Who was the son of the Haider Ali who fought in British valiantly, but was finally defeated in 1799?



No one in the 18th century made the hearts of the English ‘lions’ quake with fear as much as Tipu Sultan, known as the Tiger of Mysore. So safe and just was his reign, his court poets tell us: “the deer of the forest make their pillow of the lion and tiger, and their mattress of the leopard and panther.”



These words aren’t just platitudes heaped on the Mysore ruler; they speak of a reign that forever changed the fortunes of the Indian subcontinent. There is no doubt that both Tipu Sultan and his father, Haider Ali, “brought the [British] East Indian Company nearer to ruin than any other Indian foes had brought it.”



For nearly 40 years, they halted the triumphant march of the British through southern India, refusing to make their peace with these foreign invaders, as most other powers did. This refusal to submit or compromise saw Tipu Sultan die on the battlefield in 1799, as he fought the British. Even to this day, Tipu Sultan remains a controversial figure in Indian history. Clashing interpretations of contemporary accounts have produced a figure hailed as both a national hero and a brutal tyrant.



He is seen as a restless modernizer, someone who worked to bring his kingdom into the future and resist foreign encroachment. In contrast, he has also been vilified for more than 200 years as a religious bigot who brutalized and forcibly converted Hindus and Christians under his rule. Monarch of the southern Indian state of Mysore from 1782 to 1799, he relentlessly opposed British expansionism in India to first get hailed as a patriot, only to be later denounced as a tyrant.



A master military strategist is eclipsed by the doubts cast on his myriad economic and social experiments. Ironically, there is plenty of archival materials on this historical figure, produced by enemies, friends, victims, captives, perpetrators of conquest, employees and hagiographers, topped off by the copious writings by the sultan himself.



Despite this, it seems early colonial accounts, produced by the British, are responsible for driving the popular image of Tipu Sultan as a tyrant. Demonized by some, championed by others, Tipu Sultan remains a towering figure in Indian history.



 



Picture Credit : Google


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