First it was the controversy regarding singing of Vande Mataram and now its this
D H Shankaramurthy: NCERT textbooks, which contain praises of Tipu Sultan, are ‘nonsense’
The ‘Kannada drive’ began the process of claiming another victim when, close on the heels of closure notices issued to 1,400 schools across Karnataka for not teaching in Kannada at the primary level, Shankaramurthy said on September 18 that chapters pertaining to the warrior king should be removed from school text books because he was an ‘enemy of Kannada’.
He was speaking after inaugurating the regional conference of Shiksha Bachao movement at Sheshadripuram College in Bangalore. In his speech, Shankaramurthy asserted that Tipu Sultan should not be glorified in history books, as he had taken an anti-Kannada stand by neglecting the language.The minister finds Tipu Sultan’s role in Karnataka history questionable. Here are his justifications:
â–ª It is said that the court language of the Mysore palace was changed to Perisan from Kannada
â–ª Tipu also minted many coins, which were in Persian
â–ª The sword of Tipu was also engraved in Persian
Hence, he wants the chapters on TIpu Sultan to be removed from school banks.
It seems BJP is in serious need of topics to incite communal passions. The role of Tipu Sultan in well known in history as a gallant freedom fighter and belittling his image based on his religion is like pandering to the ideologies of the uneducated, particularly from an education minister of a state with such high literacy rate. How does one adherence to a particular language makes one anti-locality? India is a multi-lingual land, languages change every 100 miles, so that means anyone with not liking for hindi is anti-India? The state minister’s arguments are absolutely ridiculous.
Girish Karnad, playwright who has studied in depth on Tipu Sultan and his play “The Dreams of Tipu� was commissioned by the BBC Radio and broadcast in Britain in 1997, has this to say
We are a democracy, we all have the right to show how stupid we are – but I think the minister of education should not exercise that right.
“Maybe it is true that he used Persian. The Mysore court under the British issued notices in English for 150 years – does that mean the Wadiyars were anti-Kannada? This is a ridiculous argument
Tipu was very versatile – he knew Kannada, Marathi, Persian and Urdu, may be even French. You could not rule South India in the 1790s unless you knew these languages
This is not the first time such an incident has happened. Unfortunately I see a trend among the champions of Hindu nationalism to use political power to re-shape history to fuel emotions and garner support from among the masses. The flap a few years ago about the BJP government selectively editing national textbooks comes to mind. Senior historians and educators have denounced the tactics of the government where it hand-picked sympathetic people to serve on councils revising the textbooks. Professionalism, scholarship and the notion of fairness was shoved aside while schoolkids’ history was spun to glorify ancient Hindu civilization and to show the minorities of India as “outsiders” and in a very negative light. Omissions and distortions were used to effect in order to hide the fault and blame for the activities of the Sangh Parivar.
Once the achievements and contributions of to India of people who were Muslim are erased and they are essentially made to look like trouble-makers for India in every age and time, what is stopping the common man from harboring a deep hatred for Muslims and thinking them to be extraneous parasites?
How many people today remember the role of madrassahs in the Independence movement? Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband and others. And now these same institutions are very easily painted with the brush of terrorism. Such contributions are either ignored or all too easily passed off as having an ulterior motive (establishing Pakistan). Which is simply untrue, since Pakistan was an unfortunate last-minute political quirk.
The intention here is not to delineate and claim credit for Muslims who along with everybody else participated in bringing India to where it now, but when these groups are doing exactly that and claiming that Muslims as a community have just been bad news for India, some sort of wake-up is necessary
This article has been co-authored by Hidayath Ansari and Sharique Ahmad
Many of the problems with interpreting history result from our tendency to either idolize or demonize historical figures, rather than analysing them. That is why we never learn from history. Let me explain this in the context of Tipu. Consider the following facts.
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Tipu was a great warrior against the British colonialists. But at the same time, he aligned himself with the French, who were not in India with noble intentions either.
He was very well-read in multiple languages and knew Kannada, Urdu and Marathi fluently besides of course Persian. But he did change the court language to Persian despite the fact that a majority of his own officials did not know the language.
He gave a lot of money for the development and maintenance of the Sri Ranganatha temple inside his fort city of Srirangapatnam. Yet, in the Malabar, he also destroyed many prominent temples for the mere reason that they were Hindu temples.
He banned many practices in Mysore based on blind superstition rather than any religious philosophy. Yet, he also promoted acts of blind superstition.
He was generally fair towards his non-Muslim subjects. But he also arranged several forced conversions of thousands of people to Islam at the threat of death.
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The point is that he, like many other great historical figures, was a complex person, with many facets to his personality. We do injustice not just to history but also to ourselves by looking unilaterally at only one aspect of his character and ignoring the others. On the one hand, those who idolize Tipu tend to gloss over many of the negative aspects of his character, that are historically well-recorded. On the other hand, others like the BJP minister in Karnataka, ignore all the positive aspects while highlighting the negative aspects. An opposite situation exists in the analysis of a figure like Shivaji – another great historical character who is either idolized or demonized, but not analyzed in all his complexity.
By not analyzing these figures and idolizing/demonizing them, we not just open ourselves to legitimate charges of hypocrisy. But we also ensure that we will never learn from history. We seem to be happy in living in a world of fantasy. It may provide momentary gratification. But it works against our interests in the long term.
Yahi to kamaal hai Sharique bhai. Tipu Sultan died fighting the British but his Muslim names prevents him from being a freedom fighter.
