Noble Blood - The Tiger of Mysore

Episode Date: November 9, 2021

At the end of the 1700s, Tipu Sultan was the leader of the Kingdom of Mysore, facing off against the encroaching invasion of the British East India Trading Company. Today, Tipu's legacy is complicated and still confused with propaganda and mythology. Was he a crusading hero, or a religious bigot? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and hosts of the podcast, a slight change of plans, a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change. We have to be willing to live with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes. You can have opinions. You can have like a strong,

dance. And then there's your body having its own program. Listen to a slight change of plans on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHeart Radio and Grimmin Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion is advised. Let's imagine for a moment that you're spending an afternoon in London. And why not? Let's make it one of those perfect days at the beginning of winter, right when it starts to snow, but the snow is still new and white and hasn't gone muddy brown in the streets yet. You look at your watch, or I suppose your phone, and you see that you have a few hours before you're scheduled to meet a friend in a pub where you'll sit by a fireplace drinking mold wine. And so to kill the time

before your perfect English evening, and to lessen the chill just starting in your toes. you dip through the beautiful, ornate stone entranceway to the Victoria and Albert Museum on Cromwell Road. The V&A Museum has an eclectic but gorgeous permanent collection, showcasing objects from across centuries. One exhibit has theatrical costumes from decades of shows. There are robes Ian McKellen were performing Shakespeare, an original puppet from the London production of Warhorse.

One room is dedicated exclusively to cartoons or designs for tapestries from the Renaissance Master Raphael. But a slightly less showy room, if you turned left walking through the main hallway, would bring you to room 41, in which the museum houses its artifacts from South Asia, and in which you'd see what is, in my estimation, one of the most interesting single objects on display in the entire museum. In the center of room 41, behind a protective glass wall, stands an artifact called Tipu's Tiger. It's a carved wooden tiger from the 1700s, almost life-sized, nearly six feet long.

The tiger is beautifully painted, with patterned stripes in black and gold that look almost like paisley. A hidden compartment on the side of the tiger reveals a small organ that's still playable with keys. Beneath the tiger is a second wooden figure. It's a man being mauled to death by the tiger. If you turn a crank on the figure, the man's arms move and he makes dying moans.

He's identified by the museum as a European, but the intent was almost certainly that he was British. The automaton tiger was one of the prized possessions of the Sultan of the Kingdom of Mysore at the end of the 18th century, Tipu Sultan, who fought against the encroaching power of the British East India Company during a series of Anglo-Maisor wars. Tipu was one of the few Indian leaders to achieve decisive victories in battles against the British, and he became known as the Tiger of Mizar. His emblems were all tiger-themed, and stripes decorated many of his weapons and banners. That the wooden tiger, formerly belonging to the Tiger of Mizor, now sits behind glass in a British

museum, feet away from where they sell tea and scones for a genteel picnic in the museum's courtyard, seems to me something a little beyond irony. A metaphor for the impact of imperialism disguised behind civility and well-maintained museum facilities. But before you begin raising the banner for Tipu Sultan, he was also a complicated figure, whose own legacy is currently being debated in the present-day Indian state of Carnotica. It would be easy to saunter through the Victoria and Albert Museum,

note the interesting centuries-old Autonomaton, and continue walking along, without fully understanding who the man was, who had had the strange mechanical animal built. Neither fully hero nor fully villain, Tipu Sultan is one of history's most enigmatic military leaders, the prince of a dying nation who roared before his ultimate defeat. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood.

Tipu Sultan was born on the 1st of December in 1751, just six years before the East India Company. would begin its company rule in India on behalf of the British Empire. He was born in Devonhali, which is located to the north of present-day Bangalore. He was the eldest son and ostensible heir to a man named Hyder Ali. Though Heider Ali was a Muslim in a predominantly Hindu population, he rose to his position as the de facto ruler of the kingdom of Mysore through his incredible tactical victories.

