The History of Hyder Shah

Title: The History of Hyder Shah and of His Son Tippoo Sultaun

Author: MMDLT, Charles Stuart

Publisher: Cosmo Publications, 1976 (First published 1855)

ISBN: 9781331140528 (other editions)

Pages: 388

Tipu Sultan and his father Hyder Ali always attracted attention and controversy while they lived and thereafter. Tipu was the last ruler in South India who had stood up to the British in their political conquest of the region and he had to pay with his life in the battle that ensued. He introduced reforms in revenue collection and built roads in the Malabar country for the movement of his troops which eventually turned useful for the nation as well. As such, one would expect reverence and appreciation from the modern society that inhabit those parts in which Tipu ruled. Surprisingly, this is not the case. The sultan is the object of derision and contempt for the majority of the population. It is still common to come across domestic dogs named Tipu in Kerala. Recently, there were widespread protests in Karnataka on the government’s plan to celebrate Tipu’s birthday with much pomp and fanfare. So, what drives the people at a distance of two centuries from the sultan’s life, to take cudgels at the mere mention of his name? The mainstream historians are, as usual, silent on this front. This book is a compilation of firsthand accounts of the lives of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan written by Europeans familiar with the court and monarchs. Mr. Maistre de la Tour (shortened as MMDLT), then at the head of the French troops which served in the army of Hyder is the author of the piece on Hyder Ali, while Charles Stuart covers the career of Tipu Sultan. Written in the eighteenth century by the observers of events mentioned in it, these accounts provide the most truthful and impartial narrative of the lives of the father and son. To add to the authenticity of the work, it was also revised and corrected by Prince Gulam Muhammad, a son of Tipu.

A major part of the admiration Hyder and Tipu commands from us is supposedly due to their fight against the British to force them out of India. Sadly, this does not stand up to closer scrutiny. The sultans were mortal enemies of the British, but were bosom friends of the French, another colonial power looking for territory in India. The mid-eighteenth century South India was a crucial theatre of war testing the colonial ambitions of the English and the French. For a short while under Dupleix, it had seemed that the French might pull it off, but the English were eventually victorious both in Europe and India and extended its power to the entire subcontinent. Hyder and Tipu sided with the losing party and no patriotic or nationalistic sentiments can be discerned here, except a petty, selfish motive to aggrandize one’s own power and riches. The book includes several instances to prove this point and a few may be mentioned here. French troops were a contingent of Hyder’s forces and at Karwar, they refused to assist him against an attack on the Portuguese. This inconstancy of the French and other similar events convinced Hyder that he should not wage war against any European power, and that he could not depend on the Europeans in his service, except when they themselves were at war with his enemies. In spite of this caveat, the French soldiers were indispensable for the Mysore army. The Battle of Pondiaghari in Kerala was won solely by the valour of the French soldiery. Hyder was so impressed by them that he made the French commander a ‘Bahadur’ (knight) of the kingdom on the spot and appointed him general of 10,000 horses, the highest military honour. Tipu’s army which besieged the British at Ponnani consisted of 600 Europeans and his infantry was headed by M. Lally, a French commander. They came in handy to suppress the Maratha skirmishes at Coimbatore. Tipu also tasted the unexpected withdrawal of French troops at a critical moment when he attacked Mangalore in 1783. When the news of the establishment of peace between England and France in Europe arrived, his French legions refused to fight, creating a crisis in camp. After his defeats against the English, Tipu was desperate to obtain French assistance in overrunning his neighbouring states. He dispatched Gulam Ali Khan and two learned nobles in his court to France to reach a military agreement. They could reach only up to Istanbul and returned empty-handed. Tipu sent a much larger delegation consisting of Mohammed Darvesh Khan, Akbar Ali Khan and Mohammed Osman Khan in 1787 in a French vessel from Pondicherry. They were received by Louis XVI himself, in 1788 with much aplomb. Even though Tipu offered to divide the territories of his enemies equally between Mysore and France, the French king didn’t take the bite. It is astonishing in this background that people attribute patriotism in Tipu’s fight against the British! Unable to get the French on his side, Tipu literally begged Lord Cornwallis to sign a treaty, but all his efforts came to naught before the British general’s steadfastness. As a last resort, he invited Timur Shah, king of the Afghans to invade India and form a league of Muslim princes in defense of the faith. His successor Zeman Shah actually invaded in 1797, but was repelled.

