The view of the 12th century edifice at Edinburgh castle that houses the National War Museum.
The legend of Tipu Sultan is still alive in far away Scotland
It is an irony that Tipu sultan, the ‘Tiger of Mysore’, whose birth anniversary celebrations in India became a contentious issue recently, in Scotland whose soldiers and commanders fought for the dissemination of this great warrior king, the only Indian monarch to have died on the battlefield fighting the British, is cherished and commemorated in song, dance, drama, opera, in novel and in paintings. A wealth of personal effects and curiosities of Tipu Sultan have found way to numerous art galleries and museums in Scotland, particularly in its capital Edinburgh.
The participation of the Scots in the affairs of the East India Company began immediately after the unification of Scotland with England through an Act of Union in 1707. Since then Scottish people began coming to India as soldiers, generals, writers, administrators, traders, merchants and missionaries. But they excelled in their service as military generals and commanders. A separate Regiment of foot, the ‘75 Highlanders’ 75th .Highlanders was raised in Scotland to deal with Tipu Sultan. Scottish generals like Sir Hector Munro, Baillie, Beatson, Fraser, Gordon, Dunlop and others participated in the military operations against Tipu. The Scots, more than the English were in the forefront of the British forces in almost all the Mysore wars fought between 1760 and 1799.
After Tipu was finally dismembered by the British under the command of General Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, the images of Tipu Sultan as well as Srirangapatnam proliferated in Britain. No other Indian ruler, against whom the British fought and won, captured the imagination of the average Britisher at home, as much as that of Tipu Sultan. There were tales of mythical proportions in circulation about his valour, reckless energy and merciless acts of tortures meted to the captured British soldiers. It is said that British housewives used to threaten their weeping babies with the ‘arrival of Tipu’ to silence them
The images of Tipu Sultan and his capital, Srirangapatnam became subjects for paintings and art sketches throughout Britain. When Ker Porter’s Panorama a single large painting of Tipu Sultan was displayed in Edinburgh, there was euphoria among the Scots to have a glimpse of it. The celebrated British painters J.M.W. Turner and J.S. Cotman painted scenes of Srirangapatnam and other places in Mysore besides the portraits of Tipu. Sir David Willkie, the famous painter of the day was commissioned by the widow of Sir David Baird, and his poignant painting Discovering the body of Tipu Sahib on 4 May, 1799, was exhibited in 1838 in the Royal Academy of Arts in London. The Scottish General David Baird had spent several years in Srirangapatnam as a prisoner of Tipu before avenging in the final assault on Tipu.
Alexander Allen an artist of great repute travelled to India to personally see the hill forts in Mysore kingdom before he produced captivating sketches. William Darnell and Beckford also produced several sketches that survive even today. Holmes’ Select Views of Mysore, and Hunter’s Picturesque Scenery in the Kingdom of Mysore also evoked great enthusiasm in Britain. The Mysore wars offered exciting subjects and artists who never even visited India responded to the popular appeal of the Tiger of Mysore. As a result of such prolific paintings, the image of Tipu was so much etched in the collective memory of the Britishers that decades later, when Raja Ram Mohan Roy visited England, he had to confront hostile crowds as he was mistaken to be a descendant of Tipu Sultan. The head gear he wore was similar to the huge turban Tipu wore.
Returning soldiers of Scotland provided Sir Walter Scott with anecdotes for his novels on India. Several dramas and stage plays depicting Tipu and his fall were written and enacted at the Royal Corbug theatre in Edinburgh. Events at Srirangapatnam also appear in the writings of the novelists like Charles Dickens, Wilkes Collins and Jules Verne.
The remnants of Tipu Sultan’s dismantled throne, his numerous swords, daggers, bejewelled sword-belts, hukkas, ivory caskets, and several other artefacts were displayed in Glasgow and Edinburgh besides London.
Tiger in Museum:
In 1999, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, as a part of the bi-centennial celebrations of Tipu’s death, held a special exhibition and decided to make Tipu’s Toy Tiger as a special exhibit along with several other Tipu’s memorabilia. But as the antique Toy Tiger was advised by exerts not to be moved from Victoria & Albert museum, fearing damage in the transit, a replica of it was made for the occasion.
The Toy Tiger is an awesome life size wooden toy seen devouring a European in military uniform. This impressive toy has cast a spell over generations of admirers since 1808 when it was first displayed in the Indian section of Kensington Museum now called Victoria & Albert Museum. The Toy in its body has a mechanical pipe organ hidden and by turning a handle, creates wailing shrieks and a loud roar. The design of this Toy Tiger is said to have been inspired by the death of the son of the Scottish General, Sir Hector Munro, a bête Notre of Tipu Sultan.
Tipu’s Memories at Edinburgh Castle:
The most significant of Tipu’s memories lay at the imposing castle in Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital. This historical castle, perched on a hillock with a commanding site, is a national symbol of Scotland. Inside the castle is located ‘National War Museum’in which the ‘the Battle Honors” of the Scottish Regiments are displayed. Here are seen numerous ornamental swords belonging to the several prominent Scottish Generals who saw action in the Mysore wars. Swords presented to Generals as souvenirs and medals are also on display What is surprising is the words, ‘Carnatic’, ‘Mysore’, and ‘Srirangapatnam’ carved in stone, are seen on the wall of this Museum indicating the importance the Scots bestowed on their combats during the wars against Tipu.
At the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF), held annually in August with several programmes of music, theatre, opera and dance, Tipu’s memories also come alive . The closing ceremony of the EIF held at the Castle is marked by spectacular display of fireworks. The scene is suddenly shrouded in darkness and bellowing smoke as rockets and explosives presents dramatic images of a big hill-fort under siege. This is an imitation of the Mysore wars when Scottish soldiers in India were familiar with such sights when deadly fires were showered on them from the impregnable forts like Nandidurg, Savandurg and Ootradurg in Tipu’s kingdom. It is said that four tons of explosives are used that evening for the celebration of such fireworks. Tipu Sultan, the ‘Tiger of Mysore’ must have died two centuries ago, but his enduring legend continues to be celebrated in far away Scotland with genuine nostalgia.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Friday Review / by K.S.S. Seshan / Hyderabad – March 17th, 2016
Surrender of Baillie to Hyder Ali, 1780, illustration from ‘Cassell’s Illustrated History of England’ (20th century) 1780
It was 1765 and a Duke in faraway England known for breeding race horses named his foal Hyder Ally. A few years later in 1782, and many more thousand miles away at the other end of the world, a single mast ship named Hyder Ally gave the fledgling navy of United States of America one of its greatest victories. How are these two events related and what connection did they have with the people of the erstwhile Kingdom of Mysore, the precursor to modern day Karnataka state, India?
In 1749 a 27-year old youth Haidar Ali (Hyder Ally as the British spelled his name), born at Budikote in modern day Kolar district, Karnataka put his military skills in action for the Mysore Army during the nine month siege of Devanahally Fort against a Poligor. Poligars (or Palegaras in Kannada language) were the local strong men, each controlling a few fortified settlements prior to the British rule. In early 1750s Haidar was also part of the action between the French and English in their struggle to install a person of their choice as Nawab of Arcot in which the Mysore Army sided with the English. Haidar Ali increased his stature among the military circles of the Mysore Army and was elevated asFaujdar of Dindigul in 1755. He successfully led Mysorean resistance to the Maratha invasion in 1759 and was consequently elevated as the Chief Commander of its army. Haidar’s perseverance in fighting his political foes paid off and in 1761 he was the lone survivor around the utterly weak Mysore King of the Wodeyar dynasty. He proclaimed himself a Nawab soon and found himself the de-facto ruler of Mysore Kingdom, being the most successful in protecting it from invasions by both other Indian kingdoms as well as Europeans 1. By then the British East India Company had its eyes set firmly on peninsular India having taken control of Bengal in 1757 as a consequent of the Battle of Plassey.