Ultimately, through his... military prowess, he overthrew the kingdom's Hindu leadership and became the Sultan himself. Heider was illiterate, and so it was important to him that his son and heir be given a princely education, first so that Tipu would be able to eventually lead the kingdom of Mysore confidently, but also so that he would be able to communicate effectively with the European allies whose help he would need to push back the encroaching British powers. So from a young age to his Tipu was taught not just how to read, but also everything there was to know about military, history, and political strategy.

By the time Tipu was 17, his father trusted him with actual power. Tipu became his father's right-hand man, learning on the job about ruling and expanding kingdom and about fighting enemies domestic and foreign. Tipu led forces into battle against the British during the context. that's now known as the second Anglo-Maisor War, which began in 1780. It was during that conflict when Tipu was 31 years old that his father died, and so Tipu became the Sultan of the Kingdom of Mysore.

There would ultimately be four Anglo-Maisor wars within a period of a few decades at the end of the 1700s. The second would be Tipu's most resounding victory. Aided by French allies, Tipu successfully invaded and raided a camp held by British powers, ultimately ending the conflict with a treaty that ceded no land to the British. During the Battle of Polo Lour in 1780, Tipu shocked the East India Company by using rockets against them that were more advanced than the British had ever seen. Now, I am quite literally not a rocket scientist, but my understanding,

is that in layman's terms, these new rockets, rather than use paper tubing to hold the propellant, used iron casings, which made them able to fly further and higher and fly with more force. These rockets, which were all tipped with a spear, were slightly less accurate than earlier, more rudimentary rockets, but fired in a large group, they completely overwhelmed the British. Using his rockets, Tipu won the battle and helped end the second Anglo-Maisor war. In France, King Louis XVI recognized Tipu as an important ally, and the two were in frequent communication, with Tipu sending representatives and dignitaries to French court at Versailles.

It was also during this period that the legend of Tipu as the Tiger of Mysore began to take hold. According to the story that was frequently told, retold, and perhaps ultimately fictionalized, Tipu was hunting in a forest with a French friend of his when they came upon a tiger. Stand very still, Tipu warned his friend, and for a few moments, both he and the Frenchman stood in terrified silence, waiting to see if the tiger would lose interest and stroll away. It didn't. The tiger pounced on the Frenchman, killing him instantly.

Tipu reached for his gun, but found that it was jammed and wouldn't fire, which put Tipu in a very vulnerable position when the tiger turned its attention toward him. The tiger lunged. Tipu was able to fight the animal off and pull a dagger from somewhere on his belt, which he used to stab and kill the tiger. From that time on, Tipu used the motif of the tiger. in almost all of his personal regalia. He was truly the Tiger of Mysore,

not just because of his military prowess, but because of the way he shaped and modernized the kingdom. During his reign, Tipu introduced new coinage, a new calendar, and seven new government departments. He continued to advance and develop rocket technology, and he worked closely with French engineers to build one of his most unique possessions. the wooden automaton tiger, pouncing on a European soldier.

This symbolism doesn't require much of an explanation. But Europeans weren't Tipu's only enemies. Mysor in the south of India was a comparatively smaller power on the Indian subcontinent, and one of their largest threats was from the Maratha Empire. One of Tipu's most important military victories was the defeat of the Maratha. in 1787. But they would continue to be formidable rivals, especially during what would be known as the third Anglo-Mysore War, beginning in 1789. Now, if you're a long-time listener of this podcast, you might be aware of something that was happening in France in 1789, a little revolution

that might have slightly distracted the political powers that be from honoring alliances, with foreign allies. The new French Republic actually debated how they would tell Tipu that his friend Louis XVIth wouldn't actually be answering his letters anymore. And so for the third Anglo-Maiso war, Tipu went without French help.

