Haider Ali usurped the kingdom of Mysore from the Wodeyar in the mid-18th century and spent two turbulent decades expanding his borders and fighting the British. His son Tipu Sultan, after a chaotic 16-year reign, was killed in Srirangapatna at the culmination of the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War. The British returned the kingdom to a minor Wodeyar heir. Thus the dynasty of the Mysore sultans began with Haider Ali and ended with Tipu Sultan.
The father-son duo terrorized and alienated all their neighbours in southern India. They fought several wars against the Marathas. Malabar, Mangalore and Coorg suffered greatly during their occupation. They ignored the Mughal emperor in Delhi and made enemies of their Muslim neighbours. The nizam of Hyderabad and nawab of Arcot hitched their wagons to the British star.
Contrary to popular belief, the sultans did not oppose colonial domination. In fact, they allied with the French, with Tipu even inviting Napoleon Bonaparte to invade India. The gruesome events of their reign are routinely denied by their admirers, but contemporary chroniclers and later historians have recorded their dark deeds in a variety of Indian and foreign languages. This book attempts to sift the wheat from the chaff and present a balanced view of the history of the sultans. It also presents oral narratives of people whose families were impacted by the advent of the Mysoreans.
Pushpa Kurup is an IT professional, a history buff, and an independent researcher. She started her career as an officer in the Life Insurance Corporation of India and later moved to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) as faculty member and Vitalect Technologies as managing director. After a wish-fulfilling corporate career spanning several decades, she decided to hang up her boots and pursue her hobbies.
Pushpa Kurup's recent publications include Power Women: A Journey into Hindu Mythology, Folklore and History and Gods Dancing among Men: The Mystical World of Theyyams of North Malabar. She wrote Stars and Saplings: A Biography of Dr. G. Viswanathan, the authorized biography of the founder-chancellor of VIT (Vellore Institute of Technology) University in 2013. She travels widely, reads plenty of books, and handles consulting assignments involving corporate training and prevention of workplace sexual harassment. She divides her time between Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode.
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