Candid talk by Modi's Foreign Minister Jaishankar --- "..... cherry-picking facts... that has happened in the case of Tipu Sultan" ::::: "...How much of our past has been airbrushed"

"History in all society is complicated, and the politics of the day often indulges in cherry-picking facts. To a considerable extent, that has happened in the case of Tipu Sultan," External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar said during the launch of historian Vikram Sampath's book Tipu Sultan: The Saga of Mysore Interregnum 1761-1799 .

Known for his resistance against British colonial expansion, the former ruler of Mysore has been a subject of debate for generations. While he is celebrated for his anti-colonial efforts, Jaishankar noted that Tipu Sultan also evokes "strong adverse sentiments" in many regions. 

Known as an articulate but who does candid talk on issues generally avoided by Indian diplomats and Left-liberals, Dr Jaishankar says: 

- "The Tipu-English binary has been highlighted to the exclusion of a more complicated reality," Jaishankar said.

"On one hand, he has a reputation as a key figure who resisted the imposition of British colonial control over India," Jaishankar said, calling Tipu's death a turning point for peninsular India. At the same time, his actions towards his people and neighbouring kingdoms raise uncomfortable questions, he stated.

The Minister argued that modern narratives have largely examined Tipu Sultan's opposition to the British while "underplaying, if not neglecting" other aspects of his reign, including his foreign alliances and faith-based outreach to rulers in Turkey, Afghanistan, and Persia.

"Perhaps the truth is that the sense of nationhood, as we understand it now, was simply not there then," he observed. "Force-fitting those identities into a contemporary construct seems more than a little challengeable."

In a light-hearted callback to his Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) days, Jaishankar said that as a "product myself of an institution" that was at the centre of these "politically driven endeavours", he could appreciate the need to present an "actual representation" of history.

"...How much of our past has been airbrushed, how awkward issues have been glossed over, how facts are tailored for regime convenience. These are basic questions which confront us all today," he stated.

Jaishankar and US Secy of State Blinken !

Dr Jaishankar lauded the current political environment for fostering alternative historical perspectives, crediting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government for encouraging balanced accounts of India's past.

"In the last decade, the changes in our political dispensation have encouraged the emergence of alternative perspectives and balanced accounts," Jaishankar said. 

"We are no longer prisoners of a vote bank, nor is it politically incorrect to bring out inconvenient truths."-- he said aptly.

Referring to Tipu Sultan’s actions in different regions, Jaishankar said for resisting British colonial control, others have strong negative sentiments about Tipu's rule particularly in Mysore, Coorg, and Malabar. 

"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".  

"To counter British ambitions, Tipu Sultan had no hesitation in collaborating with the French and that makes a ‘straightforward anti-foreign narrative' very difficult to distinguish". 

ends