The Week India – July 14, 2019

8 THE WEEK • JULY 14, 2019

LETTERS

Editor Philip Mathew

Chief Associate Editor & Director Riyad Mathew

Editor-in-Charge V.S. Jayaschandran

Senior News Editor Stanley Thomas

News Editor Lukose Mathew

Deputy News Editors Mathew T. George, Maijo Abraham,

Ajish P. Joy

Resident Editor, Delhi K.S. Sachidananda Murthy

Chief of Bureau, Delhi R. Prasannan

Contributing Editors Barkha Dutt, Anita Pratap,

Anuja Chauhan

Chief of Bureau, Mumbai Dnyanesh V. Jathar

Deputy Chiefs of Bureau, Delhi Vijaya Pushkarna, Neeru Bhatia

Chief Subeditors Susamma Kurian,

Navin J. Antony

Senior Subeditors Anirudha Karindalam,

Anirudh Madhavan

Subeditors Diya Mathew, Karthik Ravindranath,

Reuben Joe Joseph, Nirmal Jovial

Photo Editor: Sanjoy Ghosh

Deputy Photo Editors

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Research: Jomy M. Joseph

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New Media Coordinator Neeraj Krishnan

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Senior Subeditors Hazeeda Vijayakumar, Sumitra Nair,

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John, Varun Ramesh Balan

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Multimedia Rahul J. Mohan, Vipin Das P.

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MUMBAI

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CHENNAI

Regional Chief General Manager K.C. Suresh

BENGALURU

Regional Chief General Manager Ranjit Kurien

NEW DELHI

Chief Marketing Offi cer (North) &

Head, Special Projects R. Rajmohan

SENIOR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS

Delhi: Rekha Dixit, Mandira Nayar,

Namrata Biji Ahuja, Soni Mishra,

K. Sunil Thomas

Srinagar: Tariq Ahmad Bhat

Lucknow: Puja Awasthi

Kolkata: Rabi Banerjee

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS

Delhi: Pratul Sharma, Namita Kohli,

Pradip R. Sagar

Mumbai: Rachna Tyagi

Bengaluru: Prathima Nandakumar

Thiruvananthapuram: Cithara Paul

Mumbai: Nachiket Kelkar

Chennai Lakshmi Subramanian

Bhopal: Sravani Sarkar

Ahmedabad: Nandini Gunavantrai Oza

PRINCIPAL CORRESPONDENTS

Delhi: Soumik Dey

Hyderabad: Rahul Devulapalli

Kochi: Anjuly Mathai

SENIOR CORRESPONDENTS

Bengaluru: Mini P. Thomas,

Abhinav Singh

Delhi: Sneha Bhura

Mumbai: Priyanka Bhadani,

Pooja Biraia Jaiswal

CHIEF REPORTER

UAE: Raju Mathew, Dubai

tory of India would have

been diff erent if he had

all the teeth and gritted or

grounded them, when-

ever and wherever it was

found necessary.

J.S. Raghavan,

On email.

Th anks to Th aroor

It was indeed a pleasure

to know about the roots of

the Th aroor Swaroopam.

Th anks to Shashi Th aroor

and THE WEEK (‘Last

word’, June 30)

Jacob Xavier

Kayyalakakath,

On email.

Many of us were surprised

and saddened to read that

Th aroor had called Tipu

“a great nationalist hero“

while praising Pakistan

PM Imran Khan for

remembering Tipu’s birth

anniversary. Some of us

even wondered if Khan

was planning to name his

next missile Tipu, adding

to the Ghori and Ghazni

missiles.

Some of my ances-

tors from the Kalarikkal

Puthur Madom family,

at Valanchery in Malap-

puram district of Kerala,

were killed during Tipu’s

invasion. Th e house,

consisting of a naalu-

kettu, padippura and

pathayapura, was burnt

down. After Tipu’s death

the house was rebuilt and,

today, it is around 200

years old, though not in

excellent condition.

If Tipu was fi ghting

the British to protect his

erstwhile Mysore State, he

should have stayed within

that state. What business

had he to cross the West-

ern Ghats and invade

the Malabar region, in

the process looting and

killing people? He was

mainly targeting the Nair

and Christian families

who were the landlords

then.

K.P. Rajan Nambiar,

On email.

I am glad that Th aroor

spoke up about Tipu and

the Th aroor connection.

Now that he has a clearer

picture of his own family

history, he should look

up Tipu Sultan’s history

as well. Th ere are three

home-grown villains

in the Malabar-Mysore

story:

One, Raman Kombi

Achan of Th aroor Swa-

roopam, Palakkad, who

was the fi rst to invite Hy-

der Ali to invade Kerala.

Two, Ali Raja of Kannur,

who extended the second

invitation. Th ree, Arakkal

Beevi of Kannur, whose

daughter was married to

Tipu’s son in an oppor-

tunistic political alliance.

Tipu’s letter of January

19, 1790, to the Gover-

nor of Bekal, declared,

“I have achieved a great

victory recently in Mal-

abar and over four lakh

Hindus were converted

to Islam. I am now deter-

mined to march against

the cursed Raman Nair

(Maharaja Karthika

Th irunal Rama Varma of

Travancore.)” History has

the answers, but we need

to turn the pages.

Pushpa Kurup,

On email.