Back in England, Peregrine Bertie was the 3rd Duke of Ancaster in England having succeeded his father in Jan 1742 2. He raised a regiment of foot for the King of England during the rebellion in Scotland in 1745 3. He was subsequently promoted to the rank of a General in the Army in 1755 and later as a Lieut. Gen., in 1759 4. Peregrine was a leading horse racer who started a number of famous racing lines 5. He was appointed Master of the Horse to Queen Charlotte, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland in 1765. Peregrine as a military administrator was probably aware of the military and political happenings in India. In fact he was transferred in a year from the post of the Master of the Horse to the Queen to that of the King, where he was ‘responsible for overall management of all the royal stables, horses, carriages’. This transfer was due to the changes affected by the stock-holders of East India (EI) Company in England. The stock-holders were apparently alarmed by the acts of the English Prime Minister Lord Chatham to curb the influence of EI Company which by then controlled huge resources and land across in India. Given this background Peregrine was probably informed of the meteoric rise of Haidar Ali in south India’s political and military theatre. Indeed in 1760 an overconfident English Army detachment under Major Moore tasted its first defeat at the hands of Mysoreans under Haidar Ali at Trivadi near Pondicherry. And through that decade Haidar continued to spoil the political, economic and military aims of East India Company in Peninsular India with ramifications beyond this country given the global nature of the company’s trade. Did the military acumen of this Mysorean soldier play a role in Peregrine in naming his foal Hyder Ally in 1765 6,7? This may not be surprising as another race horse breeder in England named a foal Tippoo Saib in 1769 8, 9. Just a couple of years ago in June 1767, 17-year old Tipu Sultan (or Tippoo Saib as the British preferred to call him), heading a small force of the Mysore Army, stormed East India Company’s HQ in south India at Madras and nearly imprisoned the Madras councillors who threw themselves into the sea and escaped in a dingy. A year later Tipu recovered Mangalore from the British who fled the fort leaving behind their sick and wounded 10. The military and political deeds of this father-son seem to have left an impression on the British psyche.
US Navy’s tryst with Hyder Ally
Chance a race horse imported into USA by Col. Tayloe was a line of Peregrine’s Hyder Ally 8,11. Interestingly foals within America were also being named Hyder Ally (and Tippoo Saib) in 1770s.
A pamphlet advertisement for a stallion of Hyder Ally’s line published in the city of Portsmouth, USA in 1798. Accessed from Library of Congress, USA on November 5, 2017 from this link.
The first Hyder Ally to be foaled in America was in 1777 and four other foals were recorded with the name in 18th century 12, 13. But something very interesting was recorded in eye witness accounts of America’s history in 1770s. An upheaval overtook the country in 1775 as ordinary Americans rose against the Government of Great Britain, declared independence and flew their own flag 14, 15. Apparently the first flag of the Union, now the US national flag- the Stars and Stripes, sent to the state of Maryland was hosted on a sailboat by teenaged Joshua Barney at Baltimore in October 1775 who served the US Navy since then.
‘Rocket Warfare’, by Charles H. Hubbell (1898–1971) captures the humiliation of British at the Battle of Pollilur (Sep. 1780) by Mysorean war rockets
In 1780, in far-away Mysore Kingdom, America’s ally against the British through the French, the East India Company was suffering one of its worst reverses in its military history. The reverberations of the humiliation of British at Battle of Pollilur in September 1780 inspired the Americans who received the news 16 on 23 August 1781. On 19 October 1781, the British land force led by Charles Cornwallis (who later led EI Company’s army and its Indian allies to defeat Haidar Ali’s son Tipu Sultan in the 3rd Anglo Mysore War) surrendered to the Americans led by George Washington. Nine days later Cornwallis’ surrender was celebrated at Trenton, New Jersey with the town being decorated with American colours. The town’s who’s who along with inhabitants attended a service at the Presbyterian Church, where a discourse highlighting the occasion was delivered by a Reverend. In the afternoon the gathering drank 13 toasts accompanied with a discharge of artillery one of which was for ‘The great and heroic Hyder Ali, raised up by Providence to avenge the numberless cruelties perpetrated by the English on his unoffending countrymen, and to check the insolence and reduce the power of Britain in the East Indies’.
In October 1781, the British land force led by Charles Cornwallis surrendered to the Americans led by George Washington (Incidentally a decade later Cornwallis gave EI Company and its Indian allies victory over Haidar Ali’s son Tipu Sultan in the 3rd Anglo Mysore War in India). But America was far from being an independent nation. The British still ruled the seas. They kept a keen watch on the ships entering and exiting the ports of north east USA, often capturing the vessels and looting goods 17.
General Washington an American sloop-of-war was captured by Admiral Arbuthnot, and placed in the king’s service under a new name The General Monk, which was then used to pirate American ships. By 1782 the commerce of Philadelphia City as well as the ordinary life of the residents of the coast and nearby streams was deteriorating. As the fledgling American Union was not in a position to protect the affected vessels the State of Pennsylvania, at its own expense, fitted a number of armed vessels that operated in waters leading to Philadelphia. The state purchased Hyder Ally, a small sloop (single mast ship) equipped it with sixteen six-pounder guns to help protect the American vessels. 23-year old Lieutenant Joshua Barney, now in the US navy, arrived at Philadelphia where he was honoured with the command of Hyder Ally17. Assigned with recruiting men, Barney used a poem penned by Philip Morin Freneau18 to attract young American men to the ship. The poem exalted Haidar Ali’s bravery against the British with the following lines:
Come, all ye lads who know no fear,
To wealth and honour with me steer
In the Hyder Ali privateer,
Commanded by brave Barney.
From an eastern prince she takes her name,
Who, smit with freedom’s sacred flame,
Usurping Britons brought to shame,
His country’s wrongs avenging;
Come, all ye lads that know no fear.
With hand and heart united all
Prepared to conqueror to fall.
Attend, my lads! to honor’s call —
Embark in our Hyder-Ally!
And soon Barney led a force of a hundred and ten men. On April 8, 1872, he received instructions to protect a fleet of merchantmen to the Capes just before the sea, at the entrance of Delaware Bay. Dropping the convoy at Cape May road he was awaiting a fair wind to take the merchant ship to sea when he saw three ships19 which he realised were waiting to plunder the convoy. Barney immediately turned the convoy back into the bay, using Hyder Ally to cover the retreat. Soon the bigger General Monk under the command of Captain Rogers of the Royal Navy nearly double his own force of metal, and nearly one-fourth superior in number of men caught up with Hyder Ally. Despite being fired upon, Barney held Hyder Ally’s fire till within pistol shot when both the two vessels got entangled. A desperate fight, lasting for only 26 minutes though, resulted in the lowering of flags by General Monk indicating her surrender. Both vessels arrived at Philadelphia a few hours after the action, bearing their respective dead. The Hyder Ally had four men killed and eleven wounded. The General Monk lost twenty men killed and had thirty-three wounded including Captain Rogers himself, and every officer on board, except one midshipman!20
Source: ‘Life of Commodore Joshua Barney, Hero of the US Navy (1776-1812), 1912
A hero is celebrated
Philadelphia burst in celebrations. Ballads were made upon this brilliant victory and sung through the streets of the city! And echoing with Barney’s name was that of Hyder Ally. Here are some lines 14:
And fortune still, that crowns the brave
Shall guard us o’er the gloomy wave —
A fearful heart betrays a knave!
Success to the Hyder-Ally!
While the roaring Hyder-Ally
Cover’do’er his decks with dead !
When from their tops, their dead men tumbled
And the streams of blood did flow,
Then their proudest hopes were humbled
By their brave inferior foe.
In 1782 the Legislature of Pennsylvania passed a vote of thanks to Captain Barney and ordered a gold-hilted sword to be prepared, which was afterwards presented to him in the name of the state by Governor Dickinson. It was a small sword with mountings of chased gold- the guard of which on the one side had a representation of the Hyder Ally, and on the other the General Monk 14. Barney was the last officer to quit the Union’s service, in July, 1784, having been for many months before the only officer retained by the United States.
Source: ‘Life of Commodore Joshua Barney, Hero of the US Navy (1776-1812), 1912
Barney was sent by the American Government to Paris. A reception was given in France him as a hero of dashing naval exploits during the Revolutionary War 21. A painting representing the action between the two shipswas executed in 1802 by L. P. Crepin in Paris by order of Barney, while in the service of the French Republic. The same was presented by him on his return to the United States, to Robert Smith, Esquire, then secretary of the navy 22. The painting is now in the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland 14. Barney was an intimate friend of Count Bertrand, one of Napoleon’s generals 15. Napolean incidentally had an alliance against the British with Haidar Ali’s son Tipu Sultan, during the latter’s life time 23.
Barney was appointed a Captain in the Flotilla Service, US Navy on 1814 April 25 24. He took part in seventeen battles during the Revolutionary War and in nine battles during the War of 1812. A British Musket-ball lodged inside his body in battle at Bladensburg, Maryland in August 1814 25. He passed away on December 1, 1818, aged 60.
70 years after Hyder Ally’s victory over General Monk, James Cooper wrote “This action has been justly deemed one of the most brilliant that ever occurred under the American Flag. It was fought in the presence of a vastly superior force that was not engaged, and the ship taken was in every essential respect superior to her conqueror.”17
The world today is considered a global village thanks to the scaling down of boundaries between nation states and individuals alike. But it may surprise us even in the 18th century seemingly local political events and humans made an impact on lands and societies far away. The name Haidar Ali, after an adventurer from an obscure place in the erstwhile Kingdom of Mysore who gave many a lesson in military and political strategies to global colonial powers of England and France, echoing across the proverbial seven seas in distant North America for nearly a century is testament of this 26, 27.
