00:00Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I was recounting my personal experience with the history of Tipu Sultan.
00:13I don't claim to have mastery of the subject, but certainly as a student of history,
00:19I was, of course, enchanted by the great statesman, anti-colonial fighter, Tipu Sultan.
00:31And when I was here, many years, long before I assumed office, I was with Tansi Sayyid Mokhtar,
00:40and then I was attracted to this piece on Tipu Sultan.
00:45I said, Sayyid, this is a great guy. This is something not known outside India.
00:52Very little is known. But I think it is a remarkable feat.
00:59A strong leader of the Mysore Sultanate led a very simple life.
01:09You visit his palace, for example, is probably one of the most or the smallest palace I have seen in my life.
01:18In fact, I was a bit curious to know whether it is actually his palace.
01:23But that simplicity helps us to understand the man who was leading a nation who wouldn't tolerate a colonial rule,
01:34who had the strength in indefatigable fighter for freedom.
01:40And a learned sultan, I can see from his collection of books,
01:50and therefore, one of the few understood the need to have mastery of technology
02:00in order to be able to fight the colonial rule.
02:04That's why you see his cannons and his guns are some remarkable feat that shocked the colonial rulers in the first wars.
02:13Now, so what relevance has it to be here in Malaysia?
02:19I think we are fortunate. So thank you very much, Mohamed.
02:23It is not just an ordinary exhibition,
02:25but to showcase the history of India and the Muslim world
02:33and the history of the anti-colonial struggle against the colonial rule.
02:40In this particular case, the British rule.
02:43His diplomatic skills with the views,
02:49sultanates, Muslims, and Hindus in India
02:52and his venture into the international diplomacy,
02:58particularly in persuading the French forces to support his struggle against the British.
03:06Now, Malaysia never knew much about Tipu Sultan or his father, Ahid Ali.
03:12But hopefully this will change
03:15now that the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia is mounting
03:19the most comprehensive exhibition ever held anywhere
03:25as a tribute to the hero and his father.
03:30So thank you again.
03:35You know, history is not necessarily very kind.
03:38In the last session we had here,
03:39I was talking about the reconstruction of Malaysian history.
03:42how one of our scholars, Hussein Al-Atas,
03:48emphasised the need to reconstruct history
03:51because history cannot be written only by the winners
03:55or from the perspective of the colonial rulers.
04:04Malaysian history, as other histories,
04:07is always written from the perspective of the British.
04:11essentially Western colonial rule.
04:14And of course, there has been lots of academic accounts,
04:20including by Edward Sine on Orientalism.
04:23But the manner, the whole discipline of history
04:27and culture and society
04:29is being dictated by certain Western viewpoint.
04:34And in the reconstruction of history,
04:37we can, it's also an attempt to understand
04:41that modernity in the Malay world
04:44is not necessarily after British colonial rule.
04:47Similarly, if you understand Indian history,
04:49you can see the vast contribution
04:53of the great rulers in India
04:57who has promoted scholarship,
05:02learning, tolerance.
05:04I made reference to just now
05:06when I visited Mysore about a decade ago
05:09and then, of course,
05:12surprised by the size,
05:14the small size of the palace
05:15of this Sultan of Mysore.
05:17And then, of course,
05:19knew about the fact
05:20that he was one of the first Muslim rulers
05:23that engaged with the Hindu majority
05:28and decided to visit Guru Vayu,
05:32one of the most,
05:34I should say,
05:36one of the oldest Hindu temples in India
05:40and pay respects
05:43to the Hindu Swamiji's and priests.
05:49And because of that,
05:51I decided from the palace of Mysore
05:54to visit the temple,
06:02the Guru Vayu temple
06:03and to understand that, you know,
06:08this is not ordinary
06:10because it only takes leaders
06:13with such wisdom
06:13and tolerance
06:17to engage with his subjects.
06:21So I hope Malaysians
06:24take that opportunity
06:27because it's not found
06:28in many places,
06:30in other places,
06:31at least to understand Indian history,
06:34Muslim history,
06:35history of scholarship
06:37and technology
06:38and tolerance
06:40in the figure of Tipu Sultan.
06:45Now, at this exhibition,
06:47I've been told
06:48that there are many references
06:49to Sultan's belief
06:50that it is, again,
06:53a very famous saying.
06:55In fact, I used that
06:56in some of my earlier campaigns.
06:58Better to live a day as a tiger
07:00than 100 years as a sheep.
07:04There was a reformacy motto also.
07:06That was good is.
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