PAK: Latest Apprentice at the ‘Tipu Sultan Fake News Factory’
August 30, 2019
Apparently so.
In the past couple of days or so, our learned ersatz scholar has opined as under (I have verified that he has indeed said so – in/on Facebook) – which is perhaps the latest in his exciting series of misinfo, halfbakery products – and passing off random info that he has heard from somewhere as a gospel truth. But then sirs and ma’ams, isn’t he merely continuing in the grand tradition of our faffing public intellectuals? And, assorted Tamil litterateurs & self-appointed conscience keepers of nondescript notions?
…and, the problem is that, I am in the process of busting as many myths about Tipu as possible – including the famous fight he is supposed to have had with a Tiger – and in the process, am really appalled at PAK’s scholarship. Oh what to do.
From his rather erudite opinions on Hindi, to Indic Sciences & Technology to Bhavaprakaashana to… … Except when taking down the Dravidian scum that he does with stellar finesse, he does not make any sense at all, otherwise! Amazing!!
The flagship of the Continental fleet that defeated a stronger British force at Delaware Bay in 1782 during the American War of Independence was named “Hyder Ally”!
This is mostly correct. Just because Americans were helped by the French (because, their common enemy at that time were the Brits) and the French had these Indian ‘allies’ called Tipu/Hyder who were also ‘fighting’ the Brits in India – Tipu and his father had gained some notoriety during the ‘coming of age’ of USA. Some appropriate chest-thumping is of course warranted, if one were to be a fanboy of Hyder Ali or Tipu – which most of our liberal intellectuals are, anyway!
But the facts are also that ‘Hyder Ally’ was just a privateer ship (+sloop-of-war) flying the marquee of Continental Navy, and that it suffered very bad damages in the battle because of which, it pretty much was lumbering along in delirium after the battle.
Also, one wonders, how supporting (and being supported by) French Imperialism is actually Anti-imperialism! Anyway, setting that aside, now let us come to this, very interesting part that PAK points out to unlettered us.
Tipu Sultan sent a letter to the Continental Congress after the Declaration of Independence in which he spoke about “every blow that is struck in the cause of American liberty throughout the world, in France, India, and elsewhere”. He added, “so long as a single insolent savage tyrant remains the struggle shall continue.”
Oh yeah? This should be the GREATEST joke ever manufactured.
I encountered this myth for the first time, circa 2001, I think, when I was researching (not on the Internet, silly) about our friendly bloodthirsty Tipu’s ‘Melkote massacre on Deepavali day‘ etc. And, it turned out that these targeted massive massacres of Mandayam Iyengars DID very much happen, not at Melkote, but, instead at Mandya (between Bangalore and Mysore).
Anyway. I am now transcribing a bunch of handwritten notes/jottings that I have made in the context of the Tipu’s alleged letter etc. Just to educate myself. Liberals are un-educatable, anyway.
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…It was a matter of great puzzle to me that NO primary source exists for this bit of news about Tipu writing to Benjamin Franklin or to the Continental Congress. Not even a single secondary source does. No mention of it happens in the contemporary American chronicles of the late 18th Century, and even after that.
Do read this in tandem with the interesting fact that, there is so little ‘history’ that ‘civilized’ USA has had and so the Americans go the extra mile (no, not kilometre!) to preserve and propagate their versions of their histories.
In fact, NO mention of it exists for the next nearly 200 years.
And then… …in a ‘novel’ attempt, someone suddenly ‘writes’ about it, and then… it eventually becomes ‘accepted history’ by the process of cyclically repeated quotes & citations etc etc; and, dastardly Twistorians have been writing about it ad nauseam, till date. I am sure, the great myth will continue to rule via whatsapp and facebook. Thanks …
Anyway; after some figuring-out, I zeroed in on a reference that many ‘scholars’ quoted for the demonstration/proof of the ‘anti-imperialist’ nature of our Tipu, that actually did exist and I hunted it down.