Painting of Commodore Joshua Barney at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, ‘Life of Commodore Joshua Barney, Hero of the US Navy (1776-1812), 1912
Sources/ Notes:
Col. Mark Wilks, Historical Sketches of the South of India, Volume 1 of 3, 1810. Wilks traces the origins and political lives of Mysore Kingdom’s rulers and provides an insight into their military campaigns.
The New Peerage, or Present state of the Nobility of England, Vol. 1 of 4, 1784
The Gentleman’s Magazine, Vol.78, Part 1, 1808
George Cokayne, Complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, 1887
Allan Chivers, The Berties of Grimsthorpe Castle, 2010. Peregrine established the racing lines of Blank, Paymaster and Pacolet which were well-known in England. Their foals went to establish themselves in the US.
Blank was one of his favourite horses and he named a foal sired by it as Hyder Ally.
Hyder Ally was later sold by Bertie to C.Blake who then sold it to Richard Vernon. The later, in Oct. 1773, raced it at New Market, considered the birthplace and global centre of thoroughbred horse racing. Many of this horse’s progeny were imported into America and entered racing.
allbreedpedigree.com Online database on Pedigree horses. Downloaded Oct. 10, 2017.
It is interesting that it was not uncommon for race horses to have names originating in the east. Such names in 1700s included Mumtaz Mahal and Salim7. But Pergerine’s only horse named after a human was Hyder Ally.
Prof. B Sheikh Ali, Tipu Sultan – A Crusader for Change
American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine, Vol. 2, 1831
J.H.Wallace, American Stud Book, Vol. 1, 1867
Other books that document Hyder Ally foals and sires are William Pick and R.Johnson’s The Turf Register, and Sportsman & Breeder’s Stud-Book (1803) and Patrick Nisbett Edgar’s The American Race-turf Register, Sportsman’s Herald, and General Stud Book, Vol. 1 of 2 (1833)
A biographical memoir of the late Commodore Joshua Barney (1832) by Mary Barney sister of Joshua Barney provides in-depth information of the latter’s personal and military life.Born on July 6, 1759, 13-year old young Philadelphia Joshua Barney set sail on his maiden merchant ship journey to Ireland in 1771 with his brother in law Captain Thomas Drysdale. He sailed back home the following year and made trips to ports in Europe again. He set sail for Nice, France in December 1774 during which journey Captain Drysdale died. He took control of the ship which needed urgent repairs and therefore docked at Gibraltar, Spain instead. In a few months he sailed to Algiers, Algeria from Alicant, Spain to deliver Spanish troops during which he witnessed the annihilation of these troops by the Algerians which made him return to Alicant soon. He immediately set sail across the vast Atlantic Ocean for Baltimore, USA. As he entered the Chesapeake Bay on 1st October he was surprised by the British Sloop of war Kingfisher. An officer searched his ship and informed him that Americans had rebelled and that battles were being fought. He was fortunate enough to escape detention. Returning to Philadelphia he was determined to serve the Americans fight against British. At that time a couple of small vessels were under at Baltimore ready to join the small squadron of ships stationed then at Philadelphia and commanded by Commodore Hopkins. Barney offered his services to the commander the sloop Hornet, one of these vessels. He was made the master’s-mate, the sloop’s second in command. A new American Flag, the first ‘ Star-spangled Banner’ in the State of Maryland, sent by Commodore Hopkins for the service of the ten gun Hornet, arrived from Philadelphia. At the next sunrise, Barney unfurled it in all pomp and glory. In 1776, Robert Morris, President of the Marine Committee of the Congress offered him a letter of Appointment as a Lieutenant in the Navy of the United States in recognition of his efforts during a naval battle engagement in Delaware.
A summary of Mary Barney’s book14 is well recapped with notes in William Frederick Adams’ Commodore Joshua Barney: many interesting facts connected with the life of Commodore Joshua Barney, hero of the United States navy, 1776-1812 (1912).
Frank Moore, ‘Diary of the American Revolution’, Volume 2, 1860
James Fenimore Cooper in History of the Navy of the United States of America (1853)
‘The sailor’s invitation’, Freneau’s Poems written and published during the American Revolutionary War (1809)
Two ships and a brig- a sailing vessel with two masts
As explained by Barney himself in his painting of this war commissioned later
A. Bowen, The Naval Monument,1815, Concord, Massachusetts, U. S. A. gives an account of the reception received by Barney in France
The painting was accompanied by a description, in the hand-writing of Commodore Barney, which is reproduced in Mary Barney’s book
Record of Service, Bureau of Navigation, Navy Department, United States Navy
The conduct of Commodore Barney, at the battle of Bladensburgh, was appreciated by his military opponents as well. He was wounded in the engagement and was taken prisoner by General Ross and Admiral Cockburn but paroled on the spot. At the time of his death in 1818, the ball was extracted and given to his eldest son. For the valuable services of her husband, Congress granted Mrs. Barney a pension for life.
William Goold, Portland in the past, 1886 has information of at least one more well-known ship named Hyder Ally built in the US in 1800s after the one described in this story. This ship, like many other US ships, resorted to pirating British ships in the Indian Ocean all the way up to the island of Sumatra and around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa in the run up to the British-American War of 1812.27. Corbett’s Annual register (1802) documents the ship ‘Tippoo Saib’ registered in Savannah, Georgia, the southern most of the 13 colonies that declared independence from the British in 1776 and formed the original ‘United States of America’.
Tipu Sultan, son of Haider Ali, on an elephant in a detail from ‘The Battle of Pollilur’, 1780, a mural at Daria Daulat Palace, Seringapatam. Photo by Bridgeman Iages
If the sultan of Mysore had had a bit more luck, George Washington might be known as the Haider Ali of North America
If the sultan of Mysore had had a bit more luck, George Washington might be known as the Haider Ali of North America. As the ruler of Mysore, a kingdom in what is now southwestern India, Haider fought a series of wars with Great Britain in the latter half of the 18th century, at the onset of the Age of Revolution. While Haider was fighting his last battles against the British, Washington was leading the forces of the nascent United States from the harsh winter at Valley Forge to the final victory at Yorktown.
The circumstances of Haider’s childhood did not seem to mark the young man out for greatness. Born around 1720, Haider soon lost his father, a mercenary officer who died on campaign. Haider followed his father’s path, becoming an officer for the Wodeyar dynasty that ruled Mysore. After many years of service, he grew indispensable to the ruling family, sidelining it entirely by the 1760s. It was a dangerous time to come to power in South Asia. The British East India Company was expanding its power throughout the Subcontinent, at the expense of rulers from Bengal in the east to Haider’s neighbours in the south. Allied with France, however, Haider held off the British advance for another two decades, dying in 1782, just a year before the US triumphed in its own rebellion against Britain.
Haider and Washington never communicated directly with one another, but they fought against a common enemy, and shared a common ally. Like the Mysoreans, the American rebels were members of a global coalition funded by the French government, which saw both uprisings as a chance to humble Britain. In the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), Britain had ended nearly a century of conflict with its imperial rival in North America by seizing France’s vast territories in Canada and the Mississippi River Valley. Some French observers tried to minimise the extent of the defeat. Voltaire dismissed loss of North America as ‘a few acres of snow’. Yet French policymakers were well aware that Britain had greatly increased its power. Too weak to confront it again on its own, the French government wove a network of alliances, playing on resentments against Britain’s growing control of global trade and rapidly expanding empire. Beginning in the mid-1770s, it sent money and military advisors to both Mysore and the US, aiming to avenge its defeat by stoking colonial rebellions against Britain.
The alliance with France proved critical to the survival of the fledgling US. The memory of French aid, and particularly of the dashing Marquis de Lafayette’s assistance to Washington, has for more than two centuries served as a symbolic origins story of close Franco-American relations. During the Revolutionary War, however, Americans saw themselves not just as allies of France, but as part of a coalition that included Mysore.
Even after the US made peace with Britain in 1783, the American fascination with Haider and his son and successor, Tipu Sultan (1750-1799) lived on. Mysore’s rulers became familiar references in American newspapers, poems and everyday conversation. Yet, within a generation, Americans lost their sense of solidarity with the Indian Subcontinent. Mysore remained under British control, written out of the story of the American Revolution. The US turned its attention to the interior of North America, and to becoming an imperial power in its own right.
Even before the Revolutionary War, American interest in South Asia was lively. In fact, Americans’ rebellion against Britain in part grew out of the connections between America and the Subcontinent. Before the 1770s, Americans were cheerleaders, rather than critics, of British imperialism. The Philadelphia-born poet Nathaniel Evans (1742-1767) commemorated the victory of the East India Company at the Battle of Plassey in 1757, in which Robert Clive had seized control of Bengal:
The world to British valour yields
How has bold Clive, with martial toil
O’er India born his conqu’ring lance?
Sharing in Britain’s glory in this way seemed natural to Americans, who were proud to be part of the British Empire. The East India Company’s growing influence in Bengal enabled it to export large quantities of South Asian goods, particularly textiles, to American ports such as Boston and Charleston. Colonial elites displayed them in their homes with pride, signs that they were part of a global British empire growing rich from the spoils of the Subcontinent.
While Americans were free to purchase these imperial commodities, they were not free to join British merchants in South Asia. Britain’s colonies served to provide the motherland with raw materials. They were not supposed to have direct economic relations with each other, but rather to send their exports to the great trading centre of London. New England merchants in particular resented being pushed to the side of the mercantile system. Following military victories by the East India Company in South Asia, the company’s economic power within the British Empire, including North America, grew even greater, and so too did New England merchants’ resentment.
In 1773, the British government issued the Tea Act, a bill in effect subsidising the East India Company so it could sell tea to North America more cheaply than any other company. The Tea Act was meant to save the Company’s struggling finances, which were sinking under the cost of its expensive wars. By allowing the Company to sell its tea without paying the heavy taxes normally due on tea exports to the colonies, British officials thought they could help the Company while also keeping Americans happy. Because of the taxes levied on it, tea was expensive in the colonies, and tea-loving New Englanders often resorted to buying theirs on the black market. If the Company no longer had to pay these taxes, it could pass the savings on to thirsty American consumers.
Seeing themselves as victims of Britain’s imperial oppression, Americans sympathised with the empire’s other victims: South Asians
The colonists, however, did not respond as the British expected. By granting the East India Company an exemption from the tax, Parliament had confirmed that the tax on tea, passed without Americans’ consent, was there to stay for all other merchants. And the smugglers that the British government hoped to cut out of the tea business were influential members of New England society. On 16 December 1773, economic self-interest combined with principled opposition to taxation inspired a group of protestors to attack a Company shipment of tea, dumping its contents into the ocean.
The Boston Tea Party marked Americans’ growing opposition to British rule, and the beginning of a new perspective on South Asia. The British government retaliated by stripping Massachusetts of its right to self-government. Outraged colonists met in 1774 to form the First Continental Congress. The following year, armed conflict between colonial militias and British soldiers broke out at Lexington and Concord, and the American Revolution was underway. Americans started to see themselves as victims of Britain’s imperial oppression. They were soon sympathising with the empire’s other victims, particularly South Asians.
The American revolt against Britain quickly took on international dimensions. In 1776, the Continental Congress declared independence, transforming the former British colonies into the United States of America. American agents were soon busy seeking international recognition and goodwill from countries including Morocco, the Netherlands and, most importantly, France, Britain’s imperial rival. Within a year, the French government began sending aid to the fledgling US. A year later, in 1778, France and the US officially became allies.
The Continental Congress recognised that it was not France’s only partner against Britain, and looked for ways to cooperate with Mysore, France’s South Asian ally. In 1777, on the advice of Thomas Conway, an Irish-born French military advisor, the American patriots contemplated sending troops to join the French military expedition to the Subcontinent. The provisional American government lacked the resources for such a scheme, so instead it encouraged American privateers to attack the East India Company’s shipping to weaken Britain’s economic grasp on South Asia.
Different state governments also made friendly gestures toward Mysore. In 1781, the Pennsylvania legislature commissioned a warship named theHyder-Ally, an eccentrically spelled tribute to the Sultan of Mysore. This ship sailed the North Atlantic only, far from the Indian Ocean. Its existence, however, demonstrated the affinity American elites felt for Mysore’s cause. Philip Freneau, an ally of Thomas Jefferson and one of the country’s leading poets, wrote a poem in honour of the Hyder-Ally and its namesake, the sultan of Mysore:
From an Eastern prince she takes her name,
Who, smit with freedom’s sacred flame
Usurping Britons brought to shame,
His country’s wrongs avenging.
Clearly, nothing prevented these 18th-century Americans from seeing faraway Asian peoples as exemplars of liberty.
Despite Freneau’s optimistic vision, freedom’s sacred flame did not save South Asia. By the early 1780s, it was becoming clear that Britain would lose the war. Many Americans happily imagined a post-war world in which the East India Company would no longer be a significant force. Britain, however, managed to hold on to its territory in the Subcontinent, resisting the combined forces of Mysore and France.
France’s military support for Mysore and the US helped drive it into crippling debt and push French society toward its own, more radical revolution. Meanwhile, Britain’s finances survived the conflict intact, allowing it to continue an aggressive policy in the Subcontinent after 1783. The cash-strapped French, however, could maintain only a token military presence in the region. The situation left Mysore’s new ruler, Tipu Sultan, to his own devices. He resisted mounting pressure from the British for nearly two decades, succumbing only in 1799. He died beneath the walls of his citadel as he fought a last-ditch battle against the East India Company.
The American government adjusted to the new realities of South Asian politics. New England merchants eagerly sought to trade directly with the Subcontinent. In the first years after the end of the Revolutionary War, they relied on the French colony of Pondicherry on the southeastern coast of the Subcontinent as a port. They soon realised however that they could not enter the region’s most lucrative markets without the permission of the British East India Company. They lobbied for the establishment of American consulates to foster goodwill for American interests. Responding to their pressure, the US government created its first consulate in South Asia in 1792, in Calcutta. Two years later, in Madras, they added another. American consuls in the region were responsible only for relations with the Company. They had no contacts with independent South Asian states such as Mysore, which the American government, like the French, left to fend for itself.
Only recently an enemy of the British empire, America had won independence and become Britain’s junior partner in empire
On a state level, American interest in Mysore disappeared. But many Americans remained fascinated by Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan. When Tipu sent a team of ambassadors to Paris in 1788, in an unsuccessful attempt to restore the Franco-Mysorean alliance, Jefferson, then the American minister to France, reported on the event with keen interest. Like Jefferson, a wide range of Americans were eager to learn more about Mysore. American newspapers of the 1780s and ’90s reported on the country’s desperate struggle with Britain. American textbooks, including Jedidiah Morse’s influential The American Universal Geography (1793), included sections on Mysore. Haider and Tipu seem to have approached the status of household names. In Williams vs Cabarrus (1793), a lawsuit brought before a circuit court in North Carolina, the two parties disputed a wager made on a horse race. One of the horses was named ‘Hyder Ali’ in tribute to Mysore’s former ruler.
Even in the wake of Tipu’s final defeat, in 1799, his struggle for an independent Mysore continued to echo in the imagination of Americans. In his sermon on 4 July 1800, John Russell, a Baptist minister in Providence, warned his audience about the dangers of British imperialism. While many Americans, such as Alexander Hamilton, advocated for closer ties to Britain, Russell insisted that Britain could not be trusted. The ultimate example of British injustice, he argued, was its conquest of Mysore. Deeply moved by what he saw as Tipu’s heroic resistance, Russell told his congregation of Tipu’s death at the hands of British soldiers: ‘here the full heart must have vent… [Tipu Sultan] defended his power with a spirit which showed he deserved it. His death was worthy of a king.’
For Russell, Tipu’s end ought to warn America about the mortal dangers of empire. By the early 19th century, however, America had embarked on its own imperial project. American missionaries fanned out across North America, travelled to the Levant, and poured into South Asia, writing glowing reports back home on the work that the British were doing to ‘civilise’ the world, including the Subcontinent. Only recently an enemy of the British empire, America had won independence and become Britain’s junior partner in empire.
American diplomats, merchants and missionaries in South Asia accepted Britain’s empire in South Asia, working alongside it to profit from local trade or proselytise to potential converts. Over the following decades, foreign policy officials, commercial interests and religious groups pushed for the US to acquire a colonial empire of its own. Just like the British empire Americans had once rebelled against, the US became an imperial power, with colonies stretching from Puerto Rico and Guantánamo in the Caribbean to the Philippines in the Pacific.
Today, with military bases in more than 70 countries across the globe, the US remains an empire. Yet, the generation of Americans who fought for independence from Britain and laid the foundations of America’s identity saw the US as an anti-imperial cause and nation. The founding generation and the children of the founders were fascinated with Mysore and its leaders because they thought Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan embodied American values of resistance to empire and aspiration to freedom. If later generations of Americans had continued to see Haider and Tipu as heroes, had continued to identify with underdogs and anti-imperial causes, then the US, and indeed the world, might look quite different today.
source: http://www.aeon.com / Aeon / Home> Essays / by Blake Smith / Edited by Sam Haselby / December 07th, 2016
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Blake Smith is a postdoctoral fellow at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. His research, focusing on the French East India Company, has appeared in scholarly journals such as French Cultural Studies and the Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, as well as popular media such as The Wire and The Appendix.
