Tipu Sultan mass rapist? Yes, says Anantkumar Hegde, minister of state for skill development and entrepreneurship in the Modi government, the noting that the 18th-century Mysore ruler was a “brutal killer, wretched fanatic and mass rapist”
News East West
NEW DELHI: Anantkumar Hegde, minister of state for skill development and entrepreneurship in the Modi government, says the noted 18th-century Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan was a “brutal killer, wretched fanatic and mass rapist”.
The minister’s reaction came after he was invited by the Karnataka state government to Tipu Jayanti celebrations on Nov 10.
The minister says he doesn’t want to be part of the `shameful’ event.
“Conveyed (to) Karnataka government not to invite me to shameful event of glorifying a person known as brutal killer, wretched fanatic and mass rapist,” the minister tweeted.
Tipu Sultan ruled the Mysore Kingdom from 1782 to 1799. He is known as the Tiger of Mysore for fighting the British colonial empire.
But critics, mostly from the right wing, see him as a Muslim fanatic who killed thousands of Hindu Kodavas in Coorg and forcibly converted Catholic Christians of Mangalore to Islam.
Historians admit that Tipu did resort to violence against Coorg and Mangalore as he wanted to annex them as part of his expansionist strategy to check the British. He used force against them because the British enjoyed considerable support in Coorg and Mangalore. And he wanted to stop the British at all costs.
Academic Michael Soracoe even goes on to say that Tipu Sultan was deliberately demonized by the British colonial empire as a Muslim fanatic who broke many Hindu temples and converted them to Islam because he challenged the British empire militarily.
Mention has been made of how most of his ministers were Brahmins and how Tipu Sultan made generous donations to Hindu temples.
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