On Tuesday, things in Karnataka turned ugly when a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activist named DS Kuttappa was allegedly killed in Madikeri, after clashes broke out over the birth anniversary celebrations of 18th century Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan. According to the police, Kuttappa suffered head injuries and died on the spot.

The violence erupted after the ruling Congress government in the state announced statewide celebrations for Tipu Jayanti for the first time, which were boycotted by the BJP and their ideological brethren, who see Sultan as a religious bigot. However, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah defended the move, saying Tipu was a secular leader. “Tipu Sultan was a secular ruler. He was a model king in the entire country. A section of people criticise him out of prejudice,” he said.

Tipu Sultan’s actions in history are up for debate, and it’s impossible to place him into comfortable modern brackets like 'secular leader' or 'Hindu killer' or 'freedom fighter'.

So was Tipu a secular king or a murderer of Hindus?

While some consider Tipu a national hero, others paint him as a Hindu-killing king who forced people to convert to Islam. The latter was a view backed by the British, who he fought against after allying with the French.

In a Guardian article, William Dalrymple says it was the British who painted Tipu as a tyrant. He writes: “There was no doubt who would be the first to be targeted: a Muslim dictator whose family had usurped power in a military coup. According to British sources, this chief of state was an "intolerant bigot", a "furious fanatic" with a "rooted and inveterate hatred of Europeans", who had "perpetually on his tongue the projects of jihad". He was also deemed to be "oppressive and unjust ... [a] sanguinary tyrant, [and a] perfidious negotiator".”

He adds that what worried the British was that Tipu was an able fighter who used ‘weapons of the West’ against their inventors, which at times were superior to the East India Company’s old matchlocks. He also claims that Tipu continued the Indo-Islamic tradition of syncretism, even though he did destroy Hindu temples conquered in war, while supporting temples which fell under his kingdom.

Meanwhile, in a Firstpost article, MA Deviah talks about why celebrating Tipu Jayanti is insulting to various people in the region, particularly in places like Coorg, Mangalore and Kerala. He writes: “…(they) regard Tipu Sultan as a tyrant who destroyed temples, killed non-Muslims, and forcibly converted tens of thousands of conquered people. Various parties and organisations have already taken out protest processions and 10 November, is being observed across Coorg district as a black day.”

The article claims that people in Coorg were circumcised and forced to eat beef and that Tipu is also said to have destroyed temples in Coorg. He also quotes a Portuguese missionary who wrote that Tipu ‘tied naked Christians and Hindus to the legs of elephants and made the elephants move around till the bodies of the helpless victims were torn to pieces.’

There are several claims of other atrocities by Tipu Sultan, but then similar things could be said about any ruler, including Akbar or Aurangzeb or even king Ashoka, if we were to judge them by modern standards of governance.

How long will we fight about history?

To the cynical viewer, celebrating Tipu Jayanti was a move by the Congress to antagonise the right-wing, and they fell for it hook, line and sinker to further bolster the image that the BJP and their ideological brethren are anti-Islam, with communal elements waiting for a flare-up. It also gave Siddaramaiah the opportunity to accuse the RSS and "other communal forces" of making it a communal issue and opposing it. Tipu Sultan’s "secular" or "religious" actions, while important from a historical perspective, should not be the reason for anyone’s death in this day and age. How long will we keep fighting about what happened in the past, instead of dealing with the many, many issues that plague modern-day India?