Tipu Sultan(1782-99), popularly known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery. During his reign, he instituted a variety of administrative reforms, including a new currency system and calendar, as well as a new land revenue system, which sparked the rise of the Mysore silk industry. He commissioned the military handbook Fathul Mujahidin and enlarged the iron-cased Mysorean rockets. During the Anglo-Mysore Wars, he used the rockets to counter British and allied advances, notably the Battle of Pollilur and the Siege of Srirangapatna. This article will explain to you about Tipu Sultan (1782-99) which will be helpful in Modern Indian History preparation for the UPSC Civil service exam.

Tipu Sultan - Early Life

• Tipu Sultan was born at Devanahalli, in the present-day Bangalore Rural district, on December 1, 1751.
• Hyder, who was illiterate, made a point of providing his oldest son with a prince's education and early exposure to military and political events.
• Tipu was granted independent command of significant diplomatic and military missions when he was 17 years old.
• He served as his father's right hand in the battles that propelled Hyder to the throne of southern India.
• Tipu's father, Hyder Ali, was a military commander in the Kingdom of Mysore who became the de facto king of Mysore in 1761, and his mother, Fatima Fakhr-un-Nisa, was the daughter of Mir Muin-ud-Din, the governor of Kadapa Fort.
• Tipu was given an early education in topics such as Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Kannada, Quran, Islamic law, horsemanship, shooting, and fencing by Hyder Ali.
• Tipu Sultan received military training from French commanders who worked for his father.
• He fought alongside his father against the British in the First Mysore War in 1766 when he was 15 years old. At the age of 16, he led a cavalry corps in the invasion of Carnatic in 1767.
• He also made a name for himself during the First Anglo-Maratha War, which lasted from 1775 until 1779.

Tipu Sultan - Reign

• During his reign, Tipu Sultan constructed the groundwork for the famed Krishna Raja Sagara Dam, which spans the Cauvery River.
• He also completed his father Haidar Ali's Lal Bagh project, as well as roads, public buildings, and ports along the Kerala coast.
• Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, France, Turkey, and Iran were among the countries with whom he did business.
• Under his command, the Mysore army proved to be a school of military science to Indian rulers.
• The British's reputation as an unbeatable power was tarnished by Tipu Sultan's severe blows to them in the First and Second Mysore Wars.
• Tipu Sultan is credited with developing the world's first combat rocket.
• Two of these rockets are on exhibit in the Woolwich Museum Artillery in London, where they were seized by the British at Srirangapatna.
• The majority of Tipu Sultan's campaigns were a resounding success. He was able to conquer all of the little kingdoms in the south.
• He was one of the few Indian monarchs to beat British forces, having conquered the Marathas and the Nizams on multiple occasions.
• He was a capable administrator who expanded the tax base, connected money from specific parcels of land to support institutions, and enlisted the help of erstwhile opponents to earn their trust.
• He was also a supporter of science and technology, and is regarded as India's "pioneer of rocket technology."
• He wrote a military manual (Fathul Mujahidin) that explains how rockets work.
• Tipu was a great supporter of democracy and a great diplomat who helped the French soldiers at Seringapatam establish a Jacobin Club in 1797.
• Tipu became a member of the Jacobin Club and accepted the moniker Citizen Tipu.
• At Seringapatam, he planted the Tree of Liberty.
• During his reign, Tipu introduced several administrative innovations, including his coinage, a new Mauludi lunisolar calendar, and a new land revenue system, which sparked the growth of the Mysore silk industry.
• He made some attempts to introduce modern industries in India by importing foreign workmen as experts and by extending state support to many industries. He sent emmisssaries to France,Turkey,Iran,Myanmar to develop foreign trade. He also traded with china.
• He even tried to pramote trade with Russia and Arabia by setting up state trading institutions in the port towns.
• Some British historians have described Tipu as a religious fanatic. But this is not born out of facts.Though he was orthodox in his religious views, he was in fact tolerant and enlightened in his approach towards other religions.
• He gave money for the construction of the image of goddess Sarda in the Sringeri temple after it was looted by Maratha horsemen in 1791. He regularly gave gifts to this temple and other temples.
• Tipu Sultan died on May 4, 1799, in Srirangapatna, which is now part of the Karnataka district of Mandya.
• In the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, he was defeated. This conflict lasted from 1798 to 1799.

