Tipu to lose both 'Tiger' and 'Sultan'?

Bengaluru: Since the time the 'Tiger of Mysore' Tipu 'Sultan' died in 1799 in Srirangapatna in modern Mandya district, he went down in the history books as 'a great freedom fighter' the debate on whether or not he was a freedom fighter is now raging in Karnataka. A visibly miffed Karnataka textbook committee Chairman Rohit Chakrathirta has whipped up a movement to bring out the realities about Tipu.

'Tiger of Mysore' 'Sultan' both are erroneous titles they were more of titles that are given to Tipu by modern-day historians under the influence of hegemonistic tendencies or to prove themselves more secular than the constitution of India. "They bear no legal sanction from any authority in his own times or now. These titles should be eliminated', according to the textbook committee member. This fact is already mentioned in the government's report. The government looked over the report and demanded that it be revised. Is the Mysore tiger title available starting next academic year? Sultan included? "We will address all these issues soon," Chakrathirtha said.

The Mysore tiger, according to Chakrathirtha, is likely to be 'expunged'. "We do not know who awarded Tipu the title and why? There are no government records, and as per the title 'Sultan' it is a title given in the Persian kingdom and alien to India. There are no records and no justifications in both titles. If we do not remove them the future generations of students will be misled about the history of their state" Chakrathirtha observed.

Chakratirtha said. "We have reported to the government on two issues". From the following academic year onwards, a revised text will be published which will have a mention about Tipu but in an abridged version with both titles expunged.

Not just Tipu, but many concepts have been altered, according to a report submitted to the administration 15 days ago. The modification text will be implemented in the following academic year. From 1st to 10th grade, we rewrote the text. These cover linguistic topics from 1st to 5th grade, as well as social science topics from 6th to 10th grade. As a glorification, we have rewritten all of these school texts, the majority of them are about Tipu, Chakrathirtha added. "It is not rewriting history but presenting the right facts and reclaiming the right history".

In another development on the same issue, MLA of Madikeri (Kodagu district) Appacchu Ranjan has asked the education minister BC Nagesh to remove the lesson on Tipu totally and especially the mention of 'Freedom fighter' from the textbooks. "This is not the first time that I have represented it to the government I had represented it to Mr Suresh Kumar when he was the education minister" Ranjan stated.

The Kodava people (from Kodagu) recognise Tipu as a conspirator and perpetrator of a 'holocaust' for the Kodavas. "His big army of marauders and fiends could not defeat the disciplined, valiant and extremely nationalist army of the Kodavas, he tried 32 times to invade Kodagu but was badly defeated. In 1785 he conspired with the French Legionnaire General Lawly and in the guise of a truce and friendship with Kodavas and massacred thousands of Kodavas who were asked to come unarmed to a 'dinner' in the honour of a new friendship. "This is still haunting us as that was the time when our population took a dip and we were still a hopeless minority," said NU Nachappa chairperson of the Codava National Committee.

Even the Christian Community of Dakshina Kannada has a deep-rooted grouse against Tipu Sultan, their anger against him stems from the historical fact that Tipu had taken 20,000 Christians from Mangaluru and lodged them in an open space without food water and shelter for many days in Srirangapatnam near Mysuru.

Many unwilling Christians were killed on the way and many were converted and enslaved, while ladies were converted and distributed among the army of the Tipu Sultan while children were used as domestic help. He also had demolished many shrines and churches that belonged to the Catholic Christians of Kanara and Mangaluru, After the fourth Anglo-Mysore war when Tipu was defeated in Srirangapatnam in 1799 the Christians were released but only 6000 returned to Mangaluru.