The British allied with the Maroth Empire and roundly defeated Mysore in 1792, swallowing up half of Tipu's kingdom in a single gulp. But things were about. about to get much, much worse. To get into what happened during the fourth Anglo-Mysore War, first we have to discuss a bit of propaganda that still persists today, a story that's still fully in place in multiple Wikipedia articles

and has been echoed across the internet without any independent verification. This is how the story goes. After the fall of the monarchy in France, the new French Republic decided that they would spread the good word of the doctrine of republicanism to their ally, the Kingdom of Mysore in Southern Asia. And so in 1797, an emissary from France named Francois-Ripad arrived and with Tipu Sultan and the French soldiers who are already stationed in Mysore, collectively began the Jacobin Club of Mysore.

During the first ceremony, Tipu announced that he would henceforth be known as the citizen Tipu, and the crowd joyfully proclaimed that they hated all kings except him. Even more sinister than Jacobins in India for the British, Napoleon had just invaded Egypt. Clearly, he was gearing up for a full-scale invasion to push Britain out of Asia. The British decided that their only logical move would be a preemptive attack, So they launched a full invasion on all four sides of Mysore with more than double the soldiers that Tipu had at his command. The British invaded the capital city of Serangapadam, killing Tipu in the conflict. They would continue to annex most of the Mysore kingdom, leaving just the pocket core of the kingdom to be ruled, in name at least, by the Hindu dynasty that had been overthrown by Tipu's father.

But here's the slightly sticky part. There's no evidence of Tipu Sultan ever joining, let alone founding a Jacobin Club. And yet the threat of the Jacobin Club, a revolutionary cell within Asia, was a central element of the East India company's propaganda that permitted them to make a preemptive invasion. Francois Rapad, that so-called agent of the French Republic, he had everett. absolutely no connection to the French government whatsoever. According to actual sources, he was a pirate whose ship ran aground and then he claimed to be the emissary of the French so that he would be welcomed by Tipu Sultan. The documents that the East India Company circulated before their invasion as their so-called smoking gun of republicanism may very well have been forged. But even

if they weren't, the actual documents themselves, detailing Rappalled speeches to local French soldiers, make no mention of the word Jacobin at all. The only time Jacobin appears is on the East India Company's title page, which they added. Throughout this period, in England and the entire British Empire, Tipu was vilified as a tyrant and a religious extremist in plays and cartoons. It's It's actually become a little complicated, at least in terms of my research, trying to tease out exactly how religiously tolerant Tipu actually was. He was a Muslim leader in a predominantly Hindu territory. Some sources claim that he was a largely secular ruler, and they celebrate him, especially

in the context of his anti-imperialist victories. But other sources claim that he forced the local population to convert to Islam and imprison those who didn't, and that he destroyed local temples. There's currently a debate and controversy in the modern-day Indian state of Carnotica as to how Tipu Sultan should be taught in schools. I think, as with almost all historical figures, it's worth taking a nuanced approach to Tipu-Sulton and his accomplishments, such as they were.

He built up local infrastructure in Mysore, building roads, developing the silk industry, formalizing the government's departments, and introducing a coinage system. He valiantly fought off British imperialism for decades, but also he was almost certainly cruel and or bigoted in the places that many of the effective rulers in the 18th century were. When it came to religion, I don't think he was a saint or a monster. I think the adage that history is told by the victors is certainly true, and in this case the victors were the British and the formerly ruling Hindu dynasty. And so a lot of contemporary writing about Tipu Sultan needs to be taken with a grain of salt. On May 4th, 1799, during the fourth and

final Anglo-Maisur War, Tipu Sultan was killed by an unknown British soldier while he was defending the capital city of Sri Rang Gapatna from the British troops who had breached the walls. Tipu's French advisors had urged him to leave the city, to escape through secret passageways and live to fight another day, defending other forts, but Tipu Sultan would not abandon his capital. When the raid was over and the smoke lifted, the British found Tipu's body among his soldiers. The British raided the fort, pillaging to Pooh's Palace and taking his treasures for themselves. General Cornwallis himself claimed a ring and a dagger, among other effects that eventually made their way to the British Museum in London.

