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‘Past airbrushed’: Jaishankar says Tipu Sultan a case of ‘cherry-picking facts’
Jaishankar said there are some basic questions that "confront us all" today as to how much of “our past has been airbrushed”.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar termed History as a "complicated" subject, saying that the politics of the day often indulges in "cherry-picking facts". That is, according to him, what has happened in the case of Tipu Sultan, the 18th century ruler of Mysore.
Jaishankar spoke at the launch of Vikram Sampath’s book 'Tipu Sultan: The Saga of Mysore Interregnum 1761-1799' on Saturday. He claimed a "particular narrative" about the former ruler has been advanced over the years. He said there are some basic questions that "confront us all" today as to how much of "our past has been airbrushed", how awkward issues have been "glossed over" and how "facts are tailored for regime convenience".
"In the last decade, the changes in our political dispensation have encouraged the emergence of alternative perspectives and balanced accounts. We are no longer prisoners of a vote bank, nor is it politically incorrect to bring out inconvenient truths. There are many more subjects on which the same degree of objectivity is needed," he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
"On one hand, he has a reputation as a key figure who resisted the imposition of British colonial control over India. It is a fact that his defeat and death can be considered a turning point when it came to the fate of peninsular India. At the same time, he evokes strong adverse sentiments, even today, in many regions, by some in Mysore itself, in Coorg and Malabar," he said, terming Tip Sultan as a "complex figure" in Indian history.
According to the EAM, contemporary history writings at the national level have focused largely on the former aspect, "underplaying, if not neglecting," the latter. He claimed that it wasn't an accident.
"By highlighting the "Tipu-English binary" to the "exclusion of a more complicated reality, a particular narrative has been advanced over the years", the minister said.
Biography or more than that?
S. Jaishankar called Sampath's book more than a biography, and said that it captures the flavour of a fast-moving and complicated era while offering insights into politics, strategy, administration, sociology and even diplomacy.
Jaishankar said that as a "product myself of an institution" that was at the centre of these "politically driven endeavours", he could well appreciate the need to present an "actual representation" of history.
"There can be no doubt that Tipu Sultan was fiercely and almost consistently anti-British. But how much of it was inherent and how much a result of their allying with his local rivals, that is difficult to distinguish, he posited.
The minister highlighted Tipu Sultan’s collaboration with the French to counter British ambitions, making a "straightforward anti-foreign narrative" very difficult to assert.
Jaishankar also touched on the foreign policy aspect of Tipu Sultan.
He said that the Mysore ruler reached out to the rulers of Turkey, Afghanistan and Persia for faith-based support at various points, adding perhaps the truth is that "the sense of nationhood, all of us have now, was simply not there then"
“There are Tipu's writings, communications and actions that attest to his mindset". Even his diplomatic activities reflected his faith and identity in the strongest terms, Jaishankar said.
Jaishankar said that he was grateful for the information the book provides about Tipu's foreign policy.
“In India, people have tended to study mainly post-Independence foreign policies, he said, adding "who knows, perhaps this too was a conscious choice".
The fact is that many of the kingdoms and states in India forayed into international affairs in previous centuries in pursuance of their particular interests. And some continued to do so even till Independence, he asserted.
Jaishankar said that the interaction of Tipu's emissary with their French and Turkish counterparts is fascinating, adding that Tipu's expectations from his foreign partners and the incentive he offers them "tells us something about his mindset"
"There are lessons about the importance of accurately understanding global developments. On crucial occasions, Tipu was actually caught on the wrong side of the events in France," he said.
Jaishankar said that he got to know from the book that French emperor Napoleon had written to Tipu Sultan. But he never got those letters, he said. “Ironically, the British, as is their habit, stole many things.”
