TIPU SULTAN.

Tipu Sultan is a controversial figure to many Indians. Unfortunately for Indian history, by many people it is being viewed through the prism of religion alone and that gives us a completely distorted picture of history.

For me it does not matter whether Tipu Sultan is a Muslim or Hindu or for that matter from any other religion. Of late the religious interpretations of history have totally distorted its context making Tipu into a villain which he never was.  Yes, he was very vengeful and ruthless of those who tried to take favour from the British and intrigue against him, because he realized unlike many kings of the time, that the British were a threat to the country. 

That makes him the first nationalist of India way before the first struggle for independence in 1857. Kings/Nawabs of that time, be it the Marathas or the Nizam, the  Bengal nawabs or the Audh nawabs  never had this concept of stopping the British and they were quarreling within themselves to let the British in, in the process.

I felt proud when I read that for 30 years first Hyder Ali and then Tipu have been at the forefront of British public consciousness. Terrifying tales of attacks on British forces and threats to trading settlements like Madras appeared in the British newspapers of the day. By the time he died at the hands of General Harris’s troops in 1799, Tipu Sultan was the most famous Indian in the eyes of the British at that time. 

That he could overawe the British who later ruled the entire India clearly proves his worth as nothing else does. With training by the French officials Tipu modernized his army so well that it could not only match the British but also surpassed them in technology. Chinese might have invented rockets but in the world it was Hyder Ali and Tipu who first used rockets in war.

Hyder Ali had expanded on Mysore's use of rocketry, and deployed as many as 1,200 specialized troops in his army to operate rocket launchers. These men were skilled in operating the weapons and were trained to launch their rockets at an angle calculated from the diameter of the cylinder and the distance to the target. The rockets had twin side sharpened blades mounted on them, and when fired, spun and wreaked significant damage against a large army. Tipu greatly expanded the use of rockets after Hyder's death. 

 The rockets deployed by Tipu during the Battle of Pollilur were much more advanced than those the British East India Company had previously seen, chiefly because of the use of iron tubes for holding the propellant; this enabled higher thrust and longer range for the missiles (up to 2 km).

The British suffered their worst defeat in a war in India till that time in the battle of Pollilur with Tipu, suffered heavy casualties and surrendered. Here was a man who who beat the British at their own game of modern warfare while all the other kings/nawabs preferred to stay technologically backward by fighting mostly with swords and spears against modern British armies.

After Tipu's defeat in the fourth war the British captured a number of the Mysorean rockets. These became influential in British rocket development, inspiring the Congreve rocket, which was soon put into use in the Napoleonic Wars. Tipus rockets had a steel rod encasing the propellant material which was a first.

How was Tipu defeated? While the British attacked from one side, the Marathas attacked from another side. Tipus army was badly outnumbered.  The British troops themselves numbered 30,000. Even then there was the ever present element of British treachery in the battle. Tipus brother in law helped the British to weaken the fort walls that helped the British to enter the fort. The French advisors with him advised Tipu to escape which he refused and died heroically fighting for his kingdom.

Unfortunately some Indians, instead of being proud of this man use his religion to slander him. Nothing can be worse than that. They should remember that the Chief Minister of Tipu as well as his Commander in Chief both were Hindu Brahmins.