The Great Warrior and Ruler of India

Tipu Sultan, prominently called Tiger of Mysore, was a legendary ruler of Mysore kingdom. He did not only oppose the British in South India but also effectively challenged them in their advancement towards capturing South Indian states. Till the end of his life he succeeded in keeping them from whole South India. At that time of history he was the only Indian ruler who had courage and conviction to face the mighty British. He defeated British army in the first and second Anglo-Mysore wars during the times of his father Hyder Ali. He was so much dreaded to the British that he dictated terms to the British in the Treaties of Madras and Mangalore.
Born on 20 November 1750 at Devanahalli (Bangalore), Tipu Sultan remained loyal to Indian soil and never tried to bargain his freedom from the British as some of the rulers did at those times. Tipu Sultan was not only a warrior, commander, fighter and man of words but was also an effective administrator and reformer. He died fighting the British at Srirangapattanam on 4 May 1799. His 217th death anniversary fell on 4 May 2016 and it is time when we should not only pay him tributes but honestly analyse his whole life span and struggles to save the honour of his beloved country. The befitting tribute to the legendary ruler will be to judge him by his services and deeds as unfortunately myths have overrun history as far as this great ruler is concerned.
Tipu Sultan developed such a modern war technology which has been discussed and recognised even by his adversaries, including his enemies, the British.  He was the first Indian king who had organised Rocket Artillery Brigade which was known at that time as Cushoon. He increased the number of servicemen in the various cushoons from 1500 to 5000. It is well documented how his rocket technology was later on developed by the British, who successfully used it during the war with Napoleon.
Tipu Sultan expanded the use of rockets, making critical innovations in the rocket technology and the military logistics of its use. He deployed as many as 1200 troops in his army to operate rocket launchers who were skilled in operating the weapons; they were trained to launch their rockets at an angle from the diameter of the cylinder and the distance to the target. The rockets had blades attached to them and could wreck damage when fired against a large army. The rockets deployed by Tipu Sultan during the Battle of Pollilur were much more advanced than the British East India Company had ever seen.
In 1786, Tipu Sultan decided to build a navy consisting of 20 battleships of 72 cannons and 20 frigates of 62 canons. In 1790, he appointed Kamaluddin his Mir Bahr and established massive dockyards at Jamalabad and Majidabad. The board of admiralty of Tipu Sultan consisted of 11 Commanders under service of Mirs Yam. A Mirs Yam led 30 commanders and each one of them had two ships under him. Most of the ships of Tipu Sultan had copper bottoms, a modern innovation later on developed by Admiral Suffren.
Tipu Sultan was following an advance foreign policy. It should be kept in mind that both Tipu Sultan and his father Hyder Ali were independent rulers of Mysore but they were following some degree of loyalty to the then Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II. It indicates that both Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan were much more interested in centralised governance and following customs. History records that just after his coronation, Tipu Sultan approached Mughal emperor for recognition but as Nizam Ali Khan, the then Nizam of Hyderabad was hostile towards him, Tipu Sultan failed to receive favours from the Mughal Court. On the other hand, the Nizam of Hyderabad claimed on Mysore. So Tipu Sultan began establishing contacts with other rulers.
Just imagine the loyalty of Tipu Sultan to his country India, that when Ghulam Qadir blinded Shah Alam II on 10 August 1788, Tipu Sultan was broken into tears. Tipu Sultan also established contacts with Afghan ruler Zaman Shah Durrani for defeating the British and the talks were handed towards positive direction but due to Persian attack on western borders of Afghanistan, the army of Zaman Shah were diverted and so the plan of joint Tipu-Afghan operation against the British collapsed.
History indicates that Tipu Sultan was following all established norms of his time. Perhaps due to that he sent an ambassador to the Ottoman capital Istanbul, requesting Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid-I to send urgent assistance against the British East India Company. His religious sentiments may also be understood with the facts that he sought permission from Ottoman Sultan to maintain Islamic holy religious places like Makkah, Madinah, Najaf and Karbala. But at that time the Ottomans were themselves under crisis and just overcoming the fallout of Austro-Ottoman War. So that plan was not entertained.
Tipu Sultan was standing at a crossroad of history. Wherever he approached anybody to defend India, roadblocks came. He sought support from the French but at that time the French Revolution broke out and the ruling French family Bourbon was executed and the country went into chaos. So here also he failed to get any support. His foreign policy may be understood with the fact that in February 1798, Napoleon himself wrote a letter to him, appreciating his efforts to resist the British attempts of annexation of Mysore. It is another story that this letter never reached to the doors of Tipu Sultan as a British spy seized it in Muscat. The idea of Napoleon-Tipu Sultan alliance alarmed the British Governor General Sir Richard Wellesley and so he decided for the final war with Mysore kingdom. On the other hand, just imagine the socio-political map of Indian subcontinent had Tipu Sultan-Napoleon alliance become a reality!
