Tipu's Religious Policy In Kerala

By Grace Mubashir, New Age Islam 4 July 2023 One subject that has been heavily criticized by history books is the religious policy implemented by Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore, in the Malabar region. The allegation that even the so-called authentic historians of Malayalam did not follow the general principles of historical analysis in their references to Tipu is noteworthy. By repeating the false narratives created by the occupying powers, they have succeeded in inheriting the role of the British and upper caste supremacy. When we look at the experience of colonial politics and upper casteism, it is possible to see that the misinterpretations against Tipu are not just a fabrication, but a precise anti-Islamic historical construction has taken place. There was a reason for that. Tipu Sultan ------- As PK Balakrishnan says, ‘Tipu's religion was not born with rituals. It was very active and unmovable. Consolidation of this uncompromising religious life in one ruler was equally unpalatable to imperial powers and upper castes of all ages. These two elements can be seen to have worked hand in hand in the hate campaign in Kerala’. PK says that historians including KM Panicker have made a mistake in failing to see that the Mysore rule in Malabar was a radical social transformation. What Balakrishnan mentioned is memorable at this juncture. The crux of the problem lies in their inability to see it that way. Tipu's Religious Policy Tipu's religious policy was very simple and clear. The subjects are the community entrusted by God, the master of all. This was something that was beyond the reach of the Kerala society, which was dominated by caste discrimination. It is no wonder that this slogan of social equality created distaste in a land where only Namboothiris and Nayars were considered human beings. There is a law beyond man-made laws. That law says that a country that ignores the rights of its people will perish. Tipu believed that as God's creatures all men are one and all have their own rights. This foundation can be seen in any of Tipu's reforms. So, Tipu's fight was not against any particular community or caste. Rather, it was with all the elites who exploited the weak and bled them. It had no caste and religion discrimination. It was Ravi Varma Eralpada, a Hindu who once suppressed the feudal arrogance of the Mancheri Gurus on behalf of Tipu. In short, Tipu's political mission was to fight against the social scourge of economic exploitation in the name of caste system and injustice and immorality under the guise of priesthood. It is understood that Tipu's religious faith and moral commitment served as the basis for this political policy. 'Those who ring bells in temples and pray in mosques are my people. This country is mine and theirs', Tipu used to tell. What happened was that Tipu's agrarian and economic measures implemented by viewing the diverse community as a unit not only created a rift in the prevailing economic and political equations and moral and ethical concepts, but shook them all. Kerala had a caste system. It was not just about religion. Rather, this caste system was the foundation of the religious, social and political life of that time. Accordingly, the upper caste Brahmins, among them the Nambuthiris, held all kinds of power. All the political power as the natives and of the religious as the learned and teachers of the Vedas were concentrated among them, who constituted only one-fifth of the population. They were considered as born warriors. Uncontrollable powers especially the use of weapons was also available to them. Most of the people were from the lower castes called untouchables. Social and political affairs were going on according to Dharma system. No one could disturb it. This dharma system served as a means of perpetuating the caste system. The caste system, on the other hand, was maintained through a type of feudal system known as the village system. However progressive the steps taken by Tipu to eradicate the political and moral anarchy created by this feudal system, it invited many misunderstandings. Tipu was prepared for reform activities mainly in two areas. Ownership Of Land The chaos created by the feudal village system was destructive. The feudal lords monopolized the wholesale rights over the land and robbed the poor peasants who worked the land. 75 percent of the land was in the hands of these feudal lords. The remaining 25 per cent was either land in the hands of kings or Devaswam (temple) properties earmarked for temple development. The common man had no birthright to even an inch of land. There was no restriction on land tenure. Rulers had no right to levy or collect taxes on landed property. Major Walker recorded in 1801 about this absolute freedom of the landlords. Nowhere else is this peculiarity of land more evident than in Malabar. Nowhere else is ownership of land so strictly enforced. All the