Tipu Sultan

Tipu Sultan

Subject : Modern History

Context : The Federation of Mysore Muslims’ Organisations has urged the Mysore Deputy Commissioner to ban the play Real Dreams of Tipu which is to be staged at Rangayana from November 20

Concept : 

About Tipu Sultan

• Born in November 1750, Tipu Sultan was Haidar Ali’s son and a great warrior, also known as the Tiger of Mysore.
• He was a well educated man fluent in Arabic, Persian, Kanarese and Urdu.
• Tipu succeeded his father in December 1782 and in 1784 concluded peace with the British and assumed the title of Sultan of Mysore.
• Mysore had grown in strength under the leadership of powerful rulers like Haidar Ali (ruled from 1761 to 1782) and his famous son Tipu Sultan (ruled from 1782 to 1799).
• Tipu introduced a number of administrative innovations during his rule, including his coinage, a new Mauludi lunisolar calendar, and a new land revenue system which initiated the growth of Mysore silk industry.
• Embracing western military methods like artillery and rockets alongside traditional Indian weapons including war elephants, he ensured his forces could overwhelm his Indian rivals and match the British armies sent against him.

Maintenance of Armed Forces:

• He organised his army on the European model with Persian words of command.
• Though he took the help of the French officers to train his soldiers, he never allowed them (French) to develop into a pressure group.
• He was well aware of the importance of a naval force.
• In 1796, he set up a Board of Admiralty and planned for a fleet of 22 battleships and 20 large frigates.
• He established three dockyards at Mangalore, Wajedabad and Molidabad. However, his plans did not fructify.

Fought Against Marathas:

• In 1767, Tipu commanded a corps of cavalry against the Marathas in the Carnatic (Karnataka) region of western India, and he fought against the Marathas on several occasions between 1775 and 1779.

Role in Anglo-Mysore Wars:

• British saw Haidar and Tipu as ambitious, arrogant and dangerous – rulers who had to be controlled and crushed.
• Four wars were fought with Mysore (1767-69, 1780-84, 1790-92 and 1799).
• 1767-69: Treaty of Madras.
• 1780-84: Treaty of Mangalore.
• 1790-92: Treaty of Seringapatam.
• 1799: Subsidiary Alliance.
• Only in the last – the Battle of Seringapatam – did the Company ultimately win a victory. Tipu Sultan was killed defending his capital Seringapatam.
• Mysore was placed under the former ruling dynasty of the Wodeyars and a subsidiary alliance was imposed on the state.

Economic Contribution

• He established banking networks and cooperatives, where capital was raised from the public (similar to banks inviting deposits), the principal held on an annual basis and returned with interest (or `nafa‘).
• He established trading houses for Mysore products worldwide, including places like Puducherry , Kutch, Karachi, Oman, Baghdad and Constantinople.
• He preferred to do cashless, barter transactions for two reasons, one was to create a market for Mysorean goods and workmen abroad and the other, more important reason, was to curtail the drain of wealth out of India, which the Europeans, especially the British, were notorious for.
• He realised that trading in currency would sap Mysore’s purchasing power at some point.
• In 1785, he stopped the export of sandalwood, pepper and cardamom through the ports of his kingdom and disallowed local merchants from trading with the Company.
• He eliminated middlemen in the collection of land revenue.

Art, Culture and Literature:

• His library was apparently filled with translations of world literature and he used to make handwritten observations of foreign countries.
• He encouraged the Persians to come down to India to teach the artisans the art of making wooden toys (now famous as Channapatna toys).
• He also got experts from across the world to further the silk cottage industry that Mysore became famous for.

Other Contributions:

• He was also a patron of science and technology and is credited as the ‘pioneer of rocket technology’ in India.
• He wrote a military manual (Fathul Mujahidin) explaining the operation of rockets.
• He laid the foundations for the construction of the Krishnaraja Sagar dam in Mandya.
• Tipu was a great lover of democracy and a great diplomat who gave his support to the French soldiers at Seringapatam in setting up a Jacobin Club in 1797.
• Tipu himself became a member of the Jacobin Club and allowed himself to be called Citizen Tipu.
• He planted the Tree of Liberty at Seringapatam.