British Indian World War II spy Noor Inayat Khan may be the next face of British currency. A campaign for the same is gaining momentum wherein people are demanding the spy to be featured on a redesigned 50-pound currency note.
The Bank of England had recently announced plans for a new polymer version of the large denomination note to go into print from 2020 and indicated that it would invite public nominations for potential characters to appear on the new note.
An online petition in favour of the campaign has already garnered over 1,200 signatures by Wednesday, calling for Khan, a descendant of Tipu Sultan and daughter of Indian Sufi saint Hazrat Inayat Khan, to be considered as the first ethnic minority British woman to be honoured on the currency.
“I am absolutely delighted that the story of Noor Inayat Khan has inspired so many people and that she has become an icon. Noor was an extraordinary war heroine,” said Shrabani Basu, the author of Khan’s biography ‘Spy Princess’ and founder-chair of the Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust.
The trust was set up in 2010 to campaign for a memorial in honour of the war-time spy, who had been recruited by Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) and infiltrated beyond enemy lines before being captured and killed by the Nazis in 1944, aged only 30.
Khan’s memorial bust now has a permanent home at Gordon Square in central London, with the trust also lobbying for a commemorative blue plaque to mark the house nearby where she spent time with her family.
“I am very happy to support the campaign for Noor Inayat Khan on the 50-pound note. It is a way of keeping her memory alive and taking this story to the next generation. It will certainly make a big statement internationally because Noor was someone who believed in breaking down barriers,” Basu said.
The campaign has found the backing of prominent political leaders, historians and academics in the UK, with many taking to social media to voice their support.
“The new 50-pound note could have anyone on it. I’m backing Noor Inayat Khan. She volunteered for SOE, served bravely as an agent in occupied Europe, was eventually captured and murdered. A Muslim, a woman, a hero of WWII. This would celebrate her courage and all SOE,” said Conservative Party MP Tom Tugendhat, who is currently leading the UK Parliament’s Global Britain and India Inquiry.
“Just returned from both East Africa and the Western Front and am more than ever aware of the shared service and sacrifice of men and women of many backgrounds. I would love to see Noor Inayat Khan on the new 50-pound note,” said Melvyn Roffe, Principal at George Watson’s College in Edinburgh.
Noor Inayat Khan, born in Moscow to an Indian father and American mother, was raised in Paris and Britain. As a Sufi, she believed in non-violence and also supported the Indian independence struggle.
But she felt compelled to join the British war effort against fascism and went on to become the first female radio operator to be infiltrated into Nazi-occupied France before she was captured, tortured and killed at the Dachau concentration camp in Nazi Germany.
“In this age, when we see a rise in anti-semitism, anti-Muslim hatred and intolerance, it is important that we continue to build bridges and show positive contributions from Britain’s ethnic and religious minorities, not least one of World War II’s almost forgotten heroes, a British Muslim woman,” said social activist Zehra Zaidi in the online petition she started to campaign for Khan as the face of the new banknote.
The 50-pound currency will be the final redesigned note to go into circulation after notes in the denomination of 5 and 10 have already been reissued in polymer. The new 20-pound polymer note will go into circulation from 2020 when the 50-pound is set to go into print to be circulated later.
“The bank will announce a character selection process for the new 50-pound note in due course, which will seek nominations from the public for potential characters to appear on the new note,” the Bank of England said.
With Inputs From PTI
source: http://www.indiatimes.com / India Times / Home> News> India / October 18th, 2018
Over 1000 war rockets of Tipu era have just been found in a fort in Karanataka. Tipu Sultan was the first warrior in history to have used rockets in his warfare against the British.
Recall Tipu Jayanthi celebrated by the Karnataka Government under Siddaramaiah and the violent opposition it evoked from the BJP and Hindutva forces who overlooked Tipu Sultan’s fierce fight against British rule and only focused on his Islamic identity. An Union Minister publicly refused to participate in the Tipu Jayanti celebrations.
The fanatical opposition to Tipu Sultan by BJP and its top leadership has been so intense that it did not even accept the speech of President of India Ramnath Kovind who while addressing the Karnataka Assembly appreciated Tipu Sultan, among others, and flagged his pioneering role in employing the first ever rocket in the history of warfare against the British.
In their blind opposition to Tipu Sultan just because he was a Muslim, the BJP leaders of Karnataka did not hesitate even to diminish the dignity of the President of India by refusing to acknowledge his speech and dismissing it as as a draft prepared by the then Karnataka Government. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi while campaigning for BJP candidates in the Karnataka elections sarcastically said that the Congress Government was celebrating the Jayanti of “Sultans”.
Let us be mindful of the fact that a sketch of Tipu Sultan finds a prominent and place in the calligraphed copy of the Constitution where the sketch of Lord Ram, Akbar and other outstanding figures of Indian mythology and history occupy a hallowed place.
It is not that President Kovind is the first President of our Republic who invoked Tipu Sultan’s glorious legacy. Earlier President K. R. Narayanan in his speech delivered at the banquet hosted by the President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac, on April 17, 2000 in Paris referred to the correspondence exchanged between Tipu Sultan and Napoleon Bonaparte for the purpose of forming a grand alliance to defeat the British and throw them out of India.
In an appendix of the publication, The Sword of Tipu Sultan, authored by Bhagwan Gidwani, there is a text of letter written by Napoleon to Tipu Sultan bringing out the strategic affinity and understanding between India and France in the late 18th century.
Napoleon wrote in the letter to Tipu Sultan : “You have already been informed of my arrival on the borders of the Red Sea, with an innumerable and invincible Army, full of the desire of delivering you from the iron yoke of England.”
Before the letter could reach Tipu Sultan, the British intelligence succeeded in intercepting it. Then President Narayanan in his aforementioned banquet speech rsaid: “…Napoleon’s demarche perhaps underlined the strategic affinity that links India and France and the responsibility we hold in creating a more equal and democratic inter-national order in the multipolar world.”
It is all the more significant to note that the concept of ” creating a more equal and democratic inter-national order in the multipolar world ” was taken up by Narayanan by invoking Tipu Sultan along with Napoleon who is a national hero for the French. I recall that the leadership of France deeply appreciated this speech and thanked the then Indian President for contextualizing the strategic dialogue started between the two countries in the 21st Century by referring to the strategic understanding forged in the 17th Century.
Abdul Kalam in his writings published before he became President of India had outlined Tipu Sultans stellar contributions as the first warrior in history of warfare for having used rockets against the British who were completely on the defensive. The account given by President Kalam of the rockets used by Tipu Sultan in his war against Britishers makes a fascinating read and the younger generation should be educated about it. He also refers to the Royal Artillery Museum, London that has exhibited the rockets used by Tipu Sultan with the claim the he became the first warrior to do so.
It is rather fascinating to note that the French Revolution and its ideals deeply impacted Tipu Sultan and he celebrated the Revolution with great fervour. Possibly he was the first monarch in India who remained wedded to the enduring ideals of the Revolution- liberty, equality and fraternity- and planted a tree in Srirangapatnam to commemorate it. He enlisted himself as a member of the Jacobin Club which constituted one of the prominent political formations of the Revolution proclaiming egalitarianism and affirming a social order informed by liberty, equality and fraternity.
His strategic vision encompassed in its scope a modern navy which he founded in 1796 and set up two dockyards where ships could be used and equipped with necessary facilities for conducting warfare. It greatly supplemented his military capability based on his land based armoury and armed forces.
His critical understanding that a strong economy could sustain a strong military paved the way for him to take manifold measures to augment and expand trade and commerce and set up a chain of industries. His farsightedness in understanding the danger posed by the advancing British forces in the 18th century stood him out as an unparalleled leader with a firm grasp over military and strategic affairs. British historians have recorded his accomplishments with admiration. And recorded the fact that the conditions of the peasants of Mysore were far better than their status in the British provinces of that era.
Historians have recorded that Tipu Sultan liberally gave grants to numerous Hindu shrines and respected the faith of others. Such a legacy rooted in respecting all religions makes Tipu Sultan relevant for our contemporary period which is witnessing majoritarian tendencies.
He relentlessly fought against British occupation and aggression and eventually attained martyrdom. His heroism and bravery to fight against colonial subjugation constitutes an important portion of Indian history. It is important to celebrate that legacy and enrich it.
Jawaharlal Nehru in his Discovery Of India wrote “Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan .. inflicted a severe defeat on the British and came near to breaking the power of the East India Company.” Such a glorious phase of Tipu Sultan who almost broke the power of the East India Company and who remained wedded to ideals of French revolution inspires India of twenty first century. We need to immortalize it by affirming its enduring value which is far above party politics and ideological rivalry.
