the ceremony by eating beef.”
    • Malabar Manual by William Logan p. 451. also in part quoted in Ravi Varma, " Tipu Sultan: As Known In Kerala" in Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993).

M

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  • The list of the chiefs of every province or district contained only Muslim names like Sheikh Ali, Sher Khan, Muhammad Syed, Meer Hussain, Syed Peer, Abdul Karim, and so on. There was nary a...non-Muslim name.
    • William McLeod who was appointed by the East India Company Government as the Superintendent of the Land Revenue department after Tipu’s death. in: S. Balakrishna, Seventy years of secularism. 2018.
  • All the Amildars under Tipu’s Government were Moors who were seldom chosen for any other reason than their being Muhammadans; and although they had an oath of fidelity administered to them, the embezzlement of public revenue, by the several classes of servants, is supposed to have amounted annually to 15 or 20 lakhs of pagodas.
    • William McLeod quoted from Sandeep Balakrishna. 2013. Tipu Sultan : The Tyrant of Mysore. Chennai: Rare Publications.
  • In the month of Chingam 952, Malayalam Era (corresponding to August, 1786) Tipu's Army destroyed idols of the famous Perumanam Temple and desecrated all the temples between Trichur and Karuvannur river. Irinjalakuda and Thiruvanchikulam temples were also defiled and damaged by Tipu's Army.
    • History of Kerala by A. Sreedhara Menon. Also quoted in Ravi Varma, " Tipu Sultan: As Known In Kerala" in Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993).
  • The nightmarish results of Tipu's invasion of Kerala have been aptly described by the former editor of Gazetteer of Kerala and the renowned historian A. Sreedhara Menon. They state as follows: "Hindus, especially Nairs and chieftains who resisted Islamic cruelties, were the main targets of Tipu's anger. Hundreds of Nair women and children were abducted to Sreerangapatanam or sold as slaves to the Dutch. Nairs were hunted down and killed and also deprived of all traditional and social privileges. Thousands of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Nairs and other respected classes of Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam or driven out of their traditional ancestral homes. Thousands sought refuge in Travancore State while hundreds fled to forests and hills to escape Tipu's atrocities which had completely shaken their sense of security." "The new phase of Mysore administration in Kerala resulted in unending wars. Extreme cruelties of the invading army had badly affected every section of the society, leading to the mass exodus of people from Malabar." "Many Hindu temples, royal houses and chieftain families were destroyed and plundered. The exodus of Brahmins and Kshatriyas who were the patrons and custodians of traditional arts and culture, resulted in stagnation in the cultural field also."
    • A. Sreedhara Menon.quoted in Ravi Varma, " Tipu Sultan: As Known In Kerala" in Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993).
  • Hindus, especially Nairs and chieftains who resisted Islamic cruelties, were the main targets of Tipu's anger. Hundreds of Nair women and children were abducted to Sreerangapatanam or sold as slaves to the Dutch. Nairs were hunted down and killed and also deprived of all traditional and social privileges. Thousands of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Nairs and other respected classes of Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam or driven out of their traditional ancestral homes. Thousands sought refuge in Travancore State while hundreds fled to forests and hills to escape Tipu's atrocities which had completely shaken their sense of security.. The new phase of Mysore administration in Kerala resulted in unending wars. Extreme cruelties of the invading army had badly affected every section of the society, leading to the mass exodus of people from Malabar.. Many Hindu temples, royal houses and chieftain families were destroyed and plundered. The exodus of Brahmins and Kshatriyas who were the patrons and custodians of traditional arts and culture, resulted in stagnation in the cultural field also.
    • History of Kerala by A. Sreedhara Menon. Also quoted in Ravi Varma, " Tipu Sultan: As Known In Kerala" in Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993).
  • "The Padayottam military occupation period won't be forgotten by the Malayalis for generations. It was this invasion, between Malayalam era 957 to 967 (1782 to 1792) that turned Malayalam upside down," says P. Raman Menon, biographer of Shaktan Tampuran, the King of Cochin during Tipu's invasion. He adds: "There was hardly any cowshed left in Malayalam where the Mysore Tiger did not enter." The reference is to the mass cow-slaughter carried out by Tipu's army on his orders.
