Christian group stages protest against Tipu Sultan, calls him ‘local goonda’

Mangaluru, Nov 6: Opposing the Karnataka State government’s decision to observe the birth anniversary celebration of the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysuru Tipu Sultan, a city based Christian group staged a protest in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office here on Friday, claiming that he was ‘anti-Christian’.

Addressing the protestors, Alban Menezes, president of the United Christian Association (UCA), Mangaluru, said that the Karnataka government and Dakshina Kannada district administration should take cognizance of the objection to the celebration of Tipu Sultan’s birth anniversary. The association will observe the birth anniversary as ‘Black Day’ in the district, he said, warning of intense agitation if the government did not withdraw its decision.

Speaking in the protest, MR Prabhu said that there was a huge internal conspiracy to portray the ruler Tipu Sultan as an image of a freedom fighter who launched the first freedom struggle against the British during his rule from 1782 to 1799. However, the uprising of 1857 is considered as the first freedom struggle. It is an internal conspiracy within the state government to twist the historical facts and present a different image of Tipu Sultan, he said, adding that the even the title he carried ‘Tiger of Mysore’ was a myth.

Dismissing the claim that Tipu Sultan was an able administrator and a secular ruler, he said that the former had introduced Persian as the administrative language which became a failure as a majority of the administrative officers appointed could not speak the language. However, he was insistent and this led to losses in the revenue in the kingdom. Even the coin denomination system he introduced had Arabic numerals and names. Further, he also committed atrocities on the population in regions such as Gulbarga, Kodagu and others. There have been documented accounts of his forceful religious conversions of prisoners, he pointed, adding that the ruler could not be called ‘secular’.

Another protestor Robert Rosario said that there was no justification for the state government’s decision to observe the birth anniversary of a ruler who, according to him, oppressed and persecuted a large number of people during his rule. “Tipu Sultan was a tyrant and oppressor of Christians living in the coastal belt and Malnad region of Karnataka. He has been glorified as a freedom fighter and a patriot. Who gave him such titles? He was responsible for the persecution of around 60,000 Christians from this region and committed several atrocities on Christians on Ash Wednesday, during his reign in 1784. It is unfortunate and lamentable that the Karnataka government has portrayed him as a secular ruler and able administrator, and taken a decision to observe his birth centenary on November 10,” he said.

He also said that Tipu Sultan was nothing but merely a ‘local goonda’ and not the great ruler as he was portrayed by others. “His intention was clear that he wanted to wipe out the entire Christian community. He systematically destroyed around 27 churches in his kingdom. Having had such an agenda, celebrating the birth anniversary of Tipu Sultan is like celebrating the massacre of a large number of people belonging to a particular religious community,” he said.