The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Shankaramurthy on the offensive against Tipu Sultan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 20, 2006
ePaper

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Shankaramurthy on the offensive against Tipu Sultan

Special Correspondent

Says the ruler promoted Persian at the cost of Kannada

BANGALORE: Minister for Higher Education D.H. Shankaramurthy on Tuesday said that Tipu Sultan, who ruled Mysore from 1782 (when his father, Hyder Ali, died) till 1799, had adopted an "anti-Kannada" stance by imposing the Persian language on the administration.

Tipu Sultan replaced Kannada with Persian as the language of administration and told his officials to use Persian on coins and swords, Mr. Shankaramurthy told presspersons here.

While speaking at a function organised to launch `Shiksha Bachao Andolan' here on Sunday, Mr. Shankaramurthy had said that Tipu Sultan had not promoted Kannada during his rule.

"I am ready to participate in a debate on the issue on any platform. I have studied Tipu's history," the Minister said. The Mysore Gazetteers showed that Tipu Sultan was against using Kannada as the administrative language.

Textbooks brought out by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), according to him, have excessively glorified a few historical incidents and personalities. Historical facts should not be distorted, and the glorification of Tipu's achievements in school textbooks was not the interests of students, he said.

New colleges

Mr. Shankaramurthy said a decision had been taken to open government degree colleges in 68 taluks where there were no colleges. Fourteen colleges were opened this year and the response from students was good. Arts, commerce and science courses were being offered. Colleges would be opened in the next two years in the remaining taluks, he said.

Asked about refund of fees to students who joined professional colleges before the Cabinet decision to subsidise the fees, he said the Government would either refund the money or adjust the surplus amount against fees for the next academic year.

The Government announced that it would subsidise the fees of students allotted higher fee category seats for medical, dental and engineering courses by the CET Cell.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka