Tipu Sultan is projected by ‘historians’, as a “secularist and freedom fighter” while the truth is that Tipu Sultan guilty of many barbaric acts waged wars to spread his kingdom and his religion.
Tippu Sultan’s barbarous acts
During Tipu’s campaigns to Coorg, he carried out a systematic Hindu genocide. Around 40000 to 50,000 Hindus were captured and shipped off to Srirangapatnam, where they were converted to Islam. The men were forcibly circumcised while the women were abducted into harems.
The inscription on Tipu Sultan sword is available (four swords are on permanent display in two renowned Museums in London): “My victorious saber is lightning for the destruction of the unbelievers. Haidar, the Lord of the Faith, is victorious for my advantage. 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…”
As per John Wilks, a resident at the Wadiyar court, Tipu’s atrocities during the Malabar campaigns - forced conversions, circumcisions and forcible feeding of beef – were recorded in the ‘Sultan ut Tawarik’. Wilks wrote, “The destruction in the course of this holy war, of eight thousand idol temples, many of them roofed with gold, silver, or copper, and all containing treasures at the feet of the idol, the whole of which was royal plunder….”
In the ‘Sultan ut Tawarik’, Tipu goes on to express joy over the large number of people he has managed to convert during his conquest of Malabar. In a letter to Burduz Zamaun Khan, he puts the number at 4 lakh. In a letter to Syed Abdul Dulai, he wrote, “With the grace of Prophet Muhammad and Allah, almost all Hindus in Calicut are now 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.”
In retrospect, no wonder Kerala is now the hotbed of Muslim radical churning.
Next, James Scurry, a British soldier who was imprisoned in Srirangapatna for 10 years, wrote a memoir after managing to escape that “…Hindus were driven, to the number of 30,000, to Srirangapatna, …Their daughters were, many of them beautiful girls, and Tipu was determined to have them for his seraglio, but this they refused, and he raped them. This being done, the officers tied their hands behind them. Their noses, ears, and upper lips were cut off; they were then mounted on asses, their faces towards the tail, and led through Srirangapatna, with a wretch before them proclaiming their crime.”
In 1790, Tipu ordered the massacre of 800 Mandyam Iyengar Brahmins of the village of Melukote, an important centre of learning and Srivaishnavism, on the day of Narakchaturdashi. To this day, the Mandyam Iyengar community does not light a single lamp on Diwali since it is observed as a period of mourning.
The current generation is learning the real history and this might be the reason behind “no bids for Tippu’s sword”.