Another aspect of Hyder and Tipu’s program we must consider is their religious policy as there is widely differing opinion prevailing about it. While it must be conceded that Hyder was a gentleman on this front from the available evidence in the book, Tipu seems to be a bigoted jihadi. Captain McLeod attests that all the revenue commissioners and officers (asafs and amils) of the sultan were Muslims chosen for no other reason than their being Mohammedans (p.378). The book also states that “Tipu is also said to have carried away from the province of Malabar 70,000 Christians and to have made Mussulmans of 100,000 Hindus. The conversion of the latter (by forcible circumcision and compelling them to eat beef), although involuntary and abhorred, effectually answered the purpose of the Sultan, as these people, having lost their own caste, in order to retain any degree of respectability, were obliged to adopt that of their conquerors, and to educate their children in the Mohammedan religion. These being encouraged to enter the army, many of them became zealots, and augmented the number of the faithful in the Sultan’s dominions. Tipu Sultan’s zeal for the conversion of his subjects was not, however, limited to the people of Malabar; he extended it to several of the inhabitants of Coimbatore, and to every other Hindu who incurred his displeasure, and had the misfortune to fall into his hands. It is said, that had it not been for the remonstrance of his mother, who was a very sensible woman, he would have compelled his favourite Dewan (prime minister) Purnea to have forsaken the religion of his forefathers” (p.270). Tipu was also exceedingly cruel. He imprisoned and tortured enemy soldiers even after a truce was agreed on. His own brother-in-law was also forced to fly to the Marathas. He defiled the temples at Trinomaly, Chittaput and Wandewash (p.278). A novel way was found to destroy the temple at Periapatam, in which gunpowder was stocked inside the temple and then he lighted a matchstick. Fed up with the highhandedness of this fanatically religious warlord, the Marathas and Nizam of Hyderabad rushed into the open arms of the British to form an alliance. Tipu’s economic policy was also riddled with grave blunders. He banned liquor in the country out of religious devotion and ordered all the palm and date trees to be uprooted. Luckily, the officials didn’t enforce this order. The sultan’s continued warmongering prompted the British to enforce the strictest and most humiliating terms for surrender. Mysore ceded half of its dominions in 1792, whose revenues were worth 90 lakh rupees, had to pay 3 crore rupees as indemnity and delivered two of Tipu’s sons as hostages for the due performance of the treaty. When Tipu was killed, his family was taken under the tutelage of the British for a few years at Vellore. After an unsuccessful mutiny by Indian sepoys, they were transported to Calcutta where they happily lived ‘ever after’. It is interesting to note another inconsistency in the life of Tipu. Though he was a devout Muslim, his belief in astrology was equally strong. Before the fall of Srirangapatna, Brahmin astrologers prophesied that a great misfortune would befall him, unless propitiatory measures were taken. Tipu ordered for all the ceremonies prescribed by the Brahmins to be duly performed. He also sacrificed two elephants with all their gold trappings as advised by them (p.307).

Hyder’s enmity against the English originated from his desire on the coveted throne of Nawab of Arcot. The British harboured and supported Mohammed Ali Khan Wallajah for the post, whereas Hyder wanted it for his son, Tipu. He made several battles to bring this into being. The book presents an interesting description of a strange event occurred during one of the skirmishes in the outskirts of Vaniyambadi on a December night in the 1760s. The moon rose at one am in the night and at about three am, it was so extremely cold, that no one of the soldiers could remain either in bed or in the tent, though they were provided with carpets and cloth coverlids, but were obliged to light large fires and warm themselves. The French author remarks that it was identical as in the time of the great frosts at Paris. The weather was, however, very serene with little or no wind; and nothing similar to it happened in the following nights. It is curious to read about such vagaries of nature from eyewitness accounts of the past.

The book uses place names in vogue at the time of Tipu. Some can be easily recognized, while others are not so. The rise of Bangalore as a major trading emporium can be traced to this period. The style of narration requires constant attention from the reader. A large part of the book is dedicated to elaborate Hyder’s military maneuvers in hairsplitting detail. This itself covers about a third of the book. The authors do not provide a more pointed focus on Tipu’s operations in Kerala. This might have been a minor battle for the sultan, but it was a profound moment in Kerala’s history.

The book is recommended for serious readers of history.

Rating: 3 Star