The Supreme Court has opined that except the ST/SC and the Dravidians who were
early settlers the others in the country are migrants who migrated to India
over thousands of years .So who is the foreigner ? The Vedas and Manusmriti did
not exist before the arrival of the Aryans from Central Asia .
This is a part of the divide and rule policy of the Sangh Parivar established
during colonial rule of the Empire , along with Wahhabism to perpetuate divide
and rule .
Niloufer Bhagwat
----- Original Message -----
From: Subhash Gatade
To: humanrights-movement@googlegroups.com
Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2013 11:40 AM
Subject: [humanrights-movement:6583] Who is Afraid of Tipu Sultan
Who Is Afraid of Tipu Sultan ?
- subhash gatade
Ravi said the state government is not ready to name the university after Tipu
Sultan. If they are going to set up a non-religious university then the name
should be non-controversial.... Like British, Tipu is also a foreigner for us
and we will not accept his name.
CT Ravi, higher education minister, Karnataka
(Quoted in Jan 25, 2013, 16:38 IST , By DNA)
The fast changing political developments in Karnataka has rather overshadowed
the manner in which Tipu Sultan- who died fighting the Britishers at
Srirangapatna (4 th May 1799) - is being denigrated by people owing allegiance
to Sangh Parivar. The latest in series happens to be the higher education
minister of Karnataka Mr C T Ravi, who claimed that for them 'Tipu is also a
foreigner' like the British.
The immediate context of this Tipu bashing is the decision by the central
ministry of minority affairs to set up 'Tipu Sultan University' at
Srirangapatna. In fact, it’s the name which has raised the hackles of them,
though they are not averse to another university being set up in Karnataka. As
a recap of the unfolding events it may be underlined here that two months back
the ministry decided to set up such universities under 'public-private
partnership' in five different states - Karnataka, Jammu Kashmir, Bihar, Bengal
and Madhya Pradesh - under article 31 of the constitution (rights to minorities
to start educational institutions) where fifty per cent seats would be reserved
for religious minorities - Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists etc. A panel
was also constituted to prepare a feasibility report for the five universities,
draw up the syllabus and submit it to the ministry by February.
A section of the media has also faithfully joined this denigration of Tipu
Sultan 'Tiger of Mysore' - as he is widely known - who was a ruler much ahead
of his times. A sample of this bias could be had from a recent incident on a
Kannada TV channel which held panel discussion on the Tipu University issue.
While Pramod Muthalik - of the SriRam Sene fame, Chidananda Murthy and advocate
Devaraju spoke on behalf of Sangh Parivar, C S Dwarakanath and Murulasiddappa
spoke in favour of Tipu Sultan. The TV show anchor was so partial that he did
not give any opportunity to Dwarakanath and Murulasiddappa to speak at all and
he ended the programme by letting Muthalik and Chidananda Murthy have the last
word. It was a different matter that Dwarakanath and Murulasiddappa stated in
the end that no matter who opposes the proposal, the said University will come
up.
People conversant with Karnataka politics can recall that it is not for the
first time that Sangh people are doing this. Few years back when BJP was
sharing power with JD(S) in the state, the then higher education minister D.H.
Shankarmurthy - a RSS Swayamsevak from his school days - had similarly tried to
recast Karnataka history books in the Sangh Parivar's mould and had announced
his move to obliterate the great Tipu Sultan's name from the pages of Kannada
history. Under the false pretext that Tipu did not give due importance to the
Kannada language and rather promoted Persian language he had asserted that Tipu
Sultan should not be glorified. 'Most of the history text books in the country
depict Tipu Sultan, Akbar, Aurangazeb Alexander and others as patriots but the
real ones are never brought to light,' Murthy had observed then. For him the
alleged neglect of Kannada language by Tipu Sultan was reason enough that the
great warrior of all times who even sacrificed his children to end colonial
rule be obliterated from Karnataka's history. The pretext of anti-Kannada bias
in Tipu Sultan ran hollow when one knew that the Archeaological Department of
Mysore State is in possession of over thirty letters by Tipu to the
Shankaracharya of Shringeri Math. These letters are written in the Kannada
characters.
