Tipu Sultan Helped Dalit Women Regain Their Honour
How Tipu Sultan Helped Dalit Women Regain Their Honour From Upper Caste Oppression ByAmeen AhmedPublishedNovember 4, 2019 Critics of Tipu Sultan (and Haidar Ali) give examples of four major communities as proof of brutalities and religious bigotry of these father-son rulers – Christians of Coastal Karnataka, Nayars of Malabar (Kerala), Coorgis and Brahmins, particularly the Mandyam Iyengars of Melukote. The latter three are often clubbed together as Hindus. And then there is a counter against these arguments by authors who believe Haidar-Tipu were just like other rulers of that day and age – neither heroes nor villains but a product of their times. A closer look at the social structure and caste hierarchy of Kerala in the 18th and 19th centuries and the place of one of the castes – the Nairs during the period, suggests the conflicts may not have been religious. It is a well-known fact that Haidar Ali rose to power from the position as an ordinary soldier in the army of the Mysore Hindu...