That was “Making History Karnataka People & Their Past” written by a shadowy Comrade ‘Saki’ Saketh Rajan of Naxalbari scumbag leanings, and published by Vimukthi Prakashana in 1998. Vol1. (page 515)
“…In his lifetime Tipu was also witness to the success of the American War of Independence from the clutches of British colonialism. Benjamin Franklin, a leader of the American struggle for liberation… in his campaign to mobilize financial support for the struggle, issued advertisements in French newspapers on his visit to the country. MV Kamath says that Tipu who read one such advertisement sent his contributions from the ‘Kingdom of Mysore’ with a letter to the American leaders hailing them of success in their mission against British colonialism. In this letter he is reported to have stated: ‘Every blow that is struck in the cause of American liberty throughout the world, in France, India, and elsewhere and so long as a single insolent savage tyrant remains the struggle shall continue.”
Okay. But this Naxalite quotes another text from which he has taken this extract; this book itself has become very famous in the naxalbari, socialist and other comprador intellectual classes. At least, in Karnataka.
…And that is Kabir Kausar‘s book. In this particularly obtuse and lousy book aptly titled “Secret Correspondence of Tipu Sultan” (Published by Light and Life Publishers, New Delhi in 1986) – page 306, Kausarbhai weaves a cute little story.
It does not stop there. This Kabir has actually lifted it from another book ‘The Sword of Tipu Sultan’ written by a masterly fiction writer called Bhagwan S Gidwani in the year 1976; and that is from page no 210. This book subsequently became infamous for its secular-fundamentalist ‘appropriate use’ by Sanjay Khan for his (1990?) propaganda serial – also titled ‘The Sword of Tipu Sultan.’
Obviously, this Gidwani is from Canada and thinks that he can write any nonsense about Kannada culture just because they kinda rhyme.
So. A fiction writer writes some contrived nonsense in his shitty ‘fictional novel’ with all kinds of interesting & imaginary twists and turns and ‘manufactured histories’ – and a successful ‘secular’ TV serial is manufactured based on it + a couple of books quoting the aforesaid communication happen and then hordes of researchers (of the calibre of ‘The Hindu’ newspaper hacks) take them even further…. and voilà! Suddenly, Tipu is treated with even more additional respect by our learned folks, scholars, wisdomwallahs… who claim based on this fantastically flimsy ‘evidence’ that…
Tipu stands out because he was one of the very few rulers of India who understood the real global nature of imperialism.
Heh! He? Understood? Real global nature of imperialism? Bah! I think some powerful weed is being smoked here. Psst, can you pass it on please? Let us call it a joint effort.
That he himself was a medieval tyrant should not cause us to ignore this fact.
Sir, for a change, I agree with you. But we should also understand that there are Facebook tyrants who pass off their abysmal knowledge and random hand-me-downs as gospel truth.
Having said that, I also commiserate with these vendors of venality because there have been so many forgeries and disinformation spread by Tipu apologists – who have borrowed from expert forgers of Tipu era like that Christian preacher toady – Frederick Schwartz and others.
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In that seminal, select collection of Tipu’s ‘letters’ – compiled by William Kirkpatrick and published in 1811, of course, there are a few fake/uncorroborated ‘letters’ purported to have been written by Tipu., in there. However, setting that aside, even this collection does NOT mention anything even remotely to do with the subject – not even any tangential reference to it!
And, there is not even a single mention of America. Sorry.
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(Incredible project: An insolent savage tyrant is in struggle with himself, poor chap, via invented quotes and twisted histories! Thanks! https://shaheedtipusultan.wordpress.com/)
Anyway…Thanks, PAK siree – for very kindly bestowing us with these bits of thy infinite & incredible wisdom. But, unfortunately, since my eyes have now turned glassy because of my torrential tears of gratitude – gotta stop now. :-(
Now just a quick request to PAK Sir.
Sir, as your eagerly awaited forthcoming historical projects, please do write about:
1) how Jihad is useful to India, as a secular population control measure,
2) why Dravidians do need to be encouraged purely because of the ‘diversity requirements’ of our culture
3) why and how you are your own ‘primary source’ for all you write about/on.
Thanks again!
