There
was a sultan in India who, as long as he was alive, the British felt that they
could not occupy India. But a British officer saw his body outside the fort of
Mysore and said that now India is ours. This was the last major obstacle for
the British in the subcontinent. This is the India of 1760. Saranga Patam is a
city in southern India, about 2200 km from Delhi. A strange activity is going
on in a room built on a minaret of this city.
A ten-year-old boy is diligently cutting window bars with the help of sand. And
sitting next to him, his five-year-old brother is watching him with fear in his
eyes. The older boy cut the bars of the window, then tied a rope to the window
and hung it down. He put his brother on his back and went down by the rope. Soon
there was a commotion all over the tunnel Tipu and Karim, the two captive sons
of rebel General Haider Ali, have escaped.
it
was Fateh Ali Tipu, the little brave man who cut the bars. And now this little
Sultan was hiding with his brother from the enemies. The reason was that Tipu's
father Haider Ali who was the commander of the Raja of Mysore. He had been
declared a rebel due to the conspiracies of his opponents. Now he had fled the
city. Her sons were imprisoned but they also ran away. During this time the
festival of Holi came.
Haider
Ali's sympathizers painted Tipu and his brother in the colors of Holi. Tipu
also wore a lion mask on his face. Then the two brothers left the city without
anyone noticing and went to meet their father. Within a year of this highly
filmy escape, Tipu's father Haider Ali had become the ruler of Mysore and Tipu
the Crown Prince. But Haider Ali's 21-year rule passed in a battle with the
enemies.
And
when Tipu ascended the throne after Haider Ali's death in 1782, the same
problems passed to him. Messier's rule was a bed of thorns, not a bed of
flowers. It was certain that Tipu, no matter how capable he might be, could
have averted the destruction of his empire.
What
was the reason for this?
This
was due to the extremely difficult geography of the state of Mysore. The
provinces that are now called the Indian states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and
Kerala Many of them were in the state of Mysore. It looked like a big state. But
the problem with it was that its three most dangerous enemies were sitting on
its borders. In some eastern areas and in the south there was East India The company, the British government.
Whose
military base in southern India was Madras which is now called Chennai. To the
east of the British territory was Hyderabad Deccan, now part of Andhra Pradesh.
To the north were the Marhats, whose empire stretched from the borders of
Mysore to Delhi, and to the west was the sea. In other words, Tipu could not
get any help from either side and he could not back down. And there was another
big problem with this dangerous geography.
And
that Mysore was one of the richest states in India. The production of spices
and the textile industry were flourishing here. The income of the citizens of
Mysore was five times higher than that of the rest of India. So why didn't the
resin of Mysore's opponent's drip? The only purpose of the enemies on all three
sides was to capture Mysore. Therefore, the question of peace or agreement did
not arise from them.
Thus,
the state of Mysore was in a weak position in dangerous geography and difficult
conditions. But Tipu was not one to give up. He was ready for both peace and
war. He also made peace treaties with his enemies. But all these agreements
failed and Tipu Sultan had to fight in the end. Many times in these wars he bit
the teeth of his enemies so much that people started calling him Mysore Lion.
The first battle in this series was the one he inherited from his father. That is the war against the British in which the East India Company invaded Mysore. This
was the same war during which Tipu Sultan's father Haider Ali died. If Tipu had
been replaced by someone else, his father's death and the war against the enemy
would have paralyzed his nerves and this state would have ended at that time.
But
as soon as Tipu ascended the throne, he crushed one English army after another.
He then forced the besieged British army in the fort of Bangalore to surrender.
Never before in the history of the subcontinent had the British suffered such a
humiliating defeat. In such a situation, the wounded English army asked for
peace. If Tipu had continued this war, he could have captured the British
headquarters in southern India, Madras.
In
that case, at least English domination from southern India would have ended. But
Tipu acted kindly and made peace. In 1784, he made a truce with the British. With
this victory, Tipu became the hero of the people of India while mourning was
left in Britain. The British decided that Tipu would have to be removed if
India was to be occupied. And for that, they started plotting. One of Tipu's
weaknesses came in handy in these conspiracies.