Tipu Sultan

Tipu Sultan - Armed Forces

• He organized his army along European lines, but with Persian words of command.
• Despite the fact that he used French officers to train his soldiers, he never allowed them (the French) to become a pressure group.
• He understood the significance of a naval force.
• He established a Board of Admiralty in 1796 and planned a fleet of 22 battleships and 20 large frigates.
• He built dockyards in Mangalore, Wajedabad, and Molidabad. His plans, however, did not come to fruition.

Tipu Sultan - Wars

• Tipu Sultan fought many battles and wars against the British East India Company, the Marathas, the rulers of Travancore, Carnatic, Malabar, Bednore, and Kodagu, and others.
• Between 1775 and 1779, Tipu fought against the Marathas.
• In 1784, Tipu signed a peace treaty with the British.
• When Tipu Sultan's army attacked the ruler of Travancore, the British attacked Tipu Sultan. The ruler of Travancore was a British ally.
• Tipu signed the Treaty of Seringapatam (now Srirangapatna) in 1792, ceding half of his dominion to the British.
• The Battle of Pollilur, also known as the Battle of Perambakkam, occurred on September 10, 1780, near Conjeevaram, the city of Kanchipuram in present-day Tamil Nadu state, India, as part of the Second Anglo-Mysore War.
• In the Battle of Pollilur, Tipu defeated Lt. Colonel William Baillie of the British East India Company.

Tipu Sultan - Anglo - Mysore Wars

Second Anglo - Mysore War (1780–84)

• Hyder Ali formed an alliance with the Nizam and the Marathas and beat the British forces in Arcot.
• Hyder Ali died in 1782, and his son Tipu Sultan Sir Eyre Coote, who had already fought Hyder Ali numerous times, continued the war.
• The Treaty of Mangalore concluded the war inconclusively.
• Both sides negotiated peace after an inconclusive war, concluding the Treaty of Mangalore (March 1784) in which both parties returned the areas they had acquired from each other.

Third Anglo-Mysore War (1790 - 1792)

• In 1789, Tipu launched a war on Travancore. Travancore was a British-friendly state.
• Lord Cornwallis, the Governor-General of Bengal, declared war on Tipu in 1790.
• Tipu's men were forced to retire after being beaten in the first phase of the conflict.
• Later, the English marched on Tipu's capital of Seringapatam, forcing Tipu to make a peace deal.
• The Treaty of Seringapatam, signed in 1792, put an end to the conflict.
• Tipu had to hand over half of his empire to the English under the terms of the treaty, which included the provinces of Malabar, Dindigul, Coorg, and Baramahal.
• He also had to pay the British Rs.3 crore in war indemnity.
• Tipu also had to provide the British two of his sons as sureties until he fulfilled his debt.

Fourth Anglo-Mysore War ( 1799 )

• From all four directions, Mysore was assaulted.
• From the north, the Marathas and Nizams invaded.
• Tipu's army was outmanned 4:1.
• In 1799, the British won a decisive victory in the Battle of Seringapatam.
• Tipu perished in the process of protecting the city.
• The British and the Nizam of Hyderabad were in charge of Tipu's domains.
• The Wodeyar dynasty, who had ruled Mysore before Hyder Ali became the de-facto monarch, was restored to the main territory surrounding Seringapatam and Mysore.
• The British formed a Subsidiary Alliance with Mysore, and a British resident was appointed to the Mysore Court.
• Until 1947, when it elected to join the Indian Union, the Kingdom of Mysore was a princely state not directly under British rule.

Subsidiary Alliance

• The Wodeyar Dynasty was given the Mysore Kingdom after Tipu Sultan was defeated by the British, but they were forced to join the British Subsidiary Alliance.
• In 1798, Lord Wellesley devised the Subsidiary Alliance.
• The British would protect the ally from both internal and external threats under the Subsidiary Alliance.
• The Kingdom that joins the British Subsidiary Alliance must station the British Army within their borders.
• The British Army had to be paid for by the Indian rulers. If they fail to make payments, the British will take control of a portion of their territory.
• According to the Subsidiary Alliance, the ruler of Hyderabad, the Nawab of Awadh, also lost his territories to the British due to nonpayment.
• Without the permission of the British, the Indian ally could not engage in any kind of warfare or agreement.

Conclusion

Tipu Sultan was a well-educated guy as well as a capable soldier. He was said to be a talented poet. His purpose was to free his country from the burden of colonial authority, and his vision was to make his people intelligent and rich. His brief but the turbulent reign was notable because he believed that the only life worth living was one of freedom, including not just political but also social, economic, and cultural liberty, as well as freedom from want, hunger, indifference, ignorance, and superstition.