Mangaluru: “Tippu was not an intolerant king he was intolerant about the colonialism. He was highly tolerant and always followed the rules,” said Prof Krishnamurthy, Govindadas College Surathkal.

He was speaking after releasing ‘Hyder Ali – Tippu: Ithihasa Kathana’ book written by Mangaluru University history department head Prof Barkuru Uday at Jamiyathul Falah hall on Tuesday organised by Tippu Sultan History Research Committee.

“Though he has given lot of contribution for the developments of temples in his stare, those have been neglected. He might have destroyed the temples during the war, but it was not with the intention of religious intolerance. If spreading Islam was his motto then he wouldn’t had fought with Nizam’s of Hyderabad,” he said.

He further said that Tippu fought against those people who backed British and this is a truth.
Writer of the book Prof Barkur Uday said that Tippu was depicted as a religious intolerant person by British writers.

“We can’t take the same thing in here also. It will be injustice if we blindly followed the British writings. It is said that he destroyed nearly 8000 temples in his 17 years of ruling as king, which means he must destroy one temple a day to reach the target and it was impossible in an era where there was no proper facilities,” he added.

DK Wakf advisory committee Presidet S M Rasheed, Beary Sahitya Academy President B A Muhammad Haneef, J D S district President Muhammad Kunhi Vitla and others were present.