Bengaluru (Karnataka): Bharatiya Janta Party MLA Appachu Ranjan from Madikeri constituency in Kodagu district of Karnataka has written a letter to state primary and secondary education minister Suresh Kumar urging that all references to 18th-century Mysuru ruler Tipu Sultan be removed from the State syllabus textbooks.
"We have all heard that history taught in schools is not complete, and not completely the truth. We must first stop the earlier practice of glorifying Tipu Sultan in our school textbooks, as we have been depicting his character without fully knowing about him.
Tipu was out to expand his kingdom and to spread his religion; he never fought for the freedom of the country. Tipu joined hands with French and converted thousands of Hindus and Christians into Islam. People who resisted conversion were killed. As such, it is not possible that we position him as a freedom fighter," the letter read.
Ranjan also referred to the ruler as “anti-Kannada”, and called him a king who promoted the Persian language in his kingdom. Researchers and historians must be consulted and actual stories of freedom fighters should be included in the school textbooks, the MLA has stated in his letter.
Earlier, the newly-sworn Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa's government had banned the Tipu Sultan Jayanti celebrations, which were initiated by Siddaramiah's government during Congress rule in the state.
Against the popular sentiments over Tipu in Old Mysuru region, the Mysore ruler, popularly known as 'Tiger of Mysore' is detested in Kodagu district as well as communally sensitive South Canara region consisting Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts.
Kodavas of Coorg have put up a strong resistance to Tipu's ambition of expanding his kingdom and were a hindrance for the Mysorean army to reach Mangalore Fort and beyond. Tipu after finding it difficult to defeat Kodavas in guerilla warfare for nearly a decade called for a peace treaty with Kodavas.
On December 13, 1785, when the unarmed Kodavas assembled at Devatiparambu, the Mysorean army massacred Kodavas. Similarly, Tipu is also detested in Mangaluru for the religious persecution of Mangalore Catholics during his rule.
The despise for Tipu and the old Mysorean rule runs deep in Kodagu region and tension used to prevail along Kodagu and South Canara region when Tipu Jayanti used to be conducted by the state government on November 10 since 2015.
BJP and Congress were at loggerheads in Karnataka over Tipu Jayanti celebrations as Congress hailed him as the freedom fighter while BJP called the celebration as a mere vote bank ploy till B S Yediyurappa cancelled the celebrations this year after the recent regime change in Karnataka.
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