The
weakness was that Tipu did not know the art of keeping the courtiers happy. After
he became the ruler, he gave place to many new people in his court, which
angered the old courtiers. Among them were Finance Minister Mir Sadiq and Prime
Minister Purnia. These were the people who helped Tipu to ascend the throne. But
now they felt that Tipu Sultan was ignoring them. Tipu also punished his
colleagues for his principledness.
An
example of this is when General Muhammad Ali Kamidan, Tipu's most expert and
loyalist, sheltered an opponent of Tipu. So Tipu did not act expediently. He
arrested Kamidan. Kamidan committed suicide in prison. This incident changed
many of the Sultan's loyalists. Thus began a series of court conspiracies that
led to the possibility of the British losing ground. Now they were meeting
traitors from Tipu's court.
And
the buyer of this treacherous factory was the new Governor General from East
India. The new Governor General of the East India Company in India was Lord
Cornwallis. This man was very cunning and knew the art of weakening the enemy
at home rather than defeating him on the battlefield. He sent several spies to
the state of Tipu, one of whom was named Syed Imam.
This
man reached Saranga Putam, the capital of Tipu, where he trained angry and
greedy courtiers with the support of the East India Company. But the conspiracy
was caught in time. Tipu Sultan took strong notice of this. Traitors and Syed
Imam were sentenced to death. But this did not stop the production of traitors
from the treacherous factory. On the contrary, their numbers began to increase.
Despite
buying Tipu's courtiers, Lord Cornwallis was afraid to compete with Tipu alone.
It also brought together the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Marhats. To start the
war, he used the excuse that Tipu had started a war against Raja Trancover, an
ally of the British. Although this war was not started by Tipu but by the Raja
himself and after Tipu's retaliation, the matter was over. But Cornwallis
justified the war by breaking the previous peace treaty. And invaded Mysore.
First
he captured the main city of Mysore, Bangalore. Tipu Sultan counterattacked and
besieged it in Bangalore. But when he was about to make a decisive attack so
the traitors in Tipu's army passed the details of the attack to Lord
Cornwallis. Thanks to which he managed to escape. Not only did he escape Tipu's
attack, but he made a long detour to Tipu Sultan's capital, Saranga Patam. But
at a distance of fifteen kilometers from Saranga Patam, his courage paid off.
The
reason was that his army was tired. Tipu's raids also cut off the British
supply line. Both Cornwallis' allies, the Marhats and the Nizam, had promised
to send troops to help the British in this war. Neither of them reached out for
help. Thus Cornwallis failed to besiege Saranga Patam. His soldiers were dying
of hunger and disease. Lord Cornwallis realized under these circumstances, if
he attacked Tipu's army, he would have to taste a humiliating defeat.
So
he gave up the idea of further fighting and fled to Bangalore with his army. This
was the occasion where Tipu Sultan made the biggest mistake of his life. The
mistake that can easily get your claim denied is to fail. Mysore and then the
entire subcontinent suffered the consequences of this mistake in the form of
slavery. Cornwallis escaped and soon left Marhats and Nizam. Then the three
allies, the British, the Marhats and the Nizam, with great preparation, again
broke through the tunnel.
They
laid siege to Saranga Patam. Tipu now realizes that he has made an irreparable
mistake by allowing Cornwallis to escape. But now there was no point in
repenting. Because the siege was getting tougher with each passing day. In such
a situation, Tipu gave up and asked for peace. In return for the peace, Lord
Cornwallis received from Tipu half of Mysore's kingdom and a ransom of Rs. 80
million.
Thus,
due to the treachery of his relatives and the mistakes of the war, the power of
Tipu Sultan was hit hard that he could never recover after that. The defeat at
the hands of Lord Cornwallis had two immediate effects on Tipu and his empire. One
is that Tipu Sultan became obsessed with taking revenge on the British. Tipu
decided that he would sleep on the floor, not on the bed, until he defeated the
British, and he did.
