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Tipu as Imran’s hero

IT may be said history shows that adversaries cannot be reformed as per one’s wish.

Tipu as Imran’s hero

Back in time: References to history must be taken seriously, especially when made by politicians, for they offer a glimpse of the template along which the mind works.



M Rajivlochan
Professor, Department of History, Panjab University

IT may be said history shows that adversaries cannot be reformed as per one’s wish. So, what is it that needs to be reformed in the specific case of Pakistan? A glimpse of this was made available when Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan referred to history in his address to the joint session of his country’s parliamentarians in the aftermath of the Balakot airstrike by the Indian Air Force, post Pulwama. References to history have to be taken seriously, especially when made by politicians, since they provide us a glimpse of the template along which the mind works. Being familiar with the template helps understand the nuances of the twists and turns that the politicians are liable to take while trying to grab more power and demolish their opponents. Most Indian newspapers missed out on Imran Khan’s take on history. 

This is what Imran Khan said as he concluded his speech in Parliament on the matter of the Balakot strikes: ‘If you push a community into a corner where it has to take such a decision, then a self-respecting community will fight for freedom. So today, I want to send a message to Narendra Modi that do not push anyone in that corner.’ 

What is important is that Imran Khan sought to preface his remarks by referring to Tipu Sultan as the hero whom Pakistan seeks to currently emulate. Tipu Sultan — in Indian understanding — has been a most secular ruler, opposed to imperialism, etc. He lost his life fighting. In contrast there was Bahadur Shah Zafar, who agreed to being jailed by the British for participating in the mutiny of 1857. ‘There was Bahadur Shah Zafar and there was Tipu Sultan,’ Imran Khan said, ‘when it came to choosing between slavery and freedom, Tipu Sultan chose the latter. Tipu Sultan is our hero.’ 

On the face of it such bombast could be little more than a face-saving device for the government of Pakistan, an effort to assure the people that their government would fight to protect them against an Indian invasion. 

However, Tipu Sultan, carries a completely different meaning in Pakistan. According to the textbooks of Pakistan Studies on which Pakistani students are brought up, Tipu Sultan is depicted as a defender of the faith. Pakistani army blogs frequently mention Tipu Sultan as a great warrior who won numerous battles against infidels, experimented with new technology and made Mysore a very prosperous territory. The veracity of such claims is a matter of historical debate. 

What does not require debate, though, is a letter by Tipu Sultan to Bekal’s governor, Budruz Zuman Khan, in 1790, which is cited in disgust by Pakistani columnist Kunwar Khuldune Shahid, who warns Pakistanis against having bad role models. ‘Don’t you know I have achieved a great victory recently in Malabar and over four lakh Hindus were converted to Islam?’ Tipu writes. ‘I am determined to march against that cursed Raman Nair (Raja of Travancore) very soon. Since I am overjoyed at the prospect of converting him and his subjects to Islam, I have happily abandoned the idea of going back to Srirangapatanam now.’ 

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s reference to the ‘self-respecting community’ is to ‘Muslims’. The ones in India — the defence minister of Pakistan claimed in his press conference soon after the Balakot airstrikes — are a ‘persecuted community’. The falsity of that narrative has often been pointed out by various social scientists. 

Neither are the Muslims of India persecuted nor do they form a homogenous community, except in the minds of Hindu and Muslim communalists. Communalism is roundly condemned. Communalists attract strong censure by society and polity in India.  Yet, insisting that all Muslims form a singular political and social group is a point that forms the basis of Pakistan’s attitude towards India. 

It also forms the guiding principle for bodies such as the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, which was formed as an umbrella body of 26 political, social and religious organisations in the state of Jammu and Kashmir for the cause of Kashmiri separatism. The word ‘hurriyat’ means ‘freedom’. The slogan with which it works, too, is ‘azadi’. The context in which it is used gives it the meaning of ‘azadi for Muslims’. Now, that would never do for a multi-cultural country like India that is committed to secularism and pluralism.

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