Who was Tipu Sultan (1750-1799)?
1.He is also known as the “Tiger of Mysore” and was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India. At age 15, he accompanied his father, Hyder Ali Khan, the de facto ruler, against the English in the First Mysore War in 1766. The kingdom reached the height of its military power and dominion in the latter half of the 18th century under the de facto ruler Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan. During this time, it came into conflict with the Marathas, the British and the Nizam of Hyderabad which resulted in the four Anglo-Mysore wars. Success in the first two Anglo-Mysore wars was followed by defeat in the third and fourth.
2.The majority of his subjects were Hindus.
3.Tipu’s treatment of conquered Hindus and Christians, and English prisoners of war was horrible and inhumane.
The three wars of Tipu Sultan against the English
1.In 1779, the British captured the French-controlled port of Mahé. In response, Hyder Ali began a war against the British and 1780 Tipu Sultan was dispatched by Hyder Ali with 10,000 men and defeated the British and their Indian soldiers in the Battle of Pollilur. Tipu Sultan defeated the English again in 1782 and in that same year Hyder Ali died. The Second Mysore War came to an end with the 1784.
In 1785, the Dutch missionary Christian Friedrich Schwarz described the abduction of 12,000 children from the region. In 1788, Tipu ordered his governor in Calicut, on the southern Indian coast, Sher Khan, to begin converting Hindus to Islam, and in July of that year, 200 Brahmins were forcibly converted and made to eat beef.
2.He began expansionist attacks against his neighbours, and harshly put down rebellions within his territories, deporting whole populations into confinement in the city of Seringapatam/Sringapatam. He remained an enemy of the British, creating another war with an attack on British-allied Travancore in 1789. In the Third Anglo-Mysore War Tipu was forced into a humiliating peace, losing a number of previously conquered territories, such as Malabar and Mangalore.
3.In the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War the English and the Nizam of Hyderabad, the kingdom next to the kingdom of Mysore, defeated Tipu and he was killed on 4 May 1799, defending the fort of Seringapatam.
Articles with Bibliographies(for Verification of Claims) about the Actrocities by Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan against Hindus and Christians
http://www.voiceofdharma.org/books/tipu/ch04.htm
Tipu’s rockets
Tipu Sultan and rockets
Tipu Sultan’s father had used rockets making critical innovations in the rockets and Tipu Sultan had a rocket brigade of almost 6,000.The Mysorean rockets utilised by Tipu Sultan, were later updated by the British and used during the Napoleonic Wars.
The attempt to prove Tipu Sultan was not a persecutor of Hindus and Christians
Argument 1: The English records can not be trusted
Brittlebank, Hasan, Chetty, Habib and Saletare argue that stories of Tipu Sultan’s religious persecution of Hindus and Christians are largely derived from the work of early British authors such as Kirkpatrick and Wilks who they do not consider to be entirely reliable.
But against this is the independent evidence of Tipu’s documents of persecution and that by the Hindus and Indian Christians.
A. S. Chetty argues that Wilks’ account in particular cannot be trusted, Irfan Habib and Mohibbul Hasan argues that these early British authors were biased. This is repeated by Brittlebank in her recent work where she writes that Wilks and Kirkpatrick must be used with particular care as both authors had taken part in the wars against Tipu Sultan and were closely connected with English rulers.
Argument 2:the Muslim records can not be trusted
One argument is little reliance can be placed in Muslim accounts such as Kirmani’s Nishan-e Haidari. That in their anxiety to represent the Sultan as a champion of Islam, they had a tendency to exaggerate and distort the facts: Kirmani claims that 70,000 Coorgis were converted, when forty years later the entire population of Coorg was still less than that number. Coorg is now called Kodagu and is a region on the southwest coast of India. According to Ramchandra Rao Punganuri the true number of converts was about 500.
Again, whatever the numbers the fact is indisputable that Tipu Sultan was a persecutor of Christians and Muslims based on independent records by Hindus and Indian Christians, not just by the records of the English and Muslims.
A little bit about geography
Mangalore is the chief port city of the Indian state of Karnataka, southern India, in what is called the Malabar coast, famous for its Malabar pepper. The Kanara/Canara region is also part of this area.
About the St.Thomas/Syrian Christians of Mangalore
There is the story that Thomas, one of the 12 disciples went to India and died on the southern coast of India. For that reason the Christians there are called the St.Thomas Christians.They use the Aramaic dialect of Syria, called Syriac, in their services and so are also called the Syrian Christians,but they are not descended from Syrians.