For C.T. Ravi today or for Shankarurthy few years back it was minor matter
that Tipu sensed the designs of the British and tried to forge broader unity
with the domestic rulers and even tried to connect with French and the Turks
and the Afghans to give a fitting reply to the hegemonic designs of the
British. Definitely the Sangh Swayamsevaks do not want the future generations
to even know that Tipu defeated the British army twice with his superior
planning and better techniques and who died in the battlefield itself fighting
the Britishers again with his sword in his hand.
It may be recalled here that Tipu was an apostle of Hindu-Muslim unity, was
fond of new inventions, and is called innovator of the world’s first war
rocket, who felt inspired by the French Revolution and despite being a ruler
called himself Citizen and even planted the tree of 'Liberty' in his palace. As
an aside it may be mentioned here that Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, the then President
of India, in his Tipu Sultan Shaheed Memorial Lecture in Bangalore called Tipu
Sultan the innovator of the world's first war rocket. Two of these rockets,
captured by the British at Srirangapatna, are displayed in the Royal Artillery
Museum in London.
Of course the move to declare him a 'foreigner' or a failed attempt to
obliterate the name of the warrior from history books, whose martyrdom fighting
the Britishers preceded the historic revolt of the 1857 by around 50 years does
not appear surprising as far as the whole trajectory of the RSS is concerned.
The eighty plus year old history of the 'cultural organisation' is replete with
facts which show how they have discovered cowardice as a virtue. Thousands of
pages have been written about the way they kept themselves aloof from the
historic anti-colonial struggle of the Indian people under the excuse that they
want to unify the Hindus. Enough has been written on the way they tried to
break the wider anti-colonial unity by pitting Hindus against Muslims. Perhaps
it is high time to emphasise the fact the ideologues of the Hindutva brigade
were 'pioneers' as far as claiming that Hindus and Muslims were two nations.
At times it is baffling to know the extent to which the falsification of
history has been attempted to suit the 'divide' and 'rule policy of the
Britishers. In one of his speeches given in 1977 in the Rajya Sabha, titled
'History in the Service of Imperialism' Professor B. N. Pandey, Professor of
History in Allahabad University, who later became Governor of Orissa, had
narrated his experience. In his speech he mentioned how way back in 1928
"..[w]hen he was a Professor of History in Allahabad University some students
came to him with a book written by one Professor Harprasad Shastri, Professor
of Sanskrit of Calcutta University in which it was mentioned that Tipu Sultan
told 3000 Brahmins to convert to Islam otherwise they will be killed, and those
3000 Brahmins committed suicide rather than becoming Muslims. On reading this
Professor B. N. Pandey wrote to Professor Harprasad Shastri asking him on what
basis have you written this? What is the source of your information? Prof.
Harprasad Shastri wrote back that the source of information is the Mysore
Gazetteer. Then Prof. Pandey wrote to Prof. Shrikantia, Professor of History in
Mysore University asking him whether it is correct that in Mysore Gazetteer it
is mentioned that Tipu Sultan told 3000 Brahmins to convert to Islam. Prof.
Shrikantia wrote back that this is totally false, he had worked in this field
and there is no such mention in the Mysore Gazetteer, rather the correct
version was just the reverse, namely, that Tipu Sultan used to give annual
grants to 156 Hindu Temples, he used to send grants to the Shankaracharya of
Shringheri, etc."
It is now history how the colonials distorted our history to suit their
imperial interests. One very well knows they called our uprisings as mutinies,
our heroes as villains, and our freedom fighters as usurpers and terrorists. It
is understandable why the colonialists reviled Tipu, who proved to be a
formidable rival who refused to become a tributary of the British Company. The
move to declare him a 'foreigner' and refusing to honour the sacrifices he made
fighting the Britishers is just another indication that Sangh Parivar has taken
it upon themselves the task left unfinished by the colonialists.
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