rights over the land belong to the feudal lords. No power in the world was capable of controlling his right to any justice. Tipu Sultan tried to uproot this arbitrary ownership of the landlords. He guaranteed the rights of the farmers to the agricultural land. He declared that the newly cultivated lands would be the property of the farmer and his descendants and no one had the right to take the land away from them as long as taxes were paid. Land survey tax collection was centralized and farmers were saved from exploitation by the feudal system. Although Tipu's reform was in the agricultural sector, it was the Nambuthiris who were the land owners and the Nayars who were the castes that suffered the most. Since they represented a special class called upper castes, Tipu's action was portrayed as an encroachment against them. It was easy to interpret this as religious fanaticism against the Hindus, as the Brahmins had elevated themselves to the position of God. Thus, it is said that a section of the Janmi migrated to Travancore due to these agrarian reforms and some of the Nayars, having lost their means of livelihood, chose to settle in South Kerala. Social Reforms Kerala was in a situation where religious beliefs and practices were imposed by the Brahmin priesthood. Without any codified law or statute, cases were decided according to the Bhashyas then dictated by the Brahmin scholars. C. Achyutamenon in the Kochi State Manual said that the Brahmins made the ritual practices of Kerala based on Parasurama's order that Shudra women should not keep chastity and that they should be ready to fulfil the desires of Brahmins. Achyutamenon says in the Kochi State Manual (Page: 193). The strange custom of Sambandham was also practiced as a way for upper castes including the Namboothiris to use Nair women at will. As a result of this system, polyandry was born. Both Barboza and Buchanan recorded that the more men a woman had, the more respectable she was considered by the people, and that the women of noble houses used to boast that each of their husbands included so many Brahmins and so many Kshatriyas. Due to matriarchy, a very strange system of succession and patrilineal relationship came into existence. Even the high royal families were not exempted from this. Along with these immoralities, another obscene law was enforced by the Brahmins in Kerala. It was that women should not cover the upper part of the body. Tipu, a virtuous ruler, could not resign himself to such immorality and immorality carried out under the guise of religious faith. He decided to stop them. For that, Tipu first checked whether the religious practices are in accordance with the commandments of their religion. Tipu's letter to the Malabar Governor in 1785 reveals that. ‘I felt pain when I saw some women in Malabar walking around without covering their breast. That sight brings hatred and damage to friendly thinking. It is definitely against moral thinking. You explained to me that these women belong to a particular religion and according to their custom they should not cover their breast. I was thinking about that. Do they do so because of long tradition or because of poverty? If it is due to poverty, you should provide them with things to clothe their women decently. If it is an age-old custom, they should try to eradicate it by persuading their community leaders. There should be only amicable advice so that their religious thought is not harmed in any way.’ Tipu Sultan ordered Nair women to cover their upper part like Muslim women. It is nothing but the moral-ethical-discipline of a virtuous ruler. Tipu questioned the practice of polygamy and advised its end. ‘For one woman among you has intercourse with ten men, and you allow your mother to make her daughters so lascivious, and all of you are born of adultery and are more shameless than the cattle that graze in the fields in the matter of intercourse between men and women. We hereby command you to renounce such evil practices and walk like ordinary people.’ At the end of this proclamation is added the threat of converting all to Islam if they do not do so. The veracity of this claim has been questioned. This report quoted by Colonel Wiltus is not mentioned elsewhere. Now, even if the said declaration is true, it can be seen that the subject it deals with is moral and ethical discipline only. Tipu could not have assumed that the punishment for those who violated these was to bring them to Islam. Religion was not a punitive measure for Tipu. But as pointed out by CK Karim, it is possible that Tipu was ordered to wear a turban in order to lead a moral life, and since the language in question was understood at that time to mean becoming a Muslim, it is likely that it was translated as Tipu was ordered to become a Muslim. In any case, it can be understood that Tipu Sultan tried hard for the moral discipline of his subjects. In turn, it was not limited to Malabar. Prohibition of