In Karnataka, Tipu Sultan is held in veneration for his religious tolerance ,his donations to Hindu Temples and honorable treatment of Hindus.

He is held in high esteem,his Fort,Summer Palace in Bangalore ,the place where he was imprisoned are maintained by the Archaeological Department of India.

Even the second train track from Bangalore to Mysore is held up and the route goes 1.6 km in the existing track, to be away from Tipu’s Gunnery!

Tipu Sultan Facts.

In the first part of his reign in particular he was a religious bigot destroying many temples within his own kingdom-proper and many more in the invasion of Malabar. Mass forced conversions took place during the invasion of Malabar, outnumbered Nair warriors were given choice of Islam or death and Tippu is said to get great pleasure by converting Namboodhiri Brahmins. 20% of the population of Kerala are now Muslim mainly due to this. In battle After being defeated in the first Anglo-Mysore war he started dealing cordially with the Hindus in his kingdom so as to avoid insurrection and get support in the face of the British power.  There are some historians who claim that Tippu Sultan was a religious persecutor of Hindus.

C. K. Kareem also notes that Tippu Sultan issued an edict for the destruction of Hindu temples in Kerala.

Historian Hayavadana C. Rao wrote about Tippu in his encyclopaedic work on the History of Mysore. He asserted that Tippu’s “religious fanaticism and the excesses committed in the name of religion, both in Mysore and in the provinces, stand condemned for all time. His bigotry, indeed, was so great that it precluded all ideas of toleration”. He further asserts that the acts of Tippu that were constructive towards Hindus were largely political and ostentatious rather than an indication of genuine tolerance.”

In 1783-84, 1788 and 1789-90, Tipu personally led the attacks on Malayalam (Kerala), besides sending his army contingents to various resistance spots during the intervening period. Well-known Muslim historian, P.S. Syed Muhammed, author of Kerala Muslim Charitram (History of Kerala Muslims), has this to say about these invasions: “What happened to Kerala because of Tipu’s invasion, reminds one of the invasion of Chengez Khan and Timur in Indian history.”

Vadakunkur Raja Raja Varma writes in Kerala Samskrita Sahitya Charitram (History of Sanskrit Literature in Kerala): “The number of temples destroyed during Tipu’s invasion is countless. It was the hobby of Tipu and his army to put the temples on fire destroy the idols and indulge in cow-slaughter. The memory of destruction of the Talipparampu and Trichambaram temples aches the heart.”

According to the Malabar Gazetteer, the important temples in the towns of Tali, Srivaliyanatukavu, Tiruvannur, Varakkal, Puthur, Govindapuram, and Talikunnu were destroyed by Tipu’s ravaging armies. Even the Tirunavaya Temple known all over India as a centre of Rig Veda teaching was destroyed. Tipu personally ordered the destruction of Calicut which was the capital of the Zamorin Rajas.’

Sources:

In a letter (December 14, 1788), he said to his army commander in Calicut: “You should capture and kill all Hindus. Those below 20 years may be kept in prison and 5,000 from the rest should be killed hanging from treetops”. Writing on January 19, 1790, to Badroos Saman Khan, he said: “I have achieved a great victory recently in Malabar and over four lakh Hindus were converted to Islam. I am now determined to march against the cursed Raman Nair.” Tipu issued orders in different parts of Malabar: “All means, truth or falsehood, fraud or force, should be employed to effect their (Hindu) universal conversion to Islam” (Historical Sketches of the South of India in an attempt to trace the History of Mysore, Mark Wilks Vol II, page 120).

http://agniveer.com/tipu-sultan/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipu_Sultan

http://voiceofdharma.org/books/tipu/ch03.htm

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