The British would mint a coin, celebrating their victory, a lion pouncing on a tiger, meant to represent their empire, defeating the mighty Tipu Sultan. Hero to some, enemy to others, tiger to all. That's the story of Tipu Sultan and Mysore, but keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear a little bit more about what happened to his personal effects. You can have opinions, you can have like a strong stance, and then there's your body having its own program. I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and host. to the podcast a slight change of plans, a show about who we are and who we become when life makes

other plans. We share stories and scientific insights to help us all better navigate these periods of turbulence and transformation. There is one finding that is consistent, and that is that our resilience rests on our relationships. I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change. We have to be willing to live with a kind of unsubilant. certainty that none of us likes. Listen to a slight change of plans on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and IHeart Podcasts presents soccer moms.

So I'm Leanne. Yeah. This is my best friend Janet. Hey. And we have been joined at the hips since high school. Absolutely. Now a redacted amount of years later, we're still joined at the hip. Just a little bit bigger hips.

Wider. This is a podcast. We're recording it as we tailgate our youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey. With all the snacks and drink. Sidebar. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer? They had a bogo. Well, then you got it.

Do you want a white collar or something here? Just take it. What are y'all doing? Microphones? Are you making a rap album? Oh, I would. Come on. I would buy it.

Cuts through the defense like a hot knife through sponge cake. That sounds delicious. Oh, you're lucky. I'm not a drug addict. You're lucky I'm not an alcoholic. You are. You are. I love this team.

And I'm really. trying to be a figure in their lives that they can rely on. Oh. Listen to Soccer Moms on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's a present-day question as to whether or not the British Museum should be able to house the artifacts that were, in effect, trophies that they claimed from their imperialistic invasions all over the world. Some people argue that treasures, like the Parthvenon marbles that were removed by the Earl of Elgin, should actually be displayed in the country in which they were discovered.

When it came to those particular sculptures known colloquially as the Elgin marbles, UNESCO actually offered to help mediate the dispute between Greece and the British Museum, although the British Museum actually declined, arguing that UNESCO is meant to only mediate between countries. Their perspective, I'm sure, is that they've been dutiful custodians and that the display of artifacts from all over the world visible together in one central hub is an important and powerful educational tool. But Tipu Sultan's artifacts would eventually return to their homeland. In 2004, the Indian billionaire Vijay Malia purchased the sword Tipu used in his final battle. and Tipu's personal ring from the British Museum, and brought them back to India.

He believed their rightful home. One quick note before we leave, and as I'm sure you're tired of me talking about, I wrote a book. It's called Anatomy a Love Story, and it's a novel that comes out January 18th. If you wanted to pre-order a copy, that would mean the world to me.

If you're a fan of spooky, slightly macabre stories, you're absolutely going to love it. I put everything that I love in a Noble Blood story and everything I've learned, researching that period of history into this book. If you want a signed copy, they're doing them through Book Soup. And I'll also be sending signed book plates and pins through the website where I also sell Noble Blood merch, DFTBA.com. DFTBA.com is where there's a variety of Noble Blood merch for you to enjoy and eventually,

I hope, books of Anatomy a Love Story. And finally, we have just begun a series on the Patreon called Rain on Me, where I'm joined by one of my closest friends, Karamadankwa, and we go through the beautiful disaster that is the C.W show, Rain, about Mary Queen of Scott. So if you're interested in watching along with us and hearing our takes on that truly disastrous but beautiful and sort of amazing show, subscribe on the Patreon now. As always, thank you so much for listening, and the best support anyone could give this show

is just continuing to listen and be with me as we keep learning and growing. Noble Blood is a production of IHeart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. The show is written and hosted by Dana Schwartz. Executive producers include Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. The show is produced by Rima Ilkeali and Trevor Young.

Noble Blood is on social media at Noble Blood Tales. And you can learn more about the show over at Noblebloodtales.com. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Hey, I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and hosts of the podcast, a slight change of plans, a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change. We have to be willing to live. with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes. You can have opinions.

You can have like a strong stance. And then there's your body having its own program. Listen to a slight change of plans on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an I-Heart podcast, Guaranteed Human.