In popular memory Tipu has remained a prominent symbol of the struggle against colonial rule. When, shortly after the battle of Srirangapatnam, Indian soldiers of the Company’s army stationed at Vellore revolted in 1806, they were obviously inspired by Tipu. They raised Tipu’s flag, with its tiger emblem, and declared one of his sons (who was imprisoned in the Vellore Fort) as the legitimate ruler. For several generations Tipu’s tiger has remained one of the most enduring images of the challenge to colonial domination, and it is this image that is now threatened by the attempt to selectively sanction approved symbols of the nation with a view to exclude rather than to include.

The writer is Reader, Department of History, Delhi University