As the twenty first century India faces threat from Hindutva forces engaged in lynching people and polarizing them in the name of cow protection, love jihad and religion we need to reinvigorate the legacy based on liberty, equality and fraternity which remained at the heart of the French Revolution, guided Tipu Sultan and inspired our freedom fighters and the framers of our Constitution to shape the destiny of India based on progressive values.
(S.N.Sahu served as Officer on Special Duty to late President of India K.R.Narayanan and also as Director in Prime Minister’s Office under Manmohan Singh).
source: http://www.thecitizen.in / The Citizen / Home / by S.N. Sahu / July 30th, 2018
Site of awakening: The Vellore fort today. Photo: Curator, Government Museum, Vellore
Though it preceded the First War of Independence by almost 50 years, not much is known of this brief act of valour by the sepoys of the Vellore fort.
In the late-18th Century, the fakeers played a key role in spreading the message of unity amongst Indians and the need to throw out the British.
AT three, in the stealth of the dawn, on July 10, 1806, when it was still very quiet and the calm enveloped the Vellore fort, the doors of the native barracks suddenly flung open. Five hundred brave Indian sepoys were on the threshold of a mutiny they had so carefully plotted. Armed with muskets, they tiptoed out, dragging in their midst two heavily muffled six-pounder guns. They reached the European barracks, briefly halted, lifted the muskets to their shoulders and waited expectantly. The signal they anticipated was issued presently. It was at once fire works that shattered the still and the quiet. Windows and glass crashed while the English inmates woke up to their peril. Either they were killed in their beds whilst in deep slumber or were put down while running out in night robes trying to make sense of the pandemonium that had broken out so suddenly.
Losing direction
The Vellore War of Independence against the East India Company occupation was now well on its bloody course with all the trappings of romance associated with mutinies manifesting itself on that fateful morning. Underdogs defying authority, secretive planning, courage against intimidating authority, bravery and fearlessness towards death – all moved by a deep sense of right being on their side. By the time the smoke cleared and the guns became quiet by 5 a.m., about 15 British officers and about 100 English soldiers had been killed.
Col. Fancourt, the Commander of the Fort and Garrison was the first to be shot. Jamaidar Shaik Cossim, one of the principal leaders of the rebellion, had arranged to hoist Tipu’s Mysore flag over the fort signalling that the fort had been taken over. As the flag was fluttering proudly, the course of the mutiny floundered and lost its sense of direction and purpose.
Some of the sepoys started looting the houses of the Europeans, whilst others were busy abusing sepoys who did not take part in the mutiny. Yet others were conducting inconclusive discussions with Tipu’s sons, who were held captive within the fort, to come out openly and lead. Tipu’s princes hesitated and vacillated.
Though this rebellion preceded the First War of Independence (Sepoy Mutiny of 1857) by over 50 years, it has not been given the importance and significance it deserves as a determined early attempt to throw out imperialism and alien rule from Indian soil. We will take a brief pause from the fast-paced events of that fiery morning and analyse the causes for and significance of this rebellion before coming back to July 10, 1806 once again to complete our story.
Key influence
At the time of the Mutiny, the Vellore fort was station to the following Infantry Military units.
Battalions of the 69th Regiment and 23rd Regiment with 1,500 native troops and about 370 white officers and men present inside.
And great dissatisfaction was brewing amongst the Indian troops on various counts. And this had a good deal to do with the Fakeer Movement of the late 18th Century.
These fakeers were mystic mendicants (at times doubling up as mercenaries!) commanding the respect and affection of both Hindus and Muslims. In large numbers, they went from town to town conducting discourses, prayers and even puppet shows. They played a key role in spreading the message of unity amongst Indians and the need to throw out the British. They often got in touch with sepoys and native officers and instigated them to rebel. Their methods were secretive and the appeal powerful. These fakeers fanned all over the South and hence one can see that in the early 19th Century, there were several rebellions in the South.
The Chittoor polygors fighting the British between 1804 and 1805, the Travancore Mutiny in the same period and the Madurai outbreak of 1804 are examples to cite.
The famous valiant Wayanad hero, Pazhassi Raja gave the English anxious times till his capture and death in 1805. There was a ground swell of nationalism and a strong undercurrent of hope. And the fakeers sure had a significant role to play. Cantonments from Wallajahbad to Palayamkottai had been caught up in this freedom fervour.
The fakeers had a simple and enduring message: “we are many and they are few”.Like the gunpowder in the cartridge that needs a spark to ignite, the spark for the Vellore uprising came in the form of new uniform regulation announced by John Cradock in March 1806.
Cradock was the Commander-in-Chief the Madras Army. A new cap was prescribed in place of the turban and caste markings on the face were prohibited. The beard was to go. The hair over the upper lip was to be regulated and the wearing of earrings abolished. The troops saw this as the first step to Europeanisation and conversion to Christianity. Hindu and Muslim soldiers resented the regulations. Muslim soldiers expressed solidarity with Hindu sepoys who despised the use of cow leather in the new cap prescribed in the revised uniform regulation issued by the office of Cradock. Hindus and Muslims together rose as one in the name of religion and liberty.
Yet another factor that helped shape events in Vellore was the presence of Tipu’s family in the fort. They were confined and housed in the palaces and mahals formerly of the Nawabs of Arcot which lay within the precincts of the fort. After his heroic death on May 4, 1799, Tipu’s 12 sons and six of his eight daughters were brought to Vellore along with a retinue of servants and the party totalled 1,378.
In Vellore town itself a number of people had settled down following Tipu’s heirs. A certain Lt. Col. Marriott (pay master of Stipends) and his brother Capt. Marriott (the assistant paymaster) were in charge of the privileged prisoners.
Ironic twist
The presence of Tipu’s princes undoubtedly inspired the sepoys. Ironically, the princes perhaps did not provide decisive and inspiring leadership to the uprising.
Prince Moiz-ud-Deen is reported to have conducted some parleys with the leader of the uprising and Prince Fettah Hyder offered support in the early phase of the planning, albeit not too openly. Prince Moiz is said to have met key leaders like Subedar Noor Mohamed, Subedar Shaik Hossain and Jamaidar Shaik Cossim prior to July 10.
After assuming control of the fort, when Sheik Cossim and the others asked the princes to come out and openly lead them, the princes were insisting that they see the body of Lt. Col. Marriott first. This response did not help the course of the uprising which was already beginning to lack organisation.At that point and at about 9.30 am on July 10, 1806, Col. Gillespie of the 19th Dragoons, commanding the Cavalry Cantonment 16 miles away at Arcot, reached Vellore to put down the Mutiny. One Major Coates of the 23rd Regiment had earlier dispatched a letter through an officer at around 6 a.m. to the Arcot Cavalry unit seeking help. Gillespie arrived with an advance force. Lt. Col. Kennedy from the same cavalry reached a little later with heavy guns.
Swift end
The dislocated mutineers did not regroup in proper defence. The gates were blasted open by the 19th Dragoons and they stormed in. The rebelling native sepoys were mercilessly hounded and killed. It is reported that around 800 of them were found dead at the fort alone. More lives were evidently lost. By 2 p.m. in the afternoon the rebellion had not only been completely silenced but had come to be a brief pale memory of heroism – a flicker that was sadly extinguished.
As was expected, the British ordered a Court of inquiry into the events. It was also considered risky to keep the Tipu’s family in Vellore, so close to the seat of their former glory. They were taken and resettled in faraway Calcutta. The news of the Vellore War of Independence had sent shockwaves in England. The Governor, William Bentinck and Commander-in-Chief of the Madras Army, Sir John Cradock both were recalled on this count.
Historians should do more to research this not so well documented act of heroism, to inquire into questions like the impact of this event on the 1857 great rebellion.
Commemorating this unique rebellion, the State Government on the Bicentennial Anniversary held a function on July 10, 2006 with the Chief Minister participating and releasing a special volume on the Vellore uprising.
Voluntary groups and students are planning cycle rallies to Vellore to take home to the people of India the message of sacrifice behind these sepoys who dared to rebel so that we may live in a free country.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Sunday Magazine / by A. Rangarajan / August 06th, 2006
Could the Tiger’s position — now behind a glass case, its crank handle inaccessible to the public — be an apology for the disrespect permitted in East India House?
The artefact sitting in V&A was iconic, identifiable and far away from home
The day I saw Tipu’s Tiger behind its glass case at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London was a day of significance. That morning, after months of being cooped up in Oxford, some friends and I took the train to Marylebone and found the absence of dreaming spires refreshing to say the least. At noon, a friend from India was waiting for me on the other side of the busy Camden High Street. As we hugged amidst the crush of gliding Londoners, her muffled exclamation might have been: ‘It’s so crazy we’re meeting here of all places, so far from home.’