polygamy was also enforced in Coorg. It is also read here that the order to stop the human cruelty that was taking place in the temple of Kali near the city of Mysore. It was a valuable moral principle for him that men and women should live in good marriages. He announced that parents who have no money to get their daughters married will be helped by giving donations from the state and instructed officials to do so. Prohibiting women from going outdoors without covering the upper part and issuing a popular edict to abolish the practice of polygamy were a continuation of moral measures. He hated alcohol and enforced a law that no alcohol should be made or sold in any form in his kingdom. Discouraging excessive spending, when he noticed extravagance for Onam celebrations, he issued orders to control it. It is a fact that the Nayars and other upper castes were affected the most by Tipu's moral reform measures. It scratched their social identity. Many powers that have been monopolized for ages had been relinquished. But such a setback is natural for an ecosystem that existed in a process of social innovation. Moreover, to say that Tipu Sultan discriminated on the basis of religion is a meaningless allegation. Conversion Stories 3000 Brahmins fled to Travancore as Tipu Sultan ordered conversion. Tipu issued an order to arrest all Brahmins and send them to Srirangapatna for circumcision. 2000 Nayars along with their families were converted and fed beef in Kuttipuram. 7000 people converted to Islam in Coorg. It can be seen that history books narrate about Tipu a number of conversion stories like Tipu converting 4000 relatives on his son's wedding day. But none of these came from reliable sources. Moreover, it is another picture that is completely contradicted by the actual sources. After nearly three decades of rule by the Mysore Sultans, there was no significant increase in the number of Muslims in the Mysore Kingdom in general and in Malabar in particular. Muslim population after Mysore rule was only 5 percent. If Tipu's army was largely non-Muslim, he would have Islamized his army first. Moreover, we can see that many Brahmins were appointed to high positions in Tipu's administration. From Srinivasa Rao, who went to Mangalore to negotiate peace with the English, Krishna Rao, who surrendered the fort of Bangalore, and Purnaiah, who eventually continued as Diwan under the English, were many in his service. It is said that the Nambuthiris fled to Travancore fearing Tipu's intervention. The Malabar Joint Commissioner's report states that the Namboothiris fled to Travancore in 1788-89. S. F. Dale states that during 1784-88 the majority of Namboothiris and Nair feudals were in their own place and they lost control over land and tenants between 1788 and 1789. It is therefore understandable that many of the Janmis, who had lost their aristocratic status due to Tipu's land reform act and centralized taxation system, migrated to Travancore. It has nothing to do with religion. Temple Destruction Stories A number of temple destruction stories have found their way into history books, alleging looting of Mysore temples and slaughtering of cows on idols. Padmanabha Menon and Raman Menon and Shaktan Tampuran have cited such stories. But Padmanabhan himself has written that Tipu did not defile or deface it in any way, quoting the Devaswam Granthvari, which says that the army of Hyder and Tipu encamped in the Vadakkumnath temple. All other temple destructions are hearsay. Nowhere does it say that the temple itself was destroyed. Another important thing is that the Sriranganath temple at Srirangapatna, which was the capital of the Mysore empire, is still standing there without any scratch. Moreover, the statistics of the Sultan's donations to various temple complexes have come out. It is also clear from the records in the Kozhikode archives that apart from giving free land to the Guruvayur temple, 8000 Parosas were paid in cash every year. In South Malabar alone, CK Karim gave an estimate of the donations given by Tipu to fifty thousand temples. Conclusion Tipu's contribution to the religious and social history of Malabar in his short life is that he was able to teach and propagate that all classes of people have rights and pride in a society where powers and rights were determined on the basis of caste. Those so blinded by intolerance that they could not accept that his creeds, devotion to God and moral integrity served as the foundation in this process of revival, had no choice but to portray the social reformer Tipu Sultan as a religious fanatic. ---- This article is second of series that look into Tipu’s legacy in Kerala history First Part of the Article: Tipu Sultan and the Modernisation of Kerala ----- A regular columnist for NewAgeIslam.com, Mubashir V.P is a PhD scholar in Islamic Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia and freelance journalist. 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