Colonial writers gave an exaggerated account of Tipu, says historian

MANGALURU: As the state government's move to celebrate Mysuru warrior Tipu Sultan's birth anniversary as an official event across Karnataka on Thursday, it has ruffled the BJP and right-wing groups, historian Barkur Udaya's book on Tipu Sultan 'Colonial history and objectivity', which is in its third reprint, offers a different perspective of the Mysuru ruler.
Barkur Udaya, chairman, department of history, Mangalore University, says as a student of history he does not have an opinion on whether his birthday should be celebrated or not, but his book offers historical perspective of the ruler in the colonial context.
"In the history of the world, no ruler, however great he may be, is not without a black spot. Tipu Sultan is not above that and I have not found any documentary evidence to support that he was all good," says Udaya. "He (Tipu) did what he had to as a ruler, but the history what we read is an exaggerated account by the colonial writers to portray Tipu Sultan as a tyrant as he was a thorn in the flesh of the British empire," adds Udaya.
Udaya does not want to fall in the controversy trap. "I'm a student of history and should be objective. I am not in the contemporary debate on Tipu Sultan," he says. He does not dispute the atrocities on Kodavas and Christians by Tipu. "But how much objectivity is there in what was written by the British authors which is being bandied about now, is the moot question," says the author.
For example, he says, British administrator Mark Wilks gives the figures of Kodavas captured by Tipu at 70,000 and historian Lewis Rice arrives at the figure of 85,000. "The 1836 British census report puts the population of Kodagu at 65,437 – that is 36 years after Tipu was killed. There are inherent contradictions and exaggerations and this is one example," he says. He also notes the British historians never wrote anything adverse on Mughal rulers after Aurangzeb as they did not offer any resistance to the British.
Udaya's book is written after meticulously studying documents on Tipu collected while he was studying at Oxford, UK in 2000-01 and later from Indian archives in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka Theological College and Mangalore University.
"There is no dearth of documents on Tipu Sultan. There have been many documents since 1830-40 and he is a controversial figure. It all depends on how one looks at these documents," he adds.