    • P. Raman Menon, quoted in C. NANDAGOPAL MENON, TIPU'S OWN TESTIMONY, 1990.in Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993).
  • The Mysore Gazetteer says that the ravaging army of Tipu Sultan had destroyed more than 8000 temples in South India. The temples of Malabar and Cochin principalities had to bear the brunt of plunder and destruction. The History of Cochin by K.P. Padmanabha Menon and History of Kerala by A. Sreedhara Menon narrate some of them: "In the month of Chingam 952, Malayalam Era (corresponding to August, 1786) Tipu's Army destroyed idols of the famous Perumanam Temple and desecrated all the temples between Trichur and Karuvannur river. "Irinjalakuda and Thiruvanchikulam temples were also defiled and damaged by Tipu's Army." Some of the other famous temples looted and desecrated were as follows: Triprangot, Thrichembaram, Thirunavaya, Thiruvannoor, Calicut Thali, Hemambika Temple, the Jain Temple in Palghat, Mammiyur, Parambatali, Venkitangu, Pemmayanadu, Tiruvanjikulam, Terumanam, Vadakhumnnathan Temple of Trichur, Belur Siva Temple, Shri Veliyanattukava, Varakkal, Puthu, Govindapuram, Keraladhiswara, Trikkandiyur, Sukapuram, Maranehei Temple of Aaalvancheiri Tambrakkal, Vengara Temple of Aranadu, Tikulam, Ramanathakra, Azhinjalam Indiannur, Mannur Narayan Kanniar and Vadukunda Siva Temple of Madai.
    • K.P. Padmanabha Menon, A. Sreedhara Menon quoted in Ravi Varma, " Tipu Sultan: As Known In Kerala" in Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993).
  • The Governor of Madras Thomas Munro (1761-1827) considered Tipu’s Mysore as “the most simple and despotic monarchy in the world” (Glieg, 1830, pp. 1, 84).
    • T Munro, quoted in Tipu Sultan in History: Revisionism Revised. Narasingha Sil, 2013. Glieg, G. R. . (1830). The life of major-general Sir Thomas Munro, Bart. and K. C. B., late Governor of Madras (3 vols). London, England: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley.
  • My victorious sabre is lightning for the destruction of the unbelievers. Haidar, the Lord of the Faith, is victorious for my advantage. And, moreover, he destroyed the wicked race who were unbelievers. Praise be to him, who is the Lord of the Worlds! Thou art our Lord, support us against the people who are unbelievers. He to whom the Lord giveth victory prevails over all (mankind). Oh Lord, make him victorious, who promoteth the faith of Muhammad. Confound him, who refuseth the faith of Muhammad; and withhold us from those who are so inclined. The Lord is predominant over his own works. Victory and conquest are from the Almighty. Bring happy tidings, Oh Muhammad, to the faithful; for God is the kind protector and is the most merciful of the merciful. If God assists thee, thou wilt prosper. May the Lord God assist thee, Oh Muhammad, with mighty victory.
    • Inscription of Tipu's sword, Mysore Gazetteer, Volume 2, Part 4, eds. Conjeeveram Hayavadana Rao and Benjamin Lewis Rice (Bangalore: Government Press, 1930), Ch. 9, pp. 2697–2698
  • The reversion of Mangalore to the possession of Tipu was signalized by the forcible circumcision of many thousands of Indian Christians and their deportation to Seringapatam. A revolt in Coorg next year led to the same treatment of the greater part of the inhabitants the occasion being marked by Tipu's assumption of the tide of Badshah. ... A simultaneous rebellion occurred now in Coorg and Malabar, and the Sultan, passing through Coorg to quiet it, entered Malabar. Large parties of the Nairs were surrounded and offered the alternative of death or circumcision. ... Over 8,000 temples were also desecrated, their roofs of gold, silver and copper and the treasures buried under the idols amounting to many lakhs, being treated as royal plunder....His orders were, that 'every being in the district, without distinction, should be honoured with Islam; that the houses of such as fled to avoid that honour should be burned; that they should be traced to their lurking places, and that all means of truth and falsehood, fraud or force, should be employed' to effect their universal conversion.
    The following is a translation of an inscription on the stone found at Seringapatam, which was to have been set up in a conspicuous place in the fort:"Oh Almighty God! dispose the whole body of infidels! Scatter their tribe, cause their feet to stagger! Overthrow their councils, change their state, destroy their very root! Cause death to be near them, cut off from them the means of sustenance! Shorten their days! Be their bodies the constant object of their cares (i.e. infest them with diseases), deprive their eyes of sight, make black their faces (i.e. bring shame)."
    • Mysore Gazetteer , quoted in IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY Writ Petition No. 5435 of 1989 in : Tipu Sultan - Villain or Hero (1993)
  • Roderick Mackenzie (1793) commented on Tipu’s march to Trinomaly and his mayhem there in 1790:Here neither respect, for the grandeur and antiquity of their temples, nor veneration for the sacred rites of a religion whose origin no time records, proved any protection for the persons or property, even of the first Brahmins. Their pagodas, breached with sacrilegious cannon, were forcibly entered, their altars defiled, their valuables seized, their dwellings reduced to ashes, and the devastation was rendered still more horrible by the scattered remains of men, women and children, mangled beneath a murderous sword. (Vol. 1, p. 203)
    • Mackenzie, R. (1793). Sketch of the war with Tippoo Sultan (2 vols). Calcutta, India: Author. quoted in Tipu Sultan in History: Revisionism Revised. Narasingha Sil, 2013.
  • [The Persian scholar Colonel William Miles who translated Mir Hussain Kirmani’s hagiography on Tipu writes in the preface of his translation that] [Tipu] was a bigoted Muslim, and like most of that class unprincipled and quite unscrupulous as to the means he employed to attain his ends in the propagation of his religion. With these bad qualities, his dark, suspicious, faithless character, alienated those who were at first his most attached friends, and at the time Srirangapattana was taken [in the Fourth AngloMysore War], he appears to have had scarcely one [friend] left.
    • Nishan-i-Haidari—Mir Hussein Ali Kirmani, translated by Colonel William Miles in Sandeep Balakrishna. 2013. Tipu Sultan : The Tyrant of Mysore. Chennai: Rare Publications.

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  • Agrarian trade prospered in the reign of Haider and Tippu Sulthan. Kumbala, Mangalore, Mulki, Basaruru, Gangoli, Bhatkala, Honnavara and Karwar continued to be prominent trade centres of agrarian products namely rice, pepper and coconut. Both Haidar and Tippu Sulthan had intentions to expand agrarian trade ofrice and pepper to Muscat, China, Pegu, Arabia and even distant Maldiva Island. For the expansion of trade, Tippu Sulthan set up a depot at Muscat and it was placed under the charge of Amildar at Mangalore.
    Hyder and Tippu Sulthan also took keen interest in the expansion of activities further. They particularly encouraged the cultivation of cash crops namely sugarcane, pepper, arecanut, coconut, sandal wood etc. Attempts were made to bring barren and unproductive lands under the cultivation. Tippu Sulthan in particular granted barren lands to peasants and collected a nominal rate of tax. He even encouraged the cultivation of sugar cane and sandalwood. The enterprising peasants were given loans for the expansion of agricultural activities in the barren places. His Government provided irrigation facility in places, where it was feasible.
    Both Haidar and Tippu sulthan took interest in improving the communication system with an intention of increasing the agrarian trade in rice, pepper and coconut produced in the Kingdom. For instance, the state constructed boats for the sea trade. The state ships carried rice, pepper, sugarcane and coir to Muscat, Aden, Arabia and Red Sea region and even distant China. The state maintained roads and provided facilities to the traders.
    Although Tippu’s revenue code was framed with great ability, it was badly implemented by his officers of whom the Sultan had lost his grip after 1792. Newly recruited revenue officers were indulged in corruption and dishonesty. They kept the revenue accounts in the most unreliable manner. For instance in Kanara, the ryots in 1796 A.D. under Tippu received a nominal remission of 20% of their assessment but the remitted amount was paid in years between 1796 and 1799 as a bribe to the revenue officers.
    Along with the Muslims, “trusted Brahmans” from the region of Mysore were entrusted with the revenue administration of South Kanara. The defective implementation of Tippu’s agrarian policy adversely affected the status of the Christian agriculturist, the Gowda-Sarasvats and the Jain Paleyagars in the agrarian set up in the region under study.
  • "The communal Mappila outrage of 1921 in Malabar could be easily traced to the forcible mass conversion and related Islamic atrocities of Tipu Sultan during his cruel military regime from 1783 to 1792. It is doubtful whether the Hindus of Kerala had ever suffered so much devastation and atrocities since the reclamation of Kerala by the mythological Lord Parasurama in a previous Era. Many thousands of Hindus were forcibly converted into Muhammadan faith."
    • K. Madhava Nair, on page 14 of his famous book, Malabar Kalapam (Mappila outrage). Quoted in V.M. KORATH: THE SWORD OF TIPU SULTAN in Goel S.R. (Ed.) Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993).
  • rockets made an extraordinary impression on the British, and led, from 1801, to what would now be called a vigorous research and development programme (at the Royal Woolwich Arsenal). Sir William Congreve made systematic studies of propellants, analysed performance applying Newton’s laws, developed a series of rockets of different sizes and characteristics, made a comparative cost analysis and published three books on the subject. Rockets were soon systematically used by the British during the Napoleonic Wars and their confrontation with the U.S. during 1812-14.
    • Rockets in Mysore and Britain, 1750-1850 A.D. by Roddam Narasimha, 1985, Quoted in Striking legacy, Frontline Magazine, 23 November 2018.
  • In March, 1789, a Mysorean force of 19000 men with 46 field-pieces, surrounded 2000 Nayars with their families in an old fort at Kuttipuram, the head-quarters of the Kadathanad Raja’s family which the besieged defended for several days. ‘At last, finding it untenable. they submitted to Tippu’s terms which were a voluntary profession of the Muhammadan faith or a forcible, conversion with deportation from their native land. The unhappy captives gave a forced assent and on the next day the rite of circumcision was performed on all the males, every individual of both sexes being compelled to close the ceremony by eating beef. This achievement was held out as an example to the other detachments of the army. Christian and Pagan women were forcibly married to Muhammadans.’
    Tippu had made repeated vows to honour the whole of the people of Malabar with Islam and would have carried out the vow, and Malabar would have been a Moslem country, but for the treaty dated 18th March, 1792, under which Tippu was forced to yield Malabar to the East India Company.
    • Citing William Logan’s Malabar Manual, Gopalan Nair says: Diwan Bahadur C. Gopalan Nair, The Moplah Rebellion, 1921, Norman Printing Bureau, Calicut, 1923, p. 4. quoted from J. Sai Deepak, India, Bharat and Pakistan - THE CONSTITUTIONAL JOURNEY OF A SANDWICHED CIVILISATION, 2022

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  • Lewis Rice estimates in his Mysore Gazetteer that Tipu had destroyed about 8000 temples in South India. Colonel R.D. Palsokar also confirms this number in his study on Tipu Sultan when he says that Tipu relates that he had destroyed 8000 temples, many of them with roofs of gold, silver, copper and all containing treasures buried under the idols. The Raja of Cherakal offered him Rs. 400000 and the plates of gold with which one particular temple was roofed but Tipu said that he would not spare it for all the treasures of the earth and sea.
    • Colonel R.D. Palsokar . Study of Tipu Sultan—Colonel Palsokar in Sandeep Balakrishna. 2013. Tipu Sultan : The Tyrant of Mysore. Chennai: Rare Publications.
  • Tipu imprisoned and forcibly converted more than a lakh Hindus and over 70,000 Christians in the Malabar region (they were forcibly circumcised and made to eat beef). Although these conversions were unethical and disgraceful, they served Tipu’s purpose. Once all these people had been cut off from their original faith, they were left with no option but to accept the very faith to which their ravager belonged, and they began to educate their children in Islam. They were later enlisted in the army and received good positions. Most of them morphed into religious zealots, and enhanced the ranks of the Faithful in Tipu’s kingdom. Tipu’s zeal for conversion was not limited only to the Malabar region. He had spread it all the way up to Coimbatore.
