About the Book

Book: Tipu Sultan

Author: Vikram Sampath

Publisher: Penguin

Price: Rs 1499/-

A powerful book revisits distorted narratives and uncovers the legacy of Tipu Sultan’s reign, presenting a thought-provoking account of a lesser-known chapter in Indian history, the author challenges misconceptions and sheds light on the atrocities committed by Tipu Sultan, says KUMAR CHELLAPPAN

Most of us have heard about the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), formed in 1972 by the Government of India to foster objective and scientific writing of history and to inculcate an informed appreciation of the country’s national and cultural heritage.

The ICHR, since the day it was formed, has been jam-packed with Leftist intellectuals who decide what the true history is and what should be told to the world about the history and tradition of the subcontinent. It was the Marxists who constituted the think tank and determined the quality of Indian history. The organisation publishes a journal Indian Historical Review (IHR) twice a year and it is said that the publication has a list of historical research undertaken by the eminent historians in the country whose are the last words in history.

The IHR is published by a foreign agency with a dubious track record. The old issues are sold across the counters in ICHR’s stalls during book fairs and exhibitions. It is priced at Rs 800/ — per issue to make sure that ordinary mortals do not buy or read these reviews.  Neither Raghuvendra Tanwar, Chairman, nor other members of the ICHR could give an answer to the query why this review is being published by an outside agency while the Council itself is flush with funds. A top official, when asked and pointed out this discrepancy, told this writer, “Dekhenge” (Let’s see). The reasons behind the mystery associated with the ICHR are not much to seek. The organisation has a lot to hide from the public eye.

If you have any doubts, please read what has been written by S L Bhyrappa, that wonderful scholar from Mysore, as foreword to Tipu Sultan —The Saga of Mysore’s Interregnum (1760-1799) authored by Vikram Sampath, the young historian who created a storm with his earlier book on Savarkar. Since 1969, what we read and learn as history in schools and universities in the country is manufactured history and tampered chronicles.The series Yes, Prime Minister, authored by Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay and telecast as a series by Doordarshan way back in the 1980s, is a good example. There was this cabinet minister in Britain, Right Hon. James Hacker, who was elevated as Prime Minister of the country by accident. Hacker wanted to leave an indelible track record about his tenure and asked Lynn and Jay to edit his memoirs. “We were astonished to discover that, at times, Hacker seems to have decorated and rearranged past events in order to present himself in a favourable light… We cannot believe that any politician would rearrange past events deliberately in order to distort the historical record and so we have had to assume that Hacker had some strange defect of mind that frequently led him to ask not ‘What did I do?’ but ‘What is the most impressive explanation of my actions that cannot be disproved by published facts?”

Bhyrappa says that a meeting of educationists was convened by G Parthasarathy, an acolyte of Indira Gandhi, and asked them to rewrite Indian history to integrate the nation through education. For that to happen, Parthasarathy wanted the educationists to remove the unpalatable truths from Indian history and fill it with half-lies and full lies so that students would remain ignorant of the cruelties meted out by the likes of Aurangzeb, Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan, all Islamic zealots. What the then government wanted was to black out the cruel deeds and genocides of Hindus by Aurangzeb and others. When Bhyrappa objected to this diktat, he was quickly eased out of the committee and replaced with a Marxist ideologist.

Since then, we have been hearing about Akbar the Great, Aurangzeb the Mighty, and Tipu Sultan the Lion, etc. What Sampath has done in this 904 — page volume is a chronicle of events launched by Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan as rulers of Mysore and the treachery committed by the duo to cleanse the region free of infidels. During Tipu’s campaign in the Malabar province, he took into custody thousands of Hindus and asked them: “Sword or Islam?” Those who refused to get converted to Islam were slaughtered instantly.

The Malabar campaign of Tipu stands out for the murder and mayhem unleashed by him in the region. Not only Malabar, the entire stretch of area from Kasaragod to Kochi bore the brunt of his savage deeds.

Tipu Sultan, portrayed as the embodiment of secularism, had destroyed, demolished, desecrated and plundered thousands of temples spread across Karnataka, Malabar and Kochi. But there are certain forces out to whitewash him as an angel. His father, Hyder Ali, too was a barbarian and had murdered the Wodeyar King who had appointed him as a commander in the Mysore Army.

In yet another book It Happened Along the Kaveri, authors Padma Seshadri and Padma Malini had recounted with proof that Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan were the founding fathers of scams and corruption.

Sandeep Balakrishna, in his compendium Tipu Sultan: The Tyrant of Mysore, buried Tipu, while Vikram Sampath has erected his gravestone with this work. A moviemaker like Vivek Agnihotri has enough material in this book for a widescreen film. If you miss this book, you are the loser.