Karnataka readies for Tipu Jayanti amid tight security

THE CONGRESS GOVT IS GOING AHEAD WITH THE CELEBRATIONS FOR THE SECOND SUCCESSIVE YEAR, DESPITE THE DEATH OF TWO PROTESTERS LAST YEAR

BENGALURU: Tension is running high in Karnataka as the state prepares to celebrate Tipu Jayanti — the birth anniversary of 18th century ruler of Mysore, Tipu Sultan — on Thursday.

With several groups, particularly the RSS and its affiliates, opposed to the celebrations on the ground that Tipu was a religious bigot who had razed temples and forced Hindus and Christians to embrace Islam, the government has sought 1,600 central paramilitary personnel to maintain peace.

The Congress government is going ahead with the celebrations for the second successive year, despite the death of two protesters last year.

Chief minister Siddaramaiah has described those opposing the celebrations as communal, insisting Tipu was a patriot.

Dinesh Gundurao, the working president of the state Congress, has been quoted as saying, “It is the RSS and the BJP who want to politicise this issue...Tipu has contributed so much to Karnataka…and also was the only ruler who fought the British four times”.

There are others who say Tipu was a greedy and tyrannical ruler and blame him for the massacres of Kodavas and Mandyam Iyengars, members of a Brahmin sub-caste.

Mysuru-based historian Hanur Krishnamurthy said Tipu’s unapologetic rampage across the region was a strategy to keep enemies out, adopted by other rulers of the time. Other historians argue that Tipu was a staunch Sufi.

MG Eshwarappa, a well-known folklorist, said Tipu’s name still evokes love and affection.

In her book Tiger: The Life of Tipu Sultan, Australian historian Kate Brittlebank stated: “Along with their magnificent displays of power and wealth, kings were expected to be conspicuously pious. They made land grants, donated precious artefacts and mediated in religious disputes. In return, they could expect support for the legitimacy of their rule…Tipu behaved no differently...”

In 2015, the anti-Tipu protests were joined by Catholic groups in Mangaluru, who said they still mourned the deaths of 4,000 Catholics killed by Tipu.

Mohandas Pai, former Infosys CFO, also criticised the celebrations, saying they amounted to celebrating Aurangzeb’s birth anniversary. “Tipu was a religious fundamentalist” and the state should not make a role model out of him,” he said in a letter to the government.