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Useful (or as the case may be, useless) references/pointers:
- PAK’s offending post (thanks, but no thanks to that anonymustachio who supplies me with tasty bits from the Facebook) – https://www.facebook.com/pakshirajan.ananthakrishnan/posts/3507606725932153
- Kabir Kausar’s lousy book – available off archive.org – https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.12717
- Naxalite ‘Saki’ version of Karnata twistory – https://www.sapnaonline.com/books/making-history-karnataka-people-past-saki-1234567155533
- Gidwani’s scummish book on Tipu – https://www.amazon.in/Sword-Tipu-Sultan-Bhagwans-Gidwani/dp/8129114755
- Sanjay Khan’s execrable series on Tipu – https://www.amazon.com/Sword-Tipu-Sultan-Sanjay-Khan/dp/B01EGQUIR8
- William Kirkpatrick compilation of select letters of Tipu – https://archive.org/details/selectlettersoft00tipu/page/n5
NOTE: Having said all that, if any one who has bothered to read this blather, can come up with verifiable Primary Source evidence (not fakes, have seen so many of them!) to the contrary (I mean, to the line of thought here in this post) I will, as always, be more than willing to listen and correct my ignorance.
| ஒத்திசைவு | प्रत्याह्वय | resonance | 
August 30, 2019 at 08:12
Isn’t it a not standard practice that the liberals build facts that way? They have developed an ecosystem of growing such fakets by cross referencing each other.
No one but a few like you or TrueIndology and a handful of non-liberals care to dig into real facts. For everyone else, there’s internet.
Soon we’ll see research papers quoting PAK’s Facebook posts.
August 30, 2019 at 08:15
Yo!
“Fakets” – L O V E L Y! 🤣
August 30, 2019 at 11:14
Shared in FB sir, so that PAK may stumble up on it.
August 30, 2019 at 11:58
OK, thanks siree – but even if he does not stumble upon it/this, it would be nice to see him showing some potential, some restraint as opposed to unbridled & baseless socialist verbiage, at least henceforth. At least befitting his age and ‘stature.’
It is never too late to learn, yeah? But then, our liberals are, well… um… what do you think?
August 30, 2019 at 13:43
//(thanks, but no thanks to that anonymustachio who supplies me with tasty bits from the Facebook)
Ram, I am not anonymustachio.
August 30, 2019 at 19:40
Ok. Because of you jobless fellows who keep correcting the punny spellings of your pseudonyms, and keep sending me random stuff from walled gardens, am losing friends one by one. (actually, good riddance!)
Look at this JL Guy’s ‘poem’ – I lost a friend of decades because this guy chose to sarcastically comment on my friend’s series of poems thusly – https://twitter.com/SridharT/status/1166209346239221761
Why are you guys tormenting me?
September 2, 2019 at 06:49
I came across this reference in an article in “Journal of the American Revolution” written by Richard Sambasivam. I hadn’t checked the source of this reference, which I should have done. It turns out that the source of the reference is Kabir Kausar’s book on Tipu. When I consulted Kausar’s book I found that the quote was from Gidwani’s novel on Tipu!
My sincere apologies. I should have been more careful. Thanks for pointing out this horrible mistake. I am also posting my apologies on Facebook.
September 2, 2019 at 09:39
Sir, much appreciated and thanks.
That Richard Sambasivam is a very shoddy guy – wrt ANY research/documentation. There are so many such absolutely unsubstantiated myths about Tipu – most of which make him out to be a virtuous sultan; this is only a Tipu of the Icebergu, anyway.
September 2, 2019 at 10:41
This was what I wrote about him a few years ago:
A primer on Tipu:
There are presently two major views on Tipu. One is that he was a notorious bigot who persecuted the Hindus. The other is that he was a great secular internationalist who had a vision. Probably, the truth is somewhere in between:
Did he persecute the Hindus?
Of course, he did. But then he didn’t do that within his kingdom. The Hindus within his kingdom were -in the strict 18th century sense – safe. He looted and plundered the places that he invaded. He was harsh on every community, including the Muslims. But then that was the style of every king of his times. We must not forget that the Marathas had Pindaris who followed them and looted the places which the Marathas had conquered. The Pindari army had Muslim leaders, but the foot soldiers came from all communities. The fear of Pindaris was such that villagers used burn their places themselves to escape the onslaught of the plunderers.