On one hand a ‘shaheed’ is disrespected while traitors like Scindias have not only been forgiven but their scions have placed themselves well in all political parties (Congress and BJP) and have been appropriated for siding with British
Lot could be learnt from the likes of Vasundhara, Yashodhara, Jyotiraditya, all Scindias, and similar families. The fate of Tipu Sultan’s descendants is known to everybody.
Girish: I agree with you. I call this idolizing/demonizing phenomenon as the “Indian Intolerance of Grey”. It all has to be either totally black or white; two shades that are in fact difficult to find in human character. There seems to be a strong need in us to fit people into predecided moulds. Once we have made a mould, all parts that are in excess and refuse to fit in, we will either cut off or deny. The motive (a subconscious one at best) is probably to allay the anxieties roused by accepting these excesses that do not conform to our moulds. In the same vein if Sanjay Dutt keeps an AK47 we’d forgive him readily for he is also the ‘good guy’ Munnabhai. If the same is found at the residence of a known extremist (of whichever religion) the crime assumes heinous proportions. The objectivity is lost in the attempt to take the moral highground in all issues.
Anyways coming back to the issue at hand, the textbooks cannot and should emphatically not be allowed to do away with history, simply because it is pro or anti any group, language, community. History needs to be objectively reported, only then will the children of tomorrow learn from the mistakes of today.
Sharique: no lecture for u this time:) and I did post a reply to the Islam-peaceful debate @ desipundit
Adnan: for every example there is going to be a counter example. The problem is these examples shift from the focus of debate and get personal. Dont u think the voice should be more against tarnishing of History, than against suppression of only Muslim-related History (which without doubt has been underplayed). what I am saying is that your cynicism is not unjust or wasted on me either. I understand your angst but wouldn’t questioning the bigger picture help more in the longer run?
Girish,
I agree that every historical figure has been biased but then we also base our allegations on speculations. In most cases we are ignorant of actual realities and under what circumstances a certain decision was taken. History will tell us what happened when,where and who are responsible for it but it is unable to trace back the actual happenings. There are circumstances in which decisions have to be taken which might appeal to some and not so for some others.
“Many of the problems with interpreting history result from our tendency to either idolize or demonize historical figures, rather than analysing them”
I agree but then all are not educated or rational enough to question everything they see. How many of us question the religion of the family we are born in? Our opinions are baised, for life, towards things we are exposed to as a child. And people generally follow the mass without even pomdering over their act……thats how this world is!
Its upto us to analyze them. Its a very good point you have brought up for discussion. But the main aim of the post was to prove something else
Adnan bhai,
I was ignorant of the Scindias being traitors. Aise hi hota hai..jinke paas paise hai woh apne bolte man waate hai…aur jo sahi me deserving hote hai..unka haal bad se battar ho jata hai…aise hi duniya hai
girish
yes, we lack objectivity when it comes to our historical figures, i agree. one my my most moving moments was when i was at the tomb of emperor aurangzeb a few years ago, and there was nothing to suggest here lies the body of a man who ruled this vast country.
sadia: i cannot have put it better, when you say: Dont u think the voice should be more against tarnishing of History, than against suppression of only Muslim-related History (which without doubt has been underplayed).
As far as the story of Tipu Sultan is concerned,all the cases alledging him of ‘forcible religious conversions’ were actually done by the British or sponsored by them,but done under Tipu Sultan’s name as if he had ordered it to be done.The British used this technique to malalign his character and gather allies against him.
The same principle is today being used in Kashmir by the Pakistani supporters to gather support against India.Yes there have been some incidents of human rights violation by some Indian troops also,but many many a times,terrorists clad in Indian army outfits(or act to be sent by India) attack and destroy houses and this blame goes to India.
Similarly in the case of Tipu Sultan,it was a false propaganda.It is a fact that soldiers try to plunder and loot all what they can after a war,women are abused,people tortured.But Tipu Sultan did not support such attrocities.
In his early teens while just acting as an observer,while his father was at war with one of their neighbours.Tipu by chance while travelling through the forest encountered the women quarters of the enemy king,it was captured.One of Tipu’s generals,Makbool Khan was attempting a rape on one of the women members of the enemy camp,Makbool faced the wrath of Tipu Sultan and was shot to death by Tipu himself.
Similarly rare incidents of individual military-personnel atrocities may have been committed without coming into Tipu Sultan’s notice(had they come into his notice the criminals would be punished as it was done in any of the similar cases),these were blown out of proportion by the anti-Tipu propagandists and so he was demonised.
Plus the many traitors of all he had were muslims and not hindus,his hindu ministers had been loyalists to him till his martyrdom.
Why on earth did they be loyal to this ‘anti-hindu muslim fanatic’ if he were truly so?
Many argue that his death was accidental and not as a martyr,they(anti-Tipu scholars)say that he was killed at night whilst trying to escape the humiliating defeat and British wrath.While on the other hand we have records of his death as a martyr.
If at all Tipu Sultan wanted to save his life,he’d have peacefully surrendered to the British and we know that throught history,no matter how cruel the English were with the people of the captured teritory/enemy soldiers……etc. they treated the defeated king with respect and wouldn’t punish him to death {as many Indian kings(Tipu Sultan included) did sometimes}.Thus Tipu had the option of surrendering to the British but he choose to be a soldier and met the fate of one.The British generals who were responsible for his death at that spot did not recognise that who he was and hence a through search was done and then his body was found.