The captivity of Mangalorean Catholics at Seringapatam from 1784-1799,the worst in their history
1.Soon after the Treaty of Mangalore in 1784, Tipu gained control of Canara. He issued orders to seize the Christians in Canara, confiscate their estates, and deport them to Seringapatam, the capital of his empire. There were no priests among the captives, all the 21 arrested priests were expelled and threatened death by hanging if they ever returned. Tipu ordered the destruction of 27 Catholic churches, almost all except one were utterly destroyed.
2.According to Thomas Munro, a Scottish soldier and the first collector of Canara, 60,000 people (92% of the Mangalorean Catholics) were captured, only 7,000 escaped.
3.Francis Buchanan says 70,000 were captured and 10,000 escaped. They were forced walk 210 miles (340 km) from Mangalore to Seringapatam, and the journey took six weeks.
4.According to British Government records, 20,000 of them died on the march. According to James Scurry, a British officer, who was held captive along with Mangalorean Catholics, 30,000 of them were forcibly converted to Islam.
5.The young women and girls were forcibly made wives of the Muslims living there.
6.The young men who offered resistance were disfigured by cutting their noses, upper lips, and ears.According to Mr. Silva of Gangolim, a survivor of the captivity, if a person who had escaped from Seringapatam was found, the punishment under the orders of Tipu was the cutting off of the ears, nose, the feet and one hand.
St.Thomas Christians
More information on the persecution of Christians there
The Archbishop of Goa, which was a Portuguese city next to Karnataka, wrote in 1800:
“It is notoriously known in all Asia and all other parts of the globe of the oppression and sufferings experienced by the Christians in the Dominion of the King of Kanara, during the usurpation of that country by Tipu Sultan from an implacable hatred he had against them who professed Christianity.”
Tipu Sultan’s rule of the Malabar Coast had an adverse impact on the Saint Thomas Christian community. Many churches in Malabar and Cochin were damaged. The old Syrian Nasrani seminary at Angamaly which had been the centre of Catholic religious education for several centuries was razed to the ground by Tipu’s soldiers. A lot of centuries old religious manuscripts were lost forever.
In that invasion many Saint Thomas Christians were killed or forcibly converted to Islam. Most of the plantations held by Christian farmers were destroyed by the invading army.
The forced conversion to Islam of English men by Tipu Sultan
Captured English soldiers between 1780 and 1784 were forced to convert. After their defeat at the 1780 Battle of Pollilur, 7,000 English men were held captive by Tipu in the fortress of Seringapatnam.
Over 300 were circumcised and given Muslim names After the 10 year long captivity ended, James Scurry, one of those prisoners, recounted that he had forgot how to sit in a chair and use a knife and fork. His English was broken and his skin had become very dark.
After surrender of the Mangalore fort all the racially mixed persons, non-British foreigners and 5,600 Mangalorean Catholics were massacred.
About the title “Tiger of Mysore”
Tipu was known as the “Tiger of Mysore” and adopted this animal as the symbol of his rule. Tipu Sultan was hunting in the forest with a French friend. He came face to face with a tiger, his gun did not work, and his dagger fell on the ground as the tiger jumped on him. He reached for the dagger and killed the tiger.
Later Tipu had French engineers build a mechanical tiger for his palace. The device, known as Tipu’s Tiger, is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
The device Tipu’s Tiger
The Sources about Tipu Sultan’s atrocities
Records that we have are:
1.”The Malabar Manual” by William Logan
2.The historical chronicles of Kerala and royal houses of Malabar, which is in Kerala, southern India.
3.Historical research papers written by eminent persons
4.And official reports of the English East India Company.
The portrait of Tipu Sultan and his father Hyder Ali Khan in these sources
They clearly show that Tipu Sultan and his father were bigoted, brutal and fanatical Muslims. The remains of hundreds of shattered Hindu temples and many dead all along the invasion routes of Tipu’s army are irrefutable proofs of the cruelty and atrocities committed by Tipu in Kerala.
He was waging a vicious Islamic war against the Hindu population of Kerala, with a large Muslim army under Muslim commanders. Tipu Sultan spent the major part of his rule in conducting military operations for subjugating the Malabar region. Wars of territorial conquest waged in Malabar by Hyder Ali Khan were intended more for spreading the Islam by slaughter and forcible conversion of Hindus coupled with widespread destruction of Hindu temples, than for expanding his kingdom.
Evidence of atrocities committed against the Hindus of Malabar by the army of Hyder Ali Khan are in the diary of a Muslim officer of the Mysore army as edited and published by the then surviving son of Tipu Sultan, Prince Ghulam Muhammed. But before he could succeed in conquering all the Malabar region, Hyder Ali Khan died in 1782. His son Tipu Sultan was even worse.
The genuine records of Tipu’s deeds in Kerala show that Tipu Sultan was a militant Muslim ruler, who was responsible for the destruction of hundreds of Hindu temples, large-scale forced conversion of the Hindus, and indescribable brutalities on the Hindus in Kerala.
