Historians assail ''ignorant'' Karnataka Minister

New Delhi, Sep 25 (UNI) A band of 33 historians today joined in a growing chorus of revolt against what they described as an ''ignorant and partisan'' assault of Tipu Sultan's glorious legacy by Karnataka's Higher Education Minister D H Shankaramurthy.

Strongly defending the 'Tiger of Mysore' against the charge of being ''anti-Kannada'' and citing historical records as evidence, they said the Minister's statements reflected an old British and Sangh Parivar political design to try and tarnish the good name of Tipu Sultan, who died in a battle against the British.

''The integrity of History textbooks needs to be protected against all such ignorant and partisan onslaughts on them as the one that the Minister of Higher Education in Karnataka has been reported to have undertaken,'' the historians said in a joint statement.

Tipu Sultan's letters and orders (e.g. India Office Manuscript, I.O. 4685, folios 130a, 152a, 159a-b, etc) have numerous references to various officials and clerks appointed for keeping records in Kannada and Marathi in the treasury and other government offices, and, wherever named, the persons holding the posts were mostly Hindus, they said.

''It is highly irresponsible of a minister holding the charge of Higher Education in one of India's most advanced states to indulge in such reckless disregard of historical truth''.

The Minister's reported desire that Tipu's name be expunged from history books ''suits only those who have scant respect for the memory of India's long fight against foreign invaders or colonial rule'', they said.

It was inconceivable that people could consign to oblivion a man like Tipu Sultan, a true martyr -- held up as a hero by the people and the most redoubtable opponent by the British, they said.

The statement was issued by SAHMAT on behalf of historians R S Sharma, A R Kulkarni, D N Jha, Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, Shireen Moosvi, Aditya Mukherjee, K M Srimali, Irfan Habib, Arjun Dev, Biswamoy Pati, Iqtidar Alam Khan, S R Singh, Suvira Jaiswal, J V Naik, V Ramakrishna, M G S Narayan, Ramkrishna Chatterjee, B P Sahu, Kesavan Valuthath, Rajan Gurukkal, K K N Kurup, Suraj Bhan, S C Mishra, R Gopinath, R P Bahuguna, R C Thakran, G P Sharma, Amar Farooqui, R P Rana, H C Satyarthi, Ishrat Alam, K L Tuteja and Nalini Taneja.

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