What they say ?
Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan were formidable adversaries who inflicted
a severe defeat on the British and came near to breaking the power
of the East India Company. Haider Ali was a remarkable man and one
of the notable figures in Indian history. He had some kind of national
ideal and possessed the qualities of a leader with vision. He realized,
long before others did so, the importance of sea power and the growing
menace of the British based on naval strength. He tried to organise
a joint effort to drive them out. His son Tipu continued to strengthen
his navy. Tipu also sent messages to Napoleon and to the Sultan
in Constantinople.
---- Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of
India,
6th edn., London, 1956, pp.272-73.
The Sultans of Mysore, Hyder Ali and Tipu proved much harder nuts
to crack. They defied the British and their allies. They fought
four valiant wars. In the fourth war British gold effected what
British guns had so far failed to accomplish. The ministers betrayed
the master. Tipu refused to surrender and died bravely fighting
in defence of his fort.
---- Tara Chand, History of the Freedom Movement in India,
revised edn., Delhi, 1965, I, pp.226-27.
The gloom of final defeat is only relieved by the gleam of personal
heroism, and the disaster that eventually befell him (Tipu) was
not blackened by disgrace.
---- N.K.Sinha, on Tipu's last stand at Srirangapatnam,
in Haidar Ali, 3rd edn., Calcutta, 1959, p-274.
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