    • Life of Tipu Sultan published by the Pakistan Administrative Staff College, Lahore in 1964: Life of Tipu Sultan—Pakistan Administrative Staff College, Lahore, translated by Bernard Wycliffe. In: S. Balakrishna, Seventy years of secularism. 2018.
  • It was not religious bigotry that made Tipu issue this amazing proclamation. He was firmly convinced that in asking the Nairs to give up what he called their obscene habits, he was undertaking a mission of civilisation. It is the narrow reformer’s mind, anxious for the moral and material welfare of the people, and not the fanaticism of the bigot desirous of converting the Kafir, that speaks in his proclamation.
    • K.M. Panikkar in his book History of Kerala: 1498-1801 Quoted in Contested legacy, Frontline Magazine, 11 December 2015.
  • Tipu’s moves are not good. He is full of arrogance. Recently Nur Muhammad received a letter from Tipu that he converted 50,000 Hindus including women and children to Islam, no Padishah or Vazir did it in the past, with God’s grace he could. He converts entire villages.
  • "Kozhikode was then a centre of Brahmins. There were around 7000 Namboodiri houses of which more than 2000 houses were destroyed by Tipu Sultan in Kozhikode alone. Sultan did not spare even children and women. Menfolk escaped to forests and neighbouring principalities. Mappilas increased many fold (due to forcible conversion).... "During the military regime of Tipu Sultan, Hindus were forcibly circumcised and converted to Muhammadan faith. As a result the number of Nairs and Brahmins declined substantially."
    • Elankulam Kunjan Pillai quoted in V.M. KORATH: THE SWORD OF TIPU SULTAN in Goel S.R. (Ed.) Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993).
  • Muhammadans greatly increased in number. Hindus were forcibly circumcised in thousands. As a result of Tipu's atrocities, strength of Nairs and Chamars (Scheduled Castes) significantly diminished in number. Namboodiris also substantially decreased in number.
    • Elamkulam Kunjan Pillai in the Mathrubhoomi Weekly of December 25, 1955, in : LATE P.C.N. RAJA, RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE OF TIPU SULTAN (This is the English translation of the Malayalam article by P.C.N. Raja first published in Kesari Annual of 1964. The late Raja was a senior member of the Zamorin Royal Family.), in : in Goel S.R. (Ed.) Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993).
  • "During Malayalam Era 965 corresponding to 1789-90, Tipu Sultan crossed over to Malabar with an army of uncivilised barbarians. With a sort of fanatical love for Islamic faith, he destroyed many Hindu temples and Christian churches which were the custodians of precious wealth and religious traditions. Besides, Tipu Sultan abducted hundreds of people and forcibly circumcised and converted them to Islam - an act which was considered by them as more than death."
    • Govinda Pillai in his famous book, History of Literature;, quoted in : LATE P.C.N. RAJA, RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE OF TIPU SULTAN (This is the English translation of the Malayalam article by P.C.N. Raja first published in Kesari Annual of 1964. The late Raja was a senior member of the Zamorin Royal Family.) in : Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993).
  • "With respect to the much-published land-grants I had explained the reasons about 40 years back. Tipu had immense faith in astrological predictions. It was to become an Emperor (Padushah) after destroying the might of the British that Tipu resorted to land-grants and other donations to Hindu temples in Mysore including Sringeri Mutt, as per the advice of the local Brahmin astrologers. Most of these were done after his defeat in 1791 and the humiliating Srirangapatanam Treaty in 1792. These grants were not done out of respect or love for Hindus or Hindu religion but for becoming Padushah as predicted by the astrologers."
    • Biography of the Diwan of Travancore, Life History of Raja Kesavadas by V,R. Parameswaran Pillai. quoted in C. NANDAGOPAL MENON, TIPU'S OWN TESTIMONY, 1990. in : Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993).

