‘Finish off like Tipu’: The facts and fiction of an 18-century death

Siddaramaiah responded by saying that he respected Tipu, like he did Kittur Rani Chennamma, Sangolli Rayanna among others. He later demanded the resignation of Narayan, saying he had no “moral right to continue in the Cabinet”. The minister has claimed his remarks were misconstrued and he regrets them if they caused Siddaramiah hurt.

The BJP has been framing the coming polls in the state as a choice between Tipu Sultan and Veer Savarkar. On Wednesday, Karnataka BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel asked people to chase away Tipu supporters “to the forest”, adding that “only those who perform bhajans of Ram” should remain “in this land”.

The conversation surrounding Tipu’s death

Tipu Sultan died in 1799 fighting the British in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore war.

The claim of Tipu being killed by the Gowda chieftains was made, arguably for the first time, in a play staged in Mysuru in November last year.

The play was based on Addanda Cariappa’s book Tipu Nijakanasugalu (Real Dreams of Tipu). Historians objected to Cariappa’s book and the play over the claims regarding how he died. They also questioned Cariappa’s observation that “80,000 Coorgis were massacred by Tipu”, citing that the actual population of Coorgis in those times could not have been beyond 10,000.

The Additional City Civil and Sessions Court in Bengaluru stayed the distribution and sale of the book for a while in response to a petition filed by the former chairman of the District Wakf Board Committee.

Cariappa had said then: “When I try to introduce the darker side and the cruel side of Tipu Sultan, my voice is suppressed. I have come out with this literary work after thorough research and based on many books. If critics think I am wrong, I am ready to have a debate.”

The exact circumstances of Tipu’s death

Speaking to The Indian Express at the time of the controversy surrounding Cariappa’s play, N S Rangaraju, a professor of ancient history and archeology at Mysore University, said: “Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda were soldiers of Hyder Ali who actually saved and protected Tipu and his mother from the clutches of the Marathas in one of the wars. However, during the fourth Anglo-Mysore War, when Tipu died, it was actually a treaty between one Lakshmamanni, the British, Marathas and the Nizams which led to meticulous planning of the attack against Tipu, including the time, place and other strategies. It is because Tipu’s army was so powerful and impenetrable that no two individuals could kill him effortlessly.”

Sunil Baboo, a Bengaluru-based collector who has gathered maps detailing the British battle plan to corner Tipu Sultan, had said, “There is no mention of any Vokkaliga trying to kill Tipu. It was the allied forces comprising the British, Marathas and Nizams who killed Tipu.”

Echoing the same, historian Nanjaraj Urs, who is based out of Mysuru, told The Indian Express that the claim of the Gowda chieftans killing Tipu was “bogus and false”.

Kate Brittlebank, who is considered one of the leading historians on Tipu, wrote in her book “Tiger: The life of Tipu Sultan” (Juggernaut, 2019): “The most credible account of his death, based on information supplied by those who were there, is that he had gone out of his palace to investigate a report that one of his generals had been killed. But by this time, enemy soldiers had entered the fort through the breach and Tipu joined in the defence. He fell, wounded. In the melee, as he lay where his men had placed him, a British soldier tried to remove his jewelled belt. Attempting to stop him, Tipu struck out with the sword he still held in his hand. The soldier shot him.”

Who was Tipu Sultan?

Tipu Sultan was the son of Haider Ali, a professional soldier of humble origins who started out as a junior officer in the army of the Wodeyar king of Mysore, and rose rapidly to ultimately take power in 1761.

Tipu was born in 1750 and, as a 17-year-old, participated in the first Anglo-Mysore War. He subsequently fought against the Marathas, and in the Second Anglo-Mysore War of 1780-84. Haider died while the war was on, and Tipu succeeded him in 1782. The war ended with the Treaty of Mangalore, in which Tipu had the upper hand. He engaged the British East India Company forces in four rounds of fighting during 1767-99.

In India’s wider national narrative, Tipu is a man of imagination and courage, a brilliant military strategist who, in a short reign of 17 years, mounted the most serious challenge that the English East India Company faced in India.

The Congress and socialists have seen Tipu as a “nationalist” because he fought the British. On the other hand, his religion as well as accounts of destruction of temples feed into the Hindutva narrative of a tyrannical and fanatical Muslim ruler.