During the brutal days of Islamic war from 1783 to 1791, thousands of Hindus had fled Malabar, leaving behind their entire wealth, and sought refuge in Travancore State, according to an investigation by the British soon after Tipu Sultan’s death.
“The Malabar Manuel” by William Logan
The most trustworthy book for the Malabar region about the historical facts is definitely the Malabar Manual written by William Logan. William Logan was a functionary of Malabar and worked for over twenty years in Kerala. The authenticity of its contents cannot be doubted.
There are plenty of references in the Malabar Manual about the cruel military operations and Islamic atrocities of Tipu Sultan in Malabar: forced mass circumcision and conversion, large-scale killings, looting and destruction of a number of Hindu temples, and other cruelties. All the historical documents of that period clearly indicate that Tipu Sultan’s attack on Malabar had some purpose other than simple territorial conquest. It was to force all the Hindus there to convert to Islam.
An original order sent to the army by Tipu Sultan was found among the records from Palghat Fort, Kerala, after its capture by the English in 1790. It ordered the Muslim army to convert everybody in the district to Islam, that they should be traced to their hiding places, and that all means, truth or falsehood, fraud or force, should be employed convert them.
The barbarity which Tipu Sultan committed in the region of Coorg, now called Kodagu, south of Kerala was great. On one occasion, he forcibly converted over ten thousand Hindus to Islam.
On another occasion, he captured and converted to Islam more than one thousand Hindus there before imprisoning them in the Srirangapatanam fortress. In the period of confusion and disorder prevailing there during the last war of Tipu Sultan against the British, all the Coorgi prisoners escaped from the prison and became Hindus again after reaching their native kingdom. Against the solemn oath given to the Raja of Coorg, Tipu Sultan forcibly abducted a young princess from the Coorg royal family and made her his wife against her will.
Tipu Sultan came to Bidnur and forcibly converted its entire population to Islam. The people had to accept Islam for the sake of their lives. After the capture of Mangalore, thousands of Christians were also forcibly sent to Srirangapatanam where all of them were circumcised and converted to Islam.
Then he marched to Kumbla on the northern borders of Kerala, forcibly converting to Islam every Hindu on the way. In Malabar, the main targets of Tipu Sultan’s atrocities were Hindus and Hindu temples. According to the Malabar Manual a number of Hindu temples were destroyed by Tipu Sultan.
Documentary Evidence that Tipu Sultan was a religious bigot
1. Letter dated March 22, 1788 to Abdul Kadir:
“Over 12,000 Hindus were ‘honoured’ with Islam. There were many 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 Brahmin should be spared. Also they should be confined there till the dress materials sent for them, reach you.”
2. Letter dated December 14, 1788 to his Army Chief in Calicut,a port of southwest India:
“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.”
3. Letter dated January 18, 1790, to Syed Abdul Dulai:
“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 jihad to achieve that object.”
4.Tipu sent a letter on 19 January 1790 to the Governor of Bekal, Budruz Zuman Khan
It says: “Don’t you know I have achieved a great victory recently in Malabar and over four lakh Hindus (Note: 4 lakh=400,000) were converted to Islam?
I am determined to march against that cursed Raman Nair (Note: the 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.”
5.On the handle of the sword presented by Tipu to Marquess Wellesley was the following inscription:
“My victorious sabre is lightning for the destruction of the unbelievers. Hyder Ali, the Emir of the Faithful, is victorious for my advantage.
And moreover, he destroyed the wicked race who were unbelievers. Praise be to him (God), who is the Lord of the Worlds! You are our Lord, support us against the people who are unbelievers. He to who the Lord gives victory prevails over all (mankind).
Oh Lord, make him victorious, who promotes the faith of Muhammad. Confound him, who refuses the faith of Muhammad; and withhold us from those who are so inclined from the true faith. 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 you,you will prosper. May the Lord God assist you, Oh Muhammad, with a mighty great victory.”
6.The Barcoor Manuscript reports him as having said:
“All Muslims should unite together, and considering the annihilation of infidels as a sacred duty, labour to the utmost of their power, to accomplish that subject.”
According to the “History of Mysore” by Lewis Rice
During the rule of Tipu Sultan, only two Hindu temples inside the Srirangapatanam Fort were active while all other Hindu temples were confiscated. In administrative matters, Muslim bias was clearly evident, especially in the matter of taxation. Muslims were exempted from all taxes and those who were converted to Islam had the same concessions. In the case of employment, Hindus were eliminated to the maximum extent possible. The period of Tipu Sultan and his father Hyder Ali from 1766 to 1792 is the darkest phase in Kerala history.