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  • 'In a deliberately designed taxation scheme, the religious prejudice of Tipu Sultan became quite clear. His co-religionists, Muslims, were exempted from house tax, commodity tax and also the levy on other items of household use. Those who were converted to Muhammadanism, were also given similar tax exemptions. He had even made provisions for the education of their children. Tipu Sultan discontinued the practice of appointing Hindus in different administrative and military jobs as practised by his father, Hyder Ali Khan, in the past. He had deep hatred towards all non-Muslims. During the entire period of sixteen years of his regime, Purnaiyya was the only Hindu who had adorned the post of Dewan or minister under Tipu Sultan. In 1797 (two years before his death) among the 65 senior Government posts, not even a single Hindu was retained. All the Mustadirs were also Muslims. Among the 26 civil and military officers captured by the British in 1792 there were only 6 non-Muslims. In 1789, when the Nizam of Hyderabad and other Muslim rulers decided that only Muslims would be appointed henceforth in all Government posts, Tipu Sultan also adopted the same policy in his Mysore State. Just because they were Muslims, even those who were illiterate and inefficient, were also appointed to important Government posts. Even for getting promotions, one still had to be a Muslim under Tipu Sultan's regime. Considering the interest and convenience of only Muslim officers, all the records relating to tax revenue, were ordered to be written in Persian rather than in Marathi and Kannada as followed earlier. He even tried to make Persian the State language in place of Kannada. In the end all the Government posts were filled by lazy and irresponsible Muslims. As a consequence the people had to suffer a great deal because of those fun-seeking and irresponsible Muslim officers. The Muslim officers, occupying important posts at all levels, were all dishonest and unreliable persons. Even when people complained to him with evidences against those officers, Tipu Sultan did not care to inquire about the complaints lodged."
    • M.A. Gopal Rao, quoted in : LATE P.C.N. RAJA, RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE OF TIPU SULTAN (This is the English translation of the Malayalam article by P.C.N. Raja first published in Kesari Annual of 1964. The late Raja was a senior member of the Zamorin Royal Family.) , in: Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993).
  • "Whatever cruelties, the local Mappilas were desirous of indulging in the land, Tipu Sultan and his army of Muslim converts did. The ancient and holy temples were heartlessly defiled or burnt down. The ruins of those temples destroyed by Tipu's fanatic army are the existing evidences of the atrocities committed by Muslims in the country. Christian churches also had to suffer widespread destructions. However, Tipu Sultan spared only the territories of Cochin Raja who had surrendered to Hyder Ali Khan in the beginning itself. Still, when Tipu Sultan and his army entered Parur and started firing at Kodungallur, the Cochin Raja sent a letter to the Travancore Raja requesting him 'to protect me and my family'."
    • Dewan of Travancore, Madhava Rao, History of Travancore, quoted in: LATE P.C.N. RAJA, RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE OF TIPU SULTAN (This is the English translation of the Malayalam article by P.C.N. Raja first published in Kesari Annual of 1964. The late Raja was a senior member of the Zamorin Royal Family.)in: Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993).
  • In the vast empire of Tipu Sultan on the eve of his death, there were only two Hindu temples having daily pujas within the Sreerangapatanam 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.
    • Lewis Rice, cited in : V.M. KORATH, THE SWORD OF TIPU SULTAN: in Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993).
  • Speaking of Tipu, Major James Rennell (1742-1830) observed perspicaciously as early as 1792: He is unquestionably the most powerful of all the native princes of Hindoostan; but the utter detestation in which he is held by his own subjects, renders it improbable that his reign will be long. (cited in Rao, 1948, Vol. 3, p. 1230)
    • Rennell, quoted in Tipu Sultan in History: Revisionism Revised. Narasingha Sil, 2013.

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  • The verse inscribed on his epitaph at Srirangapattana provides eminent testimony to this fact. It commemorates him as the “Haidari Sultan who died for the Faith.” The text in the Farsi original and its translation (emphasized) follow:
    The light of Islam and the faith left the world; Tipu on account of the faith of Muhammad was a martyr
    The sword was lost The offspring of Haidar was a great martyr
    The verse was composed by Mir Hussein Ali and written by Abdul Kadir. The date inscribed on the tomb is 1213 Hijri which corresponds to the year 1799.
    • epitaph at Srirangapattana , quoted from Sandeep Balakrishna. 2013. Tipu Sultan : The Tyrant of Mysore. Chennai: Rare Publications.