That phrase would be borrowed by me on two separate occasions during the day. In the evening, I stood before Julian Barnes at the Royal Institution and told him how I had read ‘A Short History of Hairdressing’ over and over again to teach myself the ‘architecture’ of a short story. I felt a potent urge then to parrot my friend. It was ‘crazy’ to see and hear Barnes in the flesh, so far from my bedroom in Kolkata, the only other place he had seemed real and, dare I say, attainable through his prose and through the material object, that is, his books in my hands, the only feasible rendezvous with the man.
I had never thought then it would happen: to have someone I studied so minutely sit before me and confess he didn’t think as highly of his short prose as I did.
Iconic meeting
The second occasion I was inclined to echo her words that day was when I stood in the South Asia section of the V&A before Tipu’s Tiger, which had always been relegated to the Did You Know section of our history books. It was not exactly like meeting an old friend or a revered author, but it bore all the characteristics of such a meeting. Like Barnes and my Kolkata friend, it was instantly iconic, identifiable from a distance, and a ready reminder of my distance from India. In fact, standing before the wooden automaton, slightly disconcerted, I addressed it and thought: ‘You are so far away from home.’
The possible inspiration for the mechanical figure seems fitting to some. Hector Munro Jr, whose father defeated Tipu’s father Hyder Ali in the Second Anglo-Mysore War in 1781, was mauled by a royal Bengal tiger at Saugor Island in 1792 and died from the injuries. This must have seemed like divine intervention to Tipu, a wrong set right. The carved and painted, almost life-size, wooden musical automaton was created for the Sultan, whose personal emblem was a tiger and whose hatred of the British was well-known.
The last laugh
With the fall, however, of Seringapatam and the execution of Tipu in the Fourth Mysore War of 1799, the Tiger travelled from the music room of Tipu’s summer palace to the Company’s East India House at Leadenhall Street in London, where the public was given access to view and play with it.
Its wooden body with a keyboard embedded in the flank was thrown open to the English masses who came in and played ‘God Save the King’ and ‘Rule, Brittania!’ upon it. If Tipu thought he had been mocking the Englishmen with the Tiger, they were now having the last laugh.
I deal with issues of empire and post-colonial anxiety almost on a daily basis, especially in a place like Oxford, especially on a course called World Literatures in English. Of course, when I first saw it, I silently demanded a restoration of the tiger to its previous owner, to its previous nation. My anger at seeing the Tiger in an English museum, so far away from home, was justifiable. The Tiger was not borrowed. Nor was it touring, as it had to New York’s MoMA in the 50s. Instead, it was a ‘permanent’ acquisition at the V&A.
Of collaborations
For every Indian schoolchild, the Tiger, just an artefact but nonetheless awe-inspiring, was not an affordable train or flight away, like Fatehpur Sikri or Sher Shah’s tomb.
For me, the Tiger’s distance from my home was a reiteration of the national and racial distinctions not only of the Anglo-Mysore variety, but also of the Jadavpur-Oxford type that I faced every day. Besides dodging questions like ‘If you’re from India, how’s your English so good?’ for the past few months, I had had to clarify to a white friend who subsisted on the chic-ideal of Zadie Smith that India has Bengalis too, and no, I did not have relatives in Brick Lane, not that I knew of anyway.
Seeing Tipu’s Tiger that day catalysed a recollection of an afternoon in 2016 in the Victoria Memorial Hall with Thomas Daniell and his nephew William. Their tranquil scenes of India, while in stark contrast to the ferocity of the Tiger, do something interesting.
The English hands of the Daniells reproduce the Indian hands of the architects behind the buildings and locations they sketch. Their canvas becomes a surface of Anglo-Indian collaboration, similar to how it is conjectured that the mechanics of the Tiger have an Indo-French history.
This recollection, and the subsequent contemplation on collaboration, made me think of several works of restoration that the V&A carried out upon the Tiger, especially after the bombing of London in World War II. Could this act of restoration be seen as an act of reparation? Could the Tiger’s position — now behind a glass case, its crank handle inaccessible to the public — be an apology for the disrespect permitted in East India House?
The Tiger, so far from home, is an icon that reminds me of a past based on plunder and pillage by the nation it sits in. Yet, its 18th century splendour has weathered war and wear so well. Do present acts of safekeeping obliterate the violent history of its, for want of a better word, theft?
I am persuaded to wonder if the Tiger is now a collaboration between Tipu’s Mysore craftsmen and its modern conservationists in England and if I should be thankful for the restoration. Are the acquisition and conservation of an Indian object in a British museum and the works of British painters displayed in a Calcutta museum an instance of transnational collaboration and exchange? But in the case of Tipu’s Tiger, this then also begs the question: how long is too long before we forget that what is ‘acquired’ is what was once ‘removed’ from its home?
The writer, a Felix Scholar, is studying World Literatures in English at Oxford
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society> History & Culture / by Rohit Chakraborty / May 05th, 2018
The freedom movement of India was not the sole agenda of a particular political party but it had moved aam aadmi in the form of masses in his/her own capacity. The history of Indian national movement would be biased and incomplete without the presentation of the actual role of Indian Muslims in it, right from the revolt of 1857 to the day of Independence in 1947.
Shoulder to shoulder they fought with the other communities for the Independence of India. The contribution of Muslim poets, revolutionaries and writers is not known today. Instead of secular historiography, it has been communalised. Courtesy: Mapsofindia.com
The Muslims and other minorities never envisaged India as adopted land because Muslims of India have not come from outside but are the converts to Islam and have deep feeling sense of belonging to this country and therefore contributed to the cultural, economic, intellectual and spiritual progress throughout the ages.
The role, significance and uprising of Indians against British imperialists can be seen since mid of 18th century in the form of Battle of Palashi (Plassey), June 23, 1757. It was Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah who first awakened Indian rulers and gave a call to oppose the British. He, however, lost the battle and was executed at the young age of 24. This was soon followed by the great Tipu Sultan, who was killed by Lord Wellesley during the fourth Anglo-Mysore war in 1799.
The contribution of Muslim revolutionaries can be witnessed from the first half of 19th century. The Faraizi and the Wahhabi Movements had disturbed the pace of British plan in the initial stages of its expansion in India. The Wahabi movement of Syed Ahmed Barelvi was the most organised one. He appealed to all Hindus and Muslims to overthrow the British and thus he was killed in 1831 at Balakot.
The number of Muslims executed only in Delhi during 1857-58 was 27,000. During this revolt, Asghari Begum (mother of Qazi Abdur Rahim, the revolutionary of Thana Bhawan, Muzaffarnagar) fought against the British and was burnt alive when defeated. It was estimated that about 225 Muslim women gave their lives in the revolt.
Similarly, barely is known about the contribution of Muhammad Ashfaq Ullah Khan of Shahjehanpur who conspired and looted the British treasury at Kakori (Lucknow) to cripple the administration and who, when asked for his last will, before execution, desired: “No desire is left except one that someone may put a little soil of my motherland in my winding sheet.”
Likewise, the present generation does not know about Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, a great nationalist who had passed 45 years of his 95-years of life in jail for the freedom of India and thus awarded ‘Bharat Ratna’ in 1987. Barkatullah and Syed Rehmat Shah of Ghadar Party sacrificed their lives. Umar Subhani, an industrialist and a millionaire of Bombay who, then, presented a blank cheque to Gandhiji for Congress expenses and who ultimately sacrificed his life for the cause of Independence. Maulana Hasrat Mohani, with his poetry, infused zeal of freedom in young hearts.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, at the age of 35, became the youngest person to serve as the President of the Indian National Congress. He was the icon of Hindu-Muslim unity as well as espousing secularism and socialism. Raj Mohan Gandhi in his book ‘Understanding Muslim Minds’ mentioned that Maulana went straight to Congress office just after the funeral procession of his wife, Zuleikha Begum and led Quit India Movement.
Manmohan Kaur in her book entitled as ‘Women In India’s Freedom Movement’ makes reference to only Begum Hazrat Mahel and Bi-Amma out of the hundreds of women who fought the battle of freedom along with their men folk against the British Raj. The history of the Indian national movement would be incomplete without mentioning the heartily services of Abadi Begum (mother of Maulana Muhammad Ali), Amjadi Begum (wife of Maulana Muhammad Ali), Amina Tyabji (wife of Abbas Tyabji), Begum Sakina Luqmani (wife of Dr Luqmani and daughter of Badruddin Tyabji), Nishat-un-Nisa (Begum Hasrat Mohani), Saadat Bano Kitchlew (wife of Dr Saifuddin Kichlew), Zulekha Begum (wife of Maulana Azad), Mehr Taj (daughter of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan), Zubaida Begum Daoodi (wife of Shafi Daoodi, the reputed nationalist of Bihar) and many others.
