As the party’s nominee for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in Kerala, state BJP president K Surendran has stated that renaming Sulthan Bathery in Kerala’s Wayanad district as GanapathyVattom is “inevitable.” Sulthan Bathery got its name as part of [Tipu Sulthan’s] invasion, which massacred Hindus and Christians.
“Everyone knows that GanapatiVattom was the place’s name even before Tipu Sulthan’s arrival. I just repeated it. Before Tipu’s appearance, the name Sulthan Bathery did not exist. It was known for the famous Ganapati Temple. That good place should not be known by the name of an aggressor or someone who persuaded others to accept a particular religious or political belief, idea, or way of life (proselytiser).”
“Does Congress and the communists want the place to be known after a criminal? Congress and CPM are now creating controversy as part of their support to the occupying forces,” Surendran said.
Reactions (communalism and fascism) from political outfits, including the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) (a prominent front in Wayand and Malabar), showed they were preparing to make a controversy using Surendran’s words.
One of the three municipal towns in Wayanad, Sulthan Bathery, is home to an ancient stone temple known as GanapathyVattom. During the second half of the 18th century, Tipu Sulthan, the tyrant from Mysuru, invaded the temple, partially destroying it. Today’s northern Kerala (Malabar) was often invaded between 1750 and 1790 by Hyder Ali, the ruler of Mysuru, and his son Tipu.
To further insult Hindus, Tipu used the Maha Ganapathy temple in Sulthan Bathery as a battery or storage facility for his army’s weaponry (canons). They attacked and conquered the Jain temple of Kidanganad near Ganapativattom and converted the temple and its surroundings into an armoury to store ammunition and weapons.
As a result, GanapathyVattom was named “[Tipu] Sulthan’s Battery” by the British, and later, Islamists insisted on persisting with Sulthan Bathery. Ganapathyvattom was deserted for almost 150 years. After assuming control, the Archaeological Survey of India designated it a monument of national significance.
The website of Sulthan Bathery Municipality said that GanapatiVattom was the old name. According to the website, the centuries-old Ganesha temple made the area GaneshaVattom. The communists run the municipality since 2015. The webpage about its history has been taken down.
These Islamist plunderers used Wayanad extensively for their campaigns to Malabar. 1760, Hydarali established the first military base in Edathara near Muthanga (on the Kerala-Karnataka border). Later, after 1766, the marauders reached Malabar and attacked several principalities.
By 1781, Hyderali’s son Tipu reached Wayanad. He attacked and looted various Malabar kingdoms, famous clans, and temples to increase his wealth. He forced the conversion of people who practised other religions to Islam and set fire to temples and churches.
Tipu forcibly converted his enemy soldiers, who had held out for many weeks against the well-equipped Mysore army without adequate weapons or food. Malayalis were tied to the feet of elephants and dragged. He forced Christian and Hindu women to marry Muslim men.
Tipu’s army destroyed temples and churches and forced many Hindus and Christians to flee to escape forced religious conversion, rape, and murder. These non-Muslim places of worship were plundered and desecrated. Temple Murtis were hidden underground or secretly transported elsewhere.
Before long, ethnic cleansing meant at least half of the ‘Scheduled Caste’ population had been forcefully converted to Islam. Tipu’s Islamic fanaticism was far worse than his father’s. He was that generation’s Hitler.
Famous Historian Prof. C I Issac and member of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR)had this to say about the brewing controversy:
It is typical for both the left and the Congress to staunchly oppose any return to Bharat’s ancient sense of unique identity. They do this to appease the minorities, which is why GanapatiVattom and Sulthan Bathery are just names of places for them.
The sacred name of GanapathiVattom is unacceptable to them because both parties have a definite vote bank politics. This is where BJP state president K. Surendran’s stance is welcome and commendable. Sultan Bathery’s real name is GanapatiVattom. I have commented in many forums that that area should be known as GanapathiVattom.
It is not the first time that the name of a region or a state has been changed in the country. It was not just the BJP government that changed names. Only when the BJP does so do the vested interests bring controversy.
(Those who oppose the suggestion have changed the name of Trivandrum to Thiruvananthapuram and want to shift Kerala to Keralam, but when nationalists say Bharat, they have a problem).
