It was 15th of August, Indian Independence day; it was Friday too, the day for congregational prayers for Muslims. The mosque was full of faithful, the maulana said “yeh mulq hamara beh nahin, hamara hain” (it is not my country too, but it is my country). He revisited the history of Indian independence; how Muslims played an important role in the independence struggle. He was trying to shed light on the untold stories of Muslim freedom fighters, The Reshmi Rumal Movement or The Silk Letter Movement , the Khilafat movement, the rebellion of 1857 under Bahadur Shah Zafar; how Muslim religious leaders were influential in leading the community against the British rule.
He spoke about his visit to the Gumbaz, the mausoleum of Tipu Sultan at the historic town of Srirangapatna.Tipu sultan, erstwhile ruler of Mysore kingdom and resister of the East India Company who was killed by the British on May 4th, 1799. On November 20, 1750, military officer Hyder Ali of the Kingdom of Mysore and his wife, Fatima Fakhr-un-Nisa, welcomed a new baby boy in Bangalore, their first. They named him Fath Ali, but also called him Tipu Sultan after a local Muslim saint, Tipu Mastan Aulia.
During the reign Hyder Ali, he aggressively expanded his domains, using his French-trained army to defeat the Marathas, the rulers of the Carnatic and other Indian powers. Mysore also faced growing opposition from the British, who were allied to several of the rulers in conflict with Hyder Ali. A clash for control of southern India was inevitable and two wars were fought, the First and Second Mysore Wars (1767-69 and 1780-84). While his father rose to fame and prominence, young Tipu Sultan was receiving an education from the finest tutors available. He studied such subjects as riding, swordsmanship, shooting, Koranic studies, Islamic jurisprudence, and languages such as Urdu, Persian, and Arabic. Tipu Sultan also studied military strategy and tactics under French officers from an early age, since his father was allied with the French in southern India. At age 15, he accompanied his father against the British in the First Mysore War in 1766. He commanded a corps of cavalry in the invasion of Carnatic in 1767 at age 16. He also distinguished himself in the First Anglo-Maratha War of 1775–1779. Tipu Sultan inherited the throne from his father Haidar Ali.
Tipu was a keen student of mathematics and science and always ready to apply new technologies to warfare. For example, the rockets Tipu used were more advanced than those previously seen by the British, largely because of the use of iron tubes for holding the propellant; this enabled higher thrust and longer range for the missile (up to two km). The British captured Mysore iron rockets and they later influenced their own rocket development during the Napoleonic Wars. Tipu Sultan realized that the British East India Company remained a serious threat to his independent kingdom. He funded continuous military advances, including further development of the famous Mysore rockets – iron tubes that could fire missiles up to two kilometers, terrifying British troops and their allies. Tipu also built roads, created a new form of coinage, and encouraged silk production for international trade. He was particularly fascinated and delighted with new technologies, and had always been an avid student of science and mathematics. A devout Muslim, Tipu was tolerant of his majority-Hindu subjects’ faith. Famed as warrior-king, the “Tiger of Mysore,” Tipu Sultan proved an able ruler in times of relative peace as well.
Tipu led a stout defence that saw nearly 10,000 Mysoreans killed, including Tipu himself who may have been betrayed by one of his own confidants. His body was dragged from beneath a pile of dead by the city’s northern gate, suggesting that he had continued fighting to the very end. Following his death, Mysore was partitioned and the rump of the state given to a British client ruler. Tipu, nicknamed the ‘Tiger of Mysore’, was one of the most formidable Indian opponents the British ever faced and his death removed one of the blocks to their conquest of the sub-continent. With Tipu Sultan’s death, Mysore became another princely state under the jurisdiction of the British Raj. Tipu Sultan fought long and hard, although ultimately unsuccessfully, to preserve his country’s independence. Today, Tipu sultan is remembered by many as a heroic freedom fighter in India and also in Pakistan.
Tipu Sultan has been a controversial figure in Indian history; some hail him as a “patriot”, and a “hero”. But others are highly critical, calling him a “barbarian” and a “murderer”. Some argue that Tipu Sultan – who was a Muslim – was a brutal ruler who razed villages, destroyed Hindu temples and Christian churches, and forced tens of thousands to convert to Islam. Public opinion in England considered him a vicious tyrant, while modern Indian nationalists have hailed him as a freedom fighter, but both views are the products of wishful thinking. We have to remember the fact that India was divided into many princely states before it came under the British rule. Wars were fought against another ruler to gain control and like every war the population had to face the brunt.
He was the first Indian king to be killed defending his homeland against the British Colonial Empire (British East India Company) while being supported by another Colonial Empire, the French East India Company. The British Army’s National Army Museum named Tipu Sultan among the 10 Greatest Enemy Commanders that the British Army ever faced, including him among the ranks of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The prize possession of Tipu Sultan, known as the “Tiger of Mysore”, was bought at auction last autumn by Indian drinks magnate Vijya Mallya. Tipu sultan’s sword was confiscated after his defeat and death in battle at Srirangapatna in 1799. It was auctioned by the family of Scottish General David Baird, given it for his bravery in toppling the sultan.
Descendants of Tipu Sultan, who ruled most of the southern parts of India and died fighting the British in 1799, are now living in utter poverty despite being heirs to vast estates worth hundreds of millions of dollars. His sons were sent into exile, and a different family became puppet rulers of Mysore under the British. Today his descendants are rickshaw pullers and domestic servants in Calcutta, shunned by India’s remaining royal families and humiliated by officials of a trust established to provide for their welfare. Illiterate and left to a hand to mouth existence, many of the descendants of Tipu Sultan, struggle to make both ends meet despite being heirs to Kolkata’s precious pieces of real estate. Tipu Sultan’s family were only restored to princely status in 2009.
The negligence of Indian Muslim freedom fighters represents the feeling of the Indian Muslims. Most of the Indian don’t know about their history. Most of them believe history of Muslim freedom fighters went away with formation of Pakistan and Bangladesh as a matter of fact they believe Muslims had no role to play; this feeling is shared by the Indian Muslims too. The freedom struggle of India is like a black box full of mysteries and controversies. The death of great freedom fighter Shubas Chandra Bose is still classified, some say he died in a plane crash, he died in Russia etc., and then there is the controversy surrounding the execution of martyr Bhagat Singh. The government of India is also playing a big part by allowing authors and publishers to distort history. The history books that are used in schools are a source of big concern; Schools are the only place of learning apart from home, and with this altered history; we would be creating generation of Indians of corrupted knowledge of Indian history.
Muslim’s are questioned about their patriotism, their love for the country and with news of terrorism making headlines, young Muslims are getting into a shell. People always need role models and inspiration, and the current state of Muslims can be understood based on the knowledge of their history, they don’t have inspiration, role models, and even if there is a minute piece of history of Indian Muslim’s struggle for independence, some vested entity are trying to wipe it out from the pages of Indian history. It is high time we understood the importance of freedom fighters and their legacy. The legend of Tipu Sultan though controversial is inspiring, the way he faced the British and the way he died with naked sword in his hands.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipu_Sultan
http://asianhistory.about.com/od/india/p/Tipu-Sultan.htm
http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/bO9Ma9Sb2g4aUvIUT29fCP/Why-we-love-to-hate-Tipu-Sultan.html
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