Tipu Sultan was also a lover of academics and languages. He launched massive educational campaigns in Urdu and Persian in the Mysore region. It is very interesting to note that Muslims of North Karnataka speak Nawayathi while those of South region speak Beary and Muslims of Kodagu speak Kodava. The main aim of Tipu Sultan was to unite his masses under two languages, Urdu and Persian. It is also well documented that he declared Persian as the official language of his Mysore Kingdom.
Tipu Sultan was a great administrator, too. His correspondence with his officials indicates that he had full grip upon the administration of Mysore kingdom. He used to send detailed instructions to them. He even borrowed good points of administration from the west which was a rarity in those times. During his reign he considerably increased trade and commerce. Some of the analysts believe that Tipu Sultan was the first Indian king who abolished feudal system in Mysore. History records his novel methods of revenue collection and judicial system and his many innovations like new scales of weights and measures, reforms in coinage and calendars, banking and finance.
Tipu Sultan was a secular ruler. His administration was running on the judicial system which was the most modern in those days. Though there are some historians who have tried to communalise him but in fact the reality is otherwise. Every ruler, under kingship or democracy, confronts those who oppose him or try to dethrone him. Tipu Sultan never fought against his own people but it is true that he crushed those elements who tried to disturb his administration and break the Mysore kingdom.
The attempts of a few British historians to depict Tipu as communal are highly erroneous. Tipu was just and fair to all. His appointment of numerous Hindus to high offices and his grants and gifts to Hindu temples and Brahmins falsify the wrong accusation that Tipu as intolerant.
Tipu Sultan not only gave grants and money to the temples owned by the Hindus but also granted them complete religious freedom. All non-Muslims, Hindus and Christians alike, were free to follow their own respective religions.
But like a modern enlightened ruler, he was not in favour of inhuman and unnatural rites and rituals. He introduced social reforms both among Hindus and Muslims. In the words of Mohd Iliyas Nadvi: “In this direction on the one hand where he imposed strict ban on the non-sensible and anti- Islamic practices among the Muslims, he also sternly abolished all such ridiculous practices among the Hindus. In those days some Hindu women in Sultanate Khudadad used to have four or more husbands and they had a matriarchal society which was strictly banned by him. The womenfolk from Malabar used to roam topless in the market. He opposed it. In some temples, particularly in the Temple of Kali of Mysore human sacrifices were made to please gods and deities. He imposed a blanket ban on it. Slavery was prevented among Hindus. Hindu women were auctioned in markets in big cities. Maids used to be kept in houses to satisfy sexual lusts of owners. A royal decree was passed which made slavery unlawful. A custom was prevalent among the Hindu women in Coorg that only the eldest son of the family was permitted to marry a woman who used to become the wife of his brothers. He imposed a ban on it also.”
These were the reasons that the Hindu majority stood by his side until his martyrdom on 4 May 1799. The day Sultan met his martyrdom; several bodies of Hindu women including young girls were found lying around the Sultan’s body. Even the British officers were stupefied to observe such dedication and intense affection of the Hindu populace towards a Muslim ruler. When the Sultan’s funeral procession was being taken along, Hindu women were weeping bitterly and smearing their heads with mud. Earlier too, when the capital was besieged, several Brahmins observed a day long fast according to their religious rites, seeking the Sultan’s victory.
Tipu Sultan built up a different administrative system which was accountable to deliver justice to masses. He was the first Indian ruler who combined eastern and western administrative systems. Even his adversaries have admitted that Edward More, the British Captain who invaded Mysore in the Third Mysore War observed, “When a person travelling through a strange country finds it well cultivated, populous with industrious inhabitants, cities, expanding commerce and everything flourishing so as to indicate happiness, he will naturally conclude to be under a form of governance which is pro-public.”
If this is the view of his bitter enemy then there is no iota of doubt that Tipu Sultan was delivering justice to his people with his able administration. Just glance over what famous economist, James Miller has said, “He (Tipu Sultan) had the discernment to perceive what is so generally hidden from eyes of rulers in a more enlightened state of society, that it is prosperity of those who labour with their hands which constitutes the principal cause of the prosperity of the state of Mysore.”
But Tipu Sultan has not received due recognition in Indian history because he was a diehard British enemy and the British tried every trick to damage his personality. Unfortunately, in post-Independent India also the Democratic governments failed to take up corrective steps.
Have we forgotten that our own missile man, former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam said, “Tipu Sultan is founder of missile technology in India”? In fact, he meant that India has developed its missile technology on the basis of rocket technology of Tipu Sultan which was unknown in those days.
It is high time when our present rulers recognised the importance and greatness of Tipu Sultan and gave him his due place. The Government should not only name some important buildings and roads after him but also establish research institutes or Tipu Sultan Chairs in central universities to study and conduct research on his contributions. Tipu Sultan has enhanced India’s technology and loved the country and her masses. Since he established a very effective naval force and used missiles also, big naval ships and some missiles should also be named after him. It is also required that historians should pursue the studies relating to him more seriously and honestly, so that the British propaganda against him is properly countered.