What about the Coorgs and the Mandayam Iyengars?
Tipu did persecute them. The Coorg boys were converted and inducted into his army. He needed good soldiers and the Coorgs had a very good physique. The Iyengars were punished because he thought they betrayed them.
Was he sincere when he wrote to the Shanakaracharya?
Of course not. He was desperate for allies at that time. He was also a superstitious man who believed in astrology and he had a set of Brahmin astrologers to advise him. He must have been advised by them that if he made presents to the Shankaracharya the stars might turn favourable!
Was he sincere when he wrote to Ottoman Sultan and the Amir of Afghanistan?
Of course not. As I said, he was desperate for allies that time and hence he had to lay the butter of Islam a bit thick. On the other hand, he was a practicing Muslim and it was but natural that he preferred Muslims at various centres of power. But he had many important Hindu officials too, the most important being Purnaiah. He also wrote to the Nizam that, as a fellow Muslim, the Nizam should form an alliance with him. He also sought the daughter of the Nizam for his son, but the proposal was contemptuously rejected as the Nizam felt that Tipu was the son of a servant and hence of a low birth.
Did he want to seek an alliance with the French?
Yes, he did. He also had dreams of becoming the King of India – strictly speaking the king of the territories held by the British. He offered to share India equally with the French, but that perhaps was a tactical move. He did became a member of the Jacobin club, but that didn’t mean that he believed in liberty, fraternity and equality. He was an absolute monarch and wanted to stay that way. All his moves were political and in ‘enlightened’ self-interest.
Was he modern for his time?
He undoubtedly was. He brought sericulture to his state, regulated the trade using modern methods, trained his army using modern techniques.
Why was he different?
He was the only king at that time who clearly saw the nefarious designs of the British. He kept on plotting against them because he was sure that the continued existence of them would bring doom to every king of Hindustan. He fought bravely and died in the battlefield. Not many kings of India had that honour.
Was he secular?
Of course not. He was a king in the medieval mould with a few modernist streaks. He would not have recognized secularism if it was served to him on a platter.
You may have several issues with the above summary!
September 2, 2019 at 10:52
I also wrote this!
“To call Tipu Sultan a secular king is a travesty of truth. When it came to religion he was completely medieval. There is no doubt that in the Mysore region, the Hindus were not much persecuted, but his acts in Coorg and Malabar are too horrendous to be brushed under the carpet. He was on a murderous orgy in both the places, like his father Hyder Ali was when he invaded the Tamil country. We must not forget that the entire Tamil Nadu right down to Dindigul was terrorized and depopulated during Hyder’s campaigns. The son was no different from his father. Tipu was modern in the sense that he was fascinated by technology and did not hesitate to introduce it in his kingdom, both economically and militarily.
It is amusing to read Karnad’s statement that no Kannadiga born in the last 300 years could match Tipu’s greatness. Firstly Tipu was not a Kannadiga. His father was either a Punjabi or from Afghanistan. Hyder himself claimed that he was an Arab from the Qurash tribe – the tribe of the Prophet. The official language of Tipu’s Kingdom was Persian.
He did fight the British and he did fight bravely, until the bitter end. But that is a different issue.”
September 3, 2019 at 11:52
Such cases are described by Ravinar, a blogger,(Media Crooks) with the expression,”Salma says and Sabrina quotes” One of them writes something, others start using them. It goes around and finally it becomes inscribed on stone.