  • He (Tipu Sultan) was indifferent to women even though his seraglio contained many beautiful ladies. The case of Coorg women who fell into his hands is a good illustration of this statement. But his indifference did not arise from any temperamental dullness. He had to set a proper example and was therefore very careful. His attitude towards Ali Raza Beebi of Tellicherry goes to prove that he would not hesitate to punish the faithless even among well-placed women. He created a special military corps, Usud-Illahis, with a desire to make such ill-advised persons physically strong. It is said that there was a touch of romance however in the whole business. But this did not out-weigh his higher intention, which was prescribed by the holy Koran.
    Drunkenness, Prostitution and Irreverance were the most common vices. It appears from the available evidence that Tipu Sultan was the sole exception among the Muhammadan rulers of his time and among the noblemen of his own country to have had a real abhorrence to these social evils.
  • Tipu was one of our great statesmen, and politically he was committed to driving the British out of the country. He took into account both his Muslim and Hindu subjects. He was farsighted, particularly the way in which he tried to be self-sufficient and manufacture rockets. If he had mastered the technique, probably the history of India would’ve taken a different turn.
  • Vilification of Tipu was linked to the development of an imperial culture. Expansionist Governors General consciously blackened the character of Tipu to make their own aggressive actions more palatable to British audiences at home. Through a process of reversal, preventive war came to be justified as defensive in nature, protecting the native inhabitants of Mysore from the depredations of an unspeakable despot. The increasingly vilified and caricatured representations of Tipu allowed the East India Company to portray itself as fighting a moral crusade to liberate southern India from the depredations of a savage ruler. Company servants were recast in the British popular imagination from unscrupulous nabobs into virtuous soldier-heroes that embodied the finest qualities of the British nation. The study of the faithless and violent character of ‘Tippoo the Tyrant’ ultimately reveals much about how empire is constructed at home and abroad.
    • Michael Soracoe in his thesis, Quoted in Contested legacy, Frontline Magazine, 11 December 2015.
  • Tipu destroyed at least three Hindu temples: the Harihareswara temple at Harihar, the Varahaswami temple at Srirangapatnam, and the Odakaraya temple at Hospet. In the Tamil land and in Malabar, he earned the sobriquet of “a Brahman-killer and a despoiler of south Indian temples”
    • Tipu Sultan in History: Revisionism Revised, N. Sil, 2013 [9] also in Jain, M. (2010). Parallel pathways: Essays on Hindu-Muslim relations, 1707-1857. citing Brittlebank, K. (1997). Tipu Sultan’s search for legitimacy: Islam and kingship in a Hindu domain. New Delhi, India: Oxford University Press.

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  • Tipu Sultan, in south India, engaged in the most systematic endeavours for securing forcible conversions that could be imagined.
    • Islam In India And Pakistan by Titus Murray T. p 33 [10]
  • The swords made in India were prized all over the world. The sword of Tipu Sultan is almost a legend. These facts have rarely been mentioned or brought to the notice in the publications on history of metallurgy (of iron)
  • Chokkoor Sreerama Kshethra was demolished during the time of Tipu's invasion and again during the Moplah riots (...).Tipu's army entered through the Thamarassery mountain pass, killed as many Hindus as they could, terming them as Kafirs, destroyed the temples all the way and spared only those Hindus who were willing to accept Islam. They demolished nearby temples like Kulikkapra Siva Temple, Kuzhikalaattu Siva Temple, Pongattur Subrahmanya Temple near to Manipuram, etc., and reached Chokkoor Srirama Temple.
    • Tirur Dinesh: Destroyed Temples of Kerala, vol.1, Trasadasyu Publ., Trivandrum 2020, 157 pp., ISBN 978-81-939299-2-6, (p.59-60)

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  • There was no limit as to the loss the Hindu temples suffered due to the military operations of Tipu Sultan. Burning down the temples, destruction of the idols installed therein and also cutting the heads of cattle over the temple deities were the cruel entertainments of Tipu Sultan and his equally cruel army. It was heartrending even to imagine the destruction caused by Tipu Sultan in the famous ancient temples of Thalipparampu and Thrichambaram. The devastation caused by this new Ravana's barbarous activities have not yet been fully rectified.
