Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan

Title: Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan – And the Struggle with the Musalman Powers of the South
Author: Lewin B. Bowring
Publisher: Asian Educational Services, 2003 (First published 1899)
ISBN: Nil
Pages: 233

Lewin B. Bowring was a British civil servant who served as the Chief Commissioner of Mysore from 1862 to 1870. This was the time when the maharajah was all but deposed in name and the kingdom was being directly administered by British officers. Bowring was a man of letters who used the sources that came into his notice in his official capacity and created a concise narrative of the reign of Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan. He is much more objective than contemporary British authors but harbours an affiliation to the official perspective. The rule of the father and son duo lasted only 38 years, which might seem at first sight a glitch in the centuries-old rule of the Hindu Wodeyar dynasty of Mysore. But the upheaval the state witnessed in this interval – innumerable wars, sieges, victories, defeats, pillage, booty, plunder, torture of innocent people and forced conversions – mark it as the lowest period in Mysore’s history. Nor was it redeemed to any extent by any gracious policy of these two tyrants. Even today, the name of Tipu Sultan evokes strong responses from the descendants of his victims and serves only to divide the society. In the case of impact on the country, Tipu’s rule may be compared to that of Saddam Hussein and the hard times Iraq had to go through during his devastating stint in power.

In the book’s first part, Bowring depicts Haidar Ali’s ascendancy to power noting that he was treacherous but extremely fortunate. He was a faujdar or military commander of the Wodeyar kings. He was an able soldier who chased the powerful Marathas out of the country. Raised to the title of Fateh Haidar Bahadur, he was the person the king sought help from when the incompetent king found himself in thrall by minister Nanjraj. Haider ousted Nanjraj but himself kept the king a prisoner. At this stage, Khande Rao, another minister, sought help from the Marathas. Haidar was defeated at first but the Marathas had to hastily return due to their defeat to Abdali at Panipat in 1761. Haidar then gained absolute control of Mysore and imprisoned his enemies. He mockingly promised to cherish Khande Rao like a parrot. True to his word, Rao was put in an iron cage and fed uncooked rice and milk till the end of his life. Haidar never refrained from any act, however dastardly, if that could gain something for him. The chief of Chitradurg, Madakei Nayak, stoutly resisted him. However, Haidar saw that the enemy had 3000 Muslim soldiers in his troops, induced a Muslim holy man to corrupt them and betray their master. Nayak was defeated and 20,000 young boys were forcibly taken away to Seringapatam to be converted to Islam.

Bowring also makes an effort to estimate the personality and character of both the protagonists. Haidar was a bold, original and enterprising commander who was skillful in tactics, fertile in resources, full of energy and never desponding in defeat. Unfortunately, he was also a man of the loosest morals and never spared any woman who had the misfortune to attract his attention (p.77-8). He habitually circumcised the prisoners of war for conversion. Still, the author claims that he was free from bigotry when compared to his son Tipu. Just imagine how fiendish Tipu might have seemed to his contemporaries! Haidar was permissive in employing people of other religions as his officials so long as they obeyed his orders.

This book introduces Tipu as a conceited zealot and bloodthirsty tyrant who always violated treaties and ceasefire obligations. Many a times, he promised personal safety to the besieged but as soon as they surrendered, imprisoned them. Tipu was a bitter foe of the British but that does not make him a freedom fighter. He was an ally of the French who were also looking to establish colonies in India. Tipu in fact drove the kings of Cochin, Travancore and Coorg to the bosom of the British to obtain help in defending against Tipu’s invasions. But Tipu’s star set in 1792 when the allied forces of the British, Nizam and the Marathas besieged Seringapatam and a humiliating treaty of capitulation was imposed on him. He had to cede half of his territories, pay three million rupees, release all prisoners and give two of his sons as hostages. Bowring deduces that Tipu was urged on by religious bigotry, innate cruelty and despotism. He thought little of sacrificing thousands of lives to his ardent zeal and revengeful feelings. These darker shades in his disposition are not relieved by any evidence of princely generosity, such as Haidar Ali occasionally showed (p.220). He sent ambassadors to Mauritius, which was the nearest French military base urging its governor to invade India as Tipu’s ally. Napoleon’s victory in Egypt in 1798 and other international interests finally convinced Britain to unseat this thorn in their flesh. Tipu fell in battle and died befitting a brave warrior. That seems the only saving grace for him.

The book includes a whole chapter on Tipu’s fanaticism and cruelty as if it had anticipated the glorifying false narrative a section of the people would attribute to him in future. During the siege of Mangalore, 30,000 Christians were taken to Seringapatam and forcibly converted. Similar was the fate of the people of Coorg who revolted. He destroyed numerous temples in Malabar and forcibly converted its inhabitants. In Kuttippuram, 2000 Nairs were converted and forced to eat beef as proof of their conversion. He frequently mentioned in his dispatches that ‘Hindustan is overrun with infidels and polytheists’ (p.187). He changed place names to denote their submission to Islam. Devanahalli, where he was born, was renamed Yusafabad, Chitradurga to Farukh-yab Hisar, Mangalore to Jamalabad, Sadashivgarh to Majidabad, Madikeri to Zafirabad and many more. Tipu filled his subordinate cadre with officials who shared his ruthless spirit. There was a commander named Mohammed Raza in his army. He was popularly called Benki Nawab which means Lord of the Fire. It is said that on one occasion, he shut certain Nairs up with their wives and children in a house and burnt them alive (p.191).

The book affords much historical vigour in presenting the narrative. Whenever a king or dynasty is mentioned, their pedigree and succession charts for a few generations before and after are given. Bowring assumes the shades of a disdainful Orientalist at times. It is almost a creed for him that the natives are not trustworthy. He comments that European diplomats are no match for the duplicity and craft of Orientals. By the time this book was written in 1899, the French had been totally eclipsed and marginalized to a few toeholds on the subcontinent’s coast. This encourages him to do a What-If analysis related to the mid-eighteenth century wars. The author points out that the French reserved all its strength for operations against the British in North America and seemed indifferent to recovering the prestige it had lost in India. Had it dispatched a sufficient army to the Coromandel Coast when Haidar was operating against the Madras forces, Fort St. George would have fallen and British authority would have been supplanted by the French. In the end, De Bussy arrived too late. With Haidar’s death and the success of Hastings’ diplomacy, French influence terminally declined. The Chapter 15 titled ‘Haider declares War Against the English’ was missing in the copy I handled, but the pages were numbered sequentially without any error.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star