September 3, 2019 at 16:22
சார்,பெரியவர் PAK அவர்கள் தங்களுக்க்கு திப்பு சம்பந்தமாக மேற்கண்ட கருத்துக்களை தெரிவித்த பின் தனது முகநூல் பக்கத்தில் திப்பு தொடர்பாக தனது தொடர்பான தனது நிலைப்பாடு எதுவும் மாறவில்லை எனவும் மேற்கொண்டு தனது வலைப்பக்கத்தில்
Ugஎழுதியுள்ளகட்டுரையை படிக்குமாறு சிபாரிசு செய்கிறார் அதில் முத்தாய்ப்பாக இப்படி தெரிவிக்கிறார் “மொத்தத்தில் திப்பு நவீன காலம் தொடங்குவதற்கு இருந்த ஒரு மன்னர். அவர் மீது நவீன காலக் கூறுகளைத் திணிப்பதும் ஒரு வன்முறைதான். அவர் மீது இஸ்லாமிய வெறியர் என்றபட்டத்தைத் திணிப்பது போன்றது”
இது உங்களைப் பொறுத்தவரை சரிதானா?
அவர் கட்டுரையின் சுட்டி:
https://pakrishnan.com/2019/09/03/%E0%AE%A4%E0%AE%BF%E0%AE%AA%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%AA%E0%AF%81-%E0%AE%9A%E0%AF%81%E0%AE%B2%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%A4%E0%AE%BE%E0%AE%A9%E0%AF%8D-%E0%AE%B5%E0%AE%B0%E0%AE%B2%E0%AE%BE%E0%AE%B1%E0%AF%81/
September 3, 2019 at 16:38
சார், பெரியவர் PAK அவர்கள்’திப்பு’பற்றிய தனது கருத்துக்களை மேலே கொடுத்து விட்டு தனது முகநூல் பக்கத்தில் திப்பு பற்றிய தனது நிலைப்பாடு எதுவும் மாறவில்லை எனவும் மேற்கொண்டு தனது வலைப்பக்கத்தில் எழுதியிருக்கும் கட்டுரையை படித்து பரப்ப பரிந்துரை செய்திருக்கிறார். அக்கட்டுரையில் முத்தாய்ப்பாக
“மொத்தத்தில் திப்பு நவீன காலம் தொடங்குவதற்கு இருந்த ஒரு மன்னர். அவர் மீது நவீன காலக் கூறுகளைத் திணிப்பதும் ஒரு வன்முறைதான். அவர் மீது இஸ்லாமிய வெறியர் என்றபட்டத்தைத் திணிப்பது போன்றது.”
இது சரிதானா? தங்களின் கருத்தென்ன?
அவர் கட்டுரையின் சுட்டி :
https://pakrishnan.com/2019/09/03/%E0%AE%A4%E0%AE%BF%E0%AE%AA%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%AA%E0%AF%81-%E0%AE%9A%E0%AF%81%E0%AE%B2%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%A4%E0%AE%BE%E0%AE%A9%E0%AF%8D-%E0%AE%B5%E0%AE%B0%E0%AE%B2%E0%AE%BE%E0%AE%B1%E0%AF%81/
September 8, 2019 at 19:49
அவருடைய கருத்துரிமை, கருத்தரிப்புரிமை போன்றவற்றில் தலையிட நாம் யார்? அவர் சொல்வதற்கெல்லாம் தரவு கேட்க, நாம் என்ன தரவுமுதலாளிகளா என்ன?
September 3, 2019 at 16:40
இடையில் மின்தடை ஏற்பட்டதால் இரண்டு முறை எழுத வேண்டியதாகிவிட்டது. மன்னிக்கவும்.
September 8, 2019 at 19:46
யோவ்! வொங்க இடுப்ல மின்சாரத்த பாய்ச்சினா, ஒரேதபாவுல எள்திருவீங்க்ளோ?
September 12, 2019 at 12:17
ஒத்திசைவு ராமசாமி தான் மதிக்கும் முக்கியமான அறிஞர் என்று ஃபேஸ்புக்கில் எழுதியிருக்கிறார் பிஏகே. கொடுமை கொடுமை தலையை எந்த குட்டி சுவற்றில் போய் முட்டிக் கொள்வது என்று தெரியவில்லை.
September 12, 2019 at 14:16
ஐயா, பொறாமை வேண்டாம். நேரடியாகவே பிஏகே அவர்களுக்கு உங்கள் வருத்தத்தைத் தெரிவிக்கவும். ணண்ரீ.