    • Vatakkankoor Raja Raja Varma in his famous literary work, History of Sanskrit Literature in Kerala, in: LATE P.C.N. RAJA, RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE OF TIPU SULTAN (This is the English translation of the Malayalam article by P.C.N. Raja first published in Kesari Annual of 1964. The late Raja was a senior member of the Zamorin Royal Family.) : in Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993).
  • "The number of temples destroyed during Tipu's invasion is countless. It was the hobby of Tipu and his army to put the temples on fire destroy the idols and indulge in cow-slaughter. The memory of destruction of the Talipparampu and Trichambaram temples aches the heart."
    • Vadakunkur Raja Raja Varma in Kerala Samskrita Sahitya Charitram (History of Sanskrit Literature in Kerala):, quoted in C. NANDAGOPAL MENON, TIPU'S OWN TESTIMONY, 1990.: in Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993).
  • A few good books on medicine were also written in the time of Tipu Sultan of Mysore, such as (i) Mufardiit-e-Tibb, (ii) Bahr-ul-Muniifi' and (iii) Tuhfa-e-Muhammadia. Unfortunately, these compilations did not enjoy popularity in the field of medical science.
  • He gave open demonstration of his tyranny and hatred towards the Christians... He exterminated the Christians of all those places....
    • Portuguese viceroy, in letter to the Secretary of State. in Moraes G. 2001, quoted from Jain, M. (2010). Parallel pathways: Essays on Hindu-Muslim relations, 1707-1857. 67.
  • The Malabar Manual mentions that the Thrichambaram and Thalipparampu temples in Chirackal Taluqa, Thiruvangatu Temple (Brass Pagoda) in Tellicherry, and Ponmeri Temple near Badakara were destroyed by Tipu Sultan. Equally, the Maniyoor mosque was built after razing a Hindu temple to the ground. Vatakkankoor Raja Raja Varma’s History of Sanskrit Literature echoes Logan’s Malabar Manual more vividly: There was no limit as to the loss the Hindu temples suffered due to the military operations of Tipu Sultan. Burning down the temples, destruction of the idols installed therein and also cutting the heads of cattle over the temple deities were the cruel entertainments of Tipu Sultan and his equally cruel army. It was heartrending even to imagine the destruction caused by Tipu Sultan in the famous ancient temples of Thalipparampu and Thrichambaram. The devastation caused by this new Ravana’s barbarous activities has not yet been fully rectified.
    • Vatakkankoor Raja Raja Varma’s History of Sanskrit Literature in Sandeep Balakrishna. 2013. Tipu Sultan : The Tyrant of Mysore. Chennai: Rare Publications.

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  • A dark and intolerant bigotry excluded from Tippoo’s choice all but the true believers; and unlimited persecution united in detestation of his rule every Hindoo in his dominions. In the Hindoos no degree of merit was a passport to favour; in the Mussulman no crime could ensure displeasure. (Wilks, 1810-1817/1869, Vol. 2, p. 383)
    • Wilks in Tipu Sultan in History: Revisionism Revised. Narasingha Sil, 2013. Wilks, M. , Col. (1869). Historical sketches of the South of India, in an attempt to trace the history of Mysore, from the origin of the Hindoo government of the state, to the extinction of the Mohammedan dynasty in 1799 (2 vols). Madras, India: L. Higginbotham. (Original work published 1810-1817)

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  • Tipu equally allowed Hindus to practice their religion freely, gave large donations, weekly offerings, financially supported Hindu ceremonies, relied on the prayers of eminent Hindu priests and generally appears to have provided protection for Hindu property. In one case, he even ordered the construction of a Hindu temple.

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  • Your letter replete with sentiments of friendship and regard, expressing your solicitude for the propagation of the Faith and the extirpation of the abandoned irreligious infidels…for the increase of our dominion and the success of our triumphant banners. As the object of your well-directed mind is the destruction of the infidels and the extension of the Faith of the Prophet, please God, we shall soon march with our conquering army to wage war with the infidels and try to free those regions from the contamination of those shameless tribes with the edge of [our] swords…
    • Letter by Zaman Shah to Tipu Sultan, , quoted from Sandeep Balakrishna. 2013. Tipu Sultan : The Tyrant of Mysore. Chennai: Rare Publications.

See also

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