The place known as Madras until July 1996 became Chennai, Bangalore became Bengaluru, and Calcutta became Kolkata, to name a few. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced in 2019 that the famous VJT Hall (Victoria Jubilee Town Hall) in the capital city would be known as Ayyangali Hall. The name change was in recognition of the many interventions that Ayyangali made in the Sree Moolam Praja Sabha. The country should accept what needs to be accepted and move forward.
(The Sree Moolam Praja Sabha (Popular Assembly) was Bharat’s first democratically elected legislature, founded in the late 1800s in the former state of Thiruvithamkoor (Travancore). By 1905, the Sree Moolam Assembly had elected members. University graduates living in the respective Taluks were also eligible to vote.)
(Ayyankali worked hard for the socially oppressed (Ezhava and Pulayar communities) of Thiruvithamkoor. He preached the need to break caste divisions because Ayyankali thought doing so would limit the number of Hindus converting to Christianity. On December 5, 1911, Ayyankali was elected to the Praja Sabha and served in that capacity for 25 years.)
The focal point of Sulthan Bathery is the Ganesha temple, which is still located there today. If you see the structure, you can understand that it was built several centuries ago. With the arrival of the Jains, the place became a human settlement. This place was part of the trade route with Malabar.
Later, this temple came under the control of the Kottayam royal family. Tipu was an anti-Hindu extremist who attacked and destroyed Hindu temples. That Tipu’s armory was established at Ganapativattam. The conquerors who later wrote the history of Bharat named this place Sulthan’s Battery, which means Sulthan’s Armoury.
Who here has distorted the history and identity of a region? What’s wrong with reclaiming that lost identity? There is nothing wrong with changing the signs of occupation. It is the necessity of this era. What is needed today is not a false historical construction.
How many temples were destroyed during Tipu’s campaign? Attempts to glorify Tipu, who was blinded by Hindu hatred, cannot be accepted in any way. The campaigns of Hyder and his son Tipu in Malabar gave the Hindu community unspeakably tragic experiences.
The author of ‘Indian Renaissance: British Romantic Art and the Prospect of India’ quotes the British sailor Donald Campbell as saying, ‘Tipu Sulthan was the ferocious son of an unhonorable and cruel father’.
Many historians testify to Tipu’s brutality and lack of conscience. The fanatical and bigoted attitude of the de facto Mysore sulthans destroyed Malabar. It was the Mysore Sulthans, including Tipu, who injected the poison of communalism into the people of Malabar.
It was Tipu who weakened the power of the Malabar kings. Tipu’s threat prompted the King of Thiruvithamkoor to befriend the British. Tipu’s challenge was why Thiruvithamkoor was forced to become a British ally. They needed British help to defend Tipu.
For their existence, the left wing and the Congress here must glorify Tipu, who harmed the country and the Hindu people in all these ways. They will continue to do the same. No self-respecting person should fall for it.
For the residents of Kozhikode, Tipu was a religious bigot and an invader who destroyed the city’s culture and, more importantly, its economy. A lucrative trade of spices meant that Kozhikode was an international trading hub.
Tipu invaded Kozhikode and monopolised the trade of pepper, coconut, tobacco, sandalwood, teak, etc., in the state’s name. National and international traders shifted their business to Cochin. While Cochin flourished, Kozhikode degraded rapidly following the tyrant’s arrival.
Surendran is contesting the Wayanad seat against sitting MP Rahul Gandhi and Annie Raja (CPI). Rahul Gandhi is contesting from Wayanad because Hindus are in a minority in the seat. Wayanad comprises seven Assembly constituencies: three in Wayanad, three in Kozhikode and one in Kozhikode.
According to the Election Commission data from the 2016 Kerala Assembly elections, the three Wayanad constituencies account for only about 44% of the total number of voters in the Lok Sabha seat. Around 43% are in the Malappuram district, and one-eighth of the voters are in Kozhikode.
Muslims account for over 70% of the population in Malappuram, and Christians have less than two. Even according to these calculations using outdated numbers, Muslims account for more than 45%, Hindus account for a little over 41%, and Christians account for 13% of the electorate in the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency.
More practically, a name change needs to begin with Kerala legislative assembly MLAs discussing and approving a resolution urging the Central government to officially change the place’s name from Sulthan Bathery to GanapathiVattom. BJP does not have MLAs in Kerala.
Last August, The Kerala State Legislative Assembly unanimously passed a resolution urging the Central government to officially change the state’s name from ‘Kerala’ to ‘Keralam.’ The Centre has not accepted a name change proposal from Ahmedabad to Karnavati in Gujarat.