He
also made a toy watch in which a lion was choking a British soldier. And the
clock is still in the London Museum. Tipu used to look at this watch and think
of revenge tactics against the enemy. The second effect of the war was on
Tipu's loyalists, who realized that Tipu and his kingdom no longer had a
future. So they began to distance themselves from the Sultan. This may come as
a surprise to many.
But
the fact is that the establishment and dissolution of independent states was a
common thing in India at that time. Therefore, the only condition for loyalty
to a state was that it be strong and people there saw their future secure. But
when the state weakened, its loyalists changed parties and joined a powerful
group or state. This was the bitter truth of India at that time which
eventually enslaved the whole region to the British.
It
is also important to mention here that Tipu had twelve sons and five daughters.
But not one of his sons had the ability to be Tipu's best successor in these
dire circumstances. Therefore, the ruler of a state which is advancing towards
old age has lost half of its territory. Surrounded by powerful enemies and not
even hoping for a strong successor, his long-term survival could have been a
miracle.
But
Tipu was hoping for a miracle. And he hoped for France's worst enemy, France,
which had been Tipu's ally in the past. Tipu also sent his ambassador to French
General Napoleon Bonaparte and asked for help. Napoleon also wrote a reply
letter to Tipu, but this letter was intercepted by British spies on the way. It
was rumored in Britain and India that Napoleon was going to India to help Tipu.
When
Napoleon set out to invade Egypt with an army in 1798, Britain thought that
Napoleon was going to India. Even when Napoleon occupied Egypt, the British had
the same idea. Maybe he will try to reach India by land. But when the British
navy defeated France, the company government in India breathed a sigh of
relief. But since at that time it took months for a piece of news to reach
overseas,
Therefore,
these rumors have been circulating in Britain and India for a long time That
Napoleon came to Tipu's aid now or then. Tipu was now surrounded by enemies on
all sides and the possibility of help from France was gone. This was the time
when his enemies had to decide when, where, and how to hunt the Mysore lion. Meanwhile,
the East India Company recalled Lord Cornwallis and made Lord Wellesley
Governor-General.
The
man was a friend of the then British Prime Minister. Both the friends wanted
complete occupation of India and in their view Tipu Sultan was the biggest
obstacle. There was a constant fear in the minds of the British that if France
reached out to help Tipu. Then India will get out of their hands. And that fear
was not unfounded. Because just 18 years before the last war against Tipu,
France had made a similar intervention in another British colony, the United
States.
He
helped George Washington, the hero of the American War of Independence. Due to
which Britain was defeated and America became independent. Britain could no
longer afford a new George Washington in the form of Tipu in India by allowing
France to intervene again. So Lord Wellesley arrived in India with the
intention of waging war against Tipu. And as soon as he arrived, he started
preparing for war.
Fresh
troops from Britain also began to arrive to help him. But Lord Wellesley did
not need any major military action against Tipu. The traitors whom Lord
Cornwallis had prepared were now with Wellsley. Wellesley had agreed with
Tipu's traitors that he would not allow the Mysore army to compete with the
British anywhere. The commanders of most of the forts in Mysore also assured
that they would surrender as soon as the attack began.
That
is, the outcome of this war was already fixed. So with full confidence in
victory, Wellesley jumped on the battlefield with his allies. To break the
peace treaty, he announced that Tipu was conspiring with the French government
against the government. That is why war is necessary. In February 1799, the
British army and its allies attacked Mysore from all sides. Tipu sent troops to
counter the invading British, but the commanders wasted every opportunity to
attack the enemy.
Seeing
this style of their commanders, Mysore soldiers used to ask why the attack was
not being carried out when the enemy was under attack. But they were silenced
by the answer that this was the Sultan's strategy. But in reality, the traitors
had planned to tie the Mysore lion's hands and feet and throw it in front of
the enemies. But the Mysore Lion was still not giving up. On one occasion he
himself came out with an army and delivered sixes to British General Harris.