Santimoy Ray’s ‘Freedom Movement And Indian Muslims’ challenges the many prejudices that generate bias and hatred against the Indian Muslims, particularly their contentions role in Indian freedom movement.
This shows the great sacrifices they made to oust the British rule in all the national uprisings from Sanyasi Movement to Independence, finally led to the withdrawal of British from India in 1947. It is such a pity that their roles in the struggle for freedom has not been adequately presented in the Indian history. The comprehensive study about the role of Muslims struggle for freedom is essential to help eradicating prejudices and many misconceptions against the Muslims grown in the absence of fair historiography.
I’m recalling some of the beautiful lines of Faiz Ahmed Faiz …
Ye daagh daagh ujaalaa, ye shab-gaziida sahar,
Vo intizaar thaa jis-kaa, ye vo sahar to nahiiN,
Ye vo sahar to nahiiN jis-kii aarzu lekar
Chale the yaar ke mil-ja`egi kahiiN na kahiN
Falak ke dasht meN taroN kii aakhiri manzil,
KahiN to hogaa shab-e sust mauj kaa sahil,
KahiN to jaake rukegaa safiina-e-gham-e-dil.
Abhii chiraagh-e-sar-e-rah ko kuchh khabar hii nahiiN;
Abhii giraanii-e-shab meN kamii nahiiN aa’ii,
Najaat-e-diidaa-o-dil ki ghaRii nahiiN aa’ii;
Chale-chalo ke vo manzil abhii nahiiN aa’ii.
Meaning:
This stain-covered daybreak, this night-bitten dawn,
This is not that dawn of which there was expectation;
This is not that dawn with longing for which
The friends set out, (convinced) that somewhere there we met with,
In the desert of the sky, the final destination of the stars!
Somewhere there would be the shore of the sluggish wave of night,
Somewhere would go and halt the boat of the grief of pain.
The lamp beside the road has still come no lessening,
The hour of the deliverance of eye and heart has not arrived.
Come, come on, for that goal has still not arrived.
(Author is currently preparing for civil service examinations.)
source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> Articles> Indian Muslim / by Shaik Amer Arafath / August 14th, 2015
`Masjid-e-Meraj Bada Makan’ is tucked away in a nondescript lane on Lalbagh Main Road. Nothing about the structure or its adjoining dargah (now under renovation) seems `historic’. But then, first impressions can be misleading.
The story goes back to 1753, says the mosque’s secretary Abdul Shukur. Hyder Ali decided to take the blessings of a fakir in Salem before the battle of Tiruchinapally against the British. It is said he was shocked when the saint Attaullah Shah Shuttari forbade him from fighting. The commander went ahead nevertheless, a move that resulted in defeat, grave physical injury and loss of lives.
Hyder Ali then requested Shuttari to become his pir (spiritual guide). Pointing to a brickwalled home opposite the mosque, Shukur says, “Hyder Ali built this bada makan (large home) for the fakir and it continues to be occupied by his descendants.“ Local residents and historians believe Shuttari had a greater role to play.
Syed Suleiman Ali Shuttari, the eighth-generation descendent of Attaullah Shah Shuttari, says people from far and wide visited his illustrious ancestor. They travelled in bullock-carts and stayed put in the grounds next to the mosque, waiting for the saint to finish his prayers. During one of his visits, Hyder Ali was pained to see people wait in the blistering heat. So, he commissioned the making of Lalbagh in 1760.
“Lalbagh was originally planned over 30 acres of land here, before Tipu Sultan and the British planned it across the 240 acres that we see today ,“ says Mansoor Ali, founder, Bengaluru By Foot. Mosque members go a step further to claim that Lalbagh was named after Haider Ali’s mother Lal Bi.
Popular narratives of history , however, say Hyder Ali was inspired by the Mughal gardens in Delhi and so had Lalbagh built. The horticulture department website suggests that Lalbagh derives its name from the red roses that bloom year-round in the botanical garden. After Shuttari’s death in the the 1770s, a dargah was built on his grave. Hyder Ali himself passed away in 1782.
The place also has an old well, said to be 30feet deep. Popularly known as Bada Makan Ki Boudi, it was apparently built by Haji Nasiruddin, a district commissioner and a follower of Shuttari. His great-grandson Shabaz Shariff said that Nasiruddin spent `200 to build the well. “It never dries out. In fact, it was among the only sources of water during the famine of 1876,“ he says. Though the well is locked, it continues to supply water to the mosque and the local community .
source: http://www.economictimes.indiatimes.com / The Economic Times / ET Home> Magazines> Panache / by Divya Shekhar, ET Bureau / July 13th, 2017
Tipu Sultan, the `Tiger of Mysore’, born Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu in 1750 at a place now part of Bengaluru, was never in Calcutta. But our city has two masjids in his name as descendants of his descendants live in our city. Last year, the government of Karnataka decided that November 10 will be annually celebrated as Tipu Sultan Jayanti. This attracted foolish objections from those who never learned from history but want to rewrite it and rip up the country’s social fabric. As Stephen Hawking succinctly puts it, “We spend a great deal of time studying history , which, let’s face it, is mostly the history of stupidity.”Tipu Sultan, the powerful ruler in south India during the 18th century , when the British themselves were taking over India in their empire-building frenzy , was a formidable opponent to their imperialistic ambitions.Unfortunately , he died on the battle field in 1799, one of the first Indian rulers to do that. However, he had also signed a treaty with the British seven years earlier by which he ceded half his kingdom and unable to pay the colonists some `300 lakh, had to accept his two minor sons being exiled to Calcutta.Although they were returned to their family two years later, a `mutiny’ in 1806 resulted in the entire family and entourage of about 300 people literally being shipped off to Calcutta. This included Tipu’s 11th son, Prince Ghulam Mohammed Anwar Shah. Ghulam Mohammed is remembered today , if at all, by the name of the road that skirts around the Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC) and arrives at the Golf Green area.
The family was settled in hutments on marshy tracts of land in Russapugla, the area which now houses Tollygunge Club and RCGC, initially liv ing in penurious conditions.However, Ghulam Mohammed Shah was enterprising. He scrounged and saved the stipend he received from the British and built up his finances through judicious investments, later acquiring the lands they were settled in and setting up the Prince Golam Mohammed Trust in 1872. He built the famous Tipu Sultan Shahi Masjid located at the junction of Dharmatala Street and Chowringhee in honour of his father in 1832. A decade later he built the twin of that mosque in Tollygunge at the crossing of Prince Anwar Shah and Deshpran Sasmal Roads. The Trust started by him is considered to be one of the richest Muslim trusts in the country , their revenues earned mostly from the ownership of multiple properties stretching from south to central Calcutta. It is said the land on which the Lower Circular Road Christian cemetery is located was acquired from Tipu Sultan’s son in 1840.That explains the small mosque in an enclosed area at the rear of the cemetery .
It is fun to extrapolate that despite the political and social conflicts raging in the nation at that time, the Tipu Sultan Shahi Masjid, one of the lesser known heritage attractions of Calcutta, along with the Sacred Heart Church, a short walk down Dharmatala Street, as its contemporary neighbour, are rather obvious examples of this city’s plurality and cosmopolitan nature.Tollygunge, not yet known as Tollygunge, would be called that after Colonel William Tolly dredged the Gobindapur Creek in 1773 and reconnected Calcutta Port with the Matla and Bidyadhari rivers. He was also permitted to levy a tax on ships plying to and from today’s Bangladesh and built a market there, a ganj. The area was thereafter known as Tollygunge. In due course, Prince Ghulam became the owner of almost all the land.
The first hole of Tolly Club’s golf links is named after Tipu Sultan and for someone who never even set foot in this city, his legacy here is quite something to wonder at. George Orwell said, “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history .” Rewriting the history of a country to fit a particular political mould is an attempt to do exactly that and it shall fail because those doing so are in denial. Tipu Sultan was many things to many people. He was probably what many monarchs were at that time, benevolent and violent, fighting valiant battles to retain his lands and his people, harsh and despotic, heroic and innovative, patriotic and tyrannical, and a whole lot more. He, nevertheless, will be a significant character in our history, if for no other reason but that he was where he was, when he was.
One of the ways someone like Tipu Sultan will live on in history is because of music.He featured in folk songs of the period as he did in English ballads of the time. The English songs were of course all derogatory and cursed the Indians in various ways, while being full of self-praise and odes to British military valour.Perhaps there is still time for someone to do what Francis James Child did in the 1800s, collecting Scottish and English ballads and transcribing them to text and notation. The wealth of folk music in India would give us, what could only be an amazing take on the history of our country .
— PATRICK SL GHOSE
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Kolkata News / by Patrick SL Ghose / TNN / November 06th, 2017
