Vishwesha Tirtha Swami of Pejawar Mutt said on Thursday that lessons on historical figures such as Tipu Sultan should show both sides of their personalities and deeds.
Replying to queries of presspersons on the State government’s move to remove Tipu Sultan from textbooks, he said Tipu Sultan was a controversial person whom the people of Kodagu district and Christians blame for massacres. He said Tipu did good work while also showing cruelty. He said Tipu had stated that his sword was meant to kill the “kafirs”. But his administration was good and he helped the poor during his rule. “There were many kings who did both good and bad. They should not be overly glorified. There should be truth in history,” he said.
The Pejawar seer said that freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, popularly known as Veer Savarkar, made a lot of sacrifices for the freedom struggle and served 10 years of rigorous imprisonment in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which was good. But he submitted a plea for clemency to the British government, which was wrong. “But Savarkar had to face a lot of torture in the cellular jail and would simply have had to rot in prison. Hence, he submitted the plea for clemency. After coming from the jail, he organised the Hindu community and also participated in the freedom struggle in his own way as the leader of the Hindu Mahasabha. Hence, saying that Savarkar should not be given the Bharat Ratna just because he sought clemency is wrong,” the seer said.
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