Lord
Wellesley also acknowledged in a report that Tipu was an expert general. But
Tipu's traitorous officers were also helping the British here. They
deliberately subjected Tipu's troops to enemy artillery. Thus, Tipu suffered
heavy losses and retreated to a defensive position at Saranga Patam. In April
1799, just two months after the attack began, the British laid siege to Saranga
Patam. In such a situation, the traitors told the enemy which part of the
city's protective wall was weak.
The
British hit the same wall and there was a big crack. On the night of May 3,
1799, the Sultan's minister, Mir Sadiq, came out of the wall and held a secret
meeting with the British. It was decided that the British would attack the
breach by noon the next day. While Mir Sadiq would have already removed the
army there. Mir Sadiq went back and then the sun of May 4 rose. The astrologers
said to Sultan Tipu, "Today is a very bad day for you."
Stay
with the army and do charity. But when the Sultan sat down to eat in the
afternoon, he found out that Syed Ghaffar, the commander of his artillery, had
been martyred. Upon hearing this, Tipu came out of the fort to assess the
position of the army. When the Sultan came out of the fort, the traitors locked
the gates of the fort from inside so that Tipu could not return to the fort. It
is said that the martyrdom of Syed Ghaffar also took place under a conspiracy.
So
on hearing this news, Sultan rushed out of the fort in excitement. So this
whole operation was a big drama. Whatever the reason, the Sultan had now come
out of the fort. On the other hand, Mir Sadiq and Purnia had removed the army
from the crack under the pretext of paying salaries. Now the field was empty. The
British army began to enter through this gap. The Sultan tried to enter the
fort to regroup his army.
But
alas, the fort's guards prevented the owner from entering. On this occasion,
the Sultan decided to shake hands with the British for the last time. The
Sultan was accompanied by a handful of soldiers. He took a gun from a servant
and started firing at the British. A handful of his comrades also fought to the
death. But soon these last loyalists began to fall one by one. The Sultan
himself was shot and wounded.
An
employee said, "Tell the British who you are and they will respect
you." But then Tipu said the words that have become immortal in history. He
said that a day's life of a lion is better than a hundred years of life of a
fox. The Mysore Lion fought until it fell helplessly. The British did not know
at the time that the man fighting outside the fort was Tipu Sultan. When the
Sultan fell, a greedy Englishman proceeded to take off the diamond belt tied around
the Sultan's waist.
But
the Sultan was still alive. He blew the leg of a British soldier with a sword. The
British fired back, hitting Sultan Tipu in the head. Thus Sultan Tipu was
martyred. But by then the news had spread in the fort that Mir Sadiq and Purnia
had deceitfully removed the army. The soldiers were furious when the news
spread. They shot and killed Mir Sadiq. But by then it was too late. The British army had captured the city and the body of the Sultan of Mysore was
lying at the entrance of the fort.
Tipu
Shaheed was buried by the British at Saranga Patam with full military honors. Tipu
was forty-nine years old at the time of his martyrdom, so he was saluted with
forty-nine cannons. Fifty-five years after Tipu's martyrdom, the British flag
was flying all over India. Thus the words of the British officer who saw the
body of Tipu Sultan came true and said that now India is ours. The British had
sent Tipu's family to Calcutta.
Tipu's
descendants worked in the city for two hundred years. In 2000, the Indian
government finally came up with the idea of restoring his royal status and
returning Tipu's property. Today, both Hindus and Muslims visit the shrine of
Tipu Sultan. Saranga Patam is part of the Indian state of Karnataka. And Tipu
Sultan's birthday is celebrated at the official level in the state. Although
the BJP and hardline Hindu organizations oppose it. There have been protests
against Tipu's birthday. However, the fact remains that Tipu Sultan is still
considered the great hero of the subcontinent.
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