Mysuru, Nov 12 : Karnataka Congress leader and former minister Tanveer Sait has raked up a controversy by saying that he would install a 100-feet tall Tipu Sultan’s statue near Mysuru. “A 100-feet-tall statue of Tipu Sultan will be erected in Mysuru or Srirangapatna. This will stand as a symbol to dispel the BJP government’s attempts to ‘distort’ history surrounding Tipu Sultan. It is trying to run down Tipu’s legacy and hence there is an urgent need to build his statue,” he said addressing the Tipu Kannada Rajyotsava here on Thursday.
This he would do despite Islam banning installation of idols and statues, Sait said. Backing Sait’s proclivity, former chief minister Siddaramaiah said Tipu’s statue should be built to dismantle the efforts of the BJP to distort history. “Does Tipu not deserve a statue? The BJP twists history. One must recall what they sopke about Narayan Guru, Ambedkar and others. They always distort and fabricate facts,” he said.
This statement comes in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiling Nadaprabhu Kempegowda’s 108-feet statue here on Friday. Tipu Sultan’s enigmatic history continues to generate enormous historical controversy.Extensive contemporaneous accounts of the British, Islamic hagiographies and Tipu’s epistles discards Tipu’s image of a progressive, tolerant and benevolent despot. These accounts portrays Tipu as a tryrant ruler who massacred and converted Christians and Hindus to Islam, especially in some parts of Kerala and Karnataka.This is mentioned in one the letters written by Tipu to Syed Abdul Dulai on 18 January 1790. The letter states, “… Almost all Hindus in Calicut are now converted to Islam. Only a few are still not converted on the borders of Cochin State. I am determined to convert them also very soon. I consider this as Jehad to achieve that object.”
\Tipu also destroyed Hindu temples. According to British epigraphist Lewis Rice in his Mysore gazetteer, Tipu had destroyed about 8000 temples in South India.
Several letters shared between Tipu Sultan and Zaman Shah, the ruler of Afghanistan, also dislodges the creative positioning of Tipu as a national hero. Tipu’s letters to Shah reveal that his mission was to wage Holy war (Jihad) together with him against both “infidels and polytheists (who) may be destroyed by the avenging sword of those who have been selected by God to exercise dominion.”
On the contrary, late PM of India Jawaharlal Nehru, in his Discovery of India, lauded Tipu’s father Haider Ali and Tipu for strengthening the navy.
“Haider Ali was a remarkable man and one of the notable figures in Indian history. He had some kind of a national ideal and possessed the qualities of a leader with vision. His son Tipu continued to strengthen his navy. Tipu also sent messages to Napoleon and to the Sultan in Constantinople,” he wrote.
