THE ONLY KING WHO DIED ON THE BATTLEFIELD

About the Book

By the end of the 18th century, the British Empire was trying hard to spread its power and imperialism all around the world. They had been defeated by the American troops in the battle of York Town so after losing American colonies, they started to pay more attention towards Indian colonies which were being controlled by Muslims (including present day's Pakistan and Bangladesh) at that time. (Present day India is under the control of Hindus.)The English had arrived in India at the beginning of 17th century for business and trade purposes. As time passed, they started to settle down and built trade offices in different cities of India. Unfortunately, the Muslim Empire of India which had been controlling India since 1292 had started falling into pieces after the death of the great Mughal Emperor 'Aurangzabe'. Taking advantage of this, the British East India Company started to think about occupying India. They introduced the worst political theory of that century 'Divide and Rule'. They tried their best to make different states fight against each other and in order to get it done, they used religion, castes, class differences and language differences as their tools. Land area wise, India was a huge country at that time. By the end of 1760, the British East India Company had occupied almost one-fourth of the Indian territories but the next 40 years were the toughest years of the history of British Empire. The book revolves around those 40 years. Based on author's 5 years extensive research, the book throws light on the life of the king 'Tipu Sultan' the greatest freedom fighter and perhaps the most brave and noble king not only in the history of Indian sub-continent but also in the history of Muslims since the advent of Islam who posed a grave threat to the British power to drive them out of his homeland idealizing the unity of Americans against the British which led to the independence of United States.The British became the masters of the world after occupying India because India was not only famous for it’s huge land area but also for its wealth and riches. In 18th century, India used to be called ‘The Golden Bird’. If Tipu Sultan who was the last resistance to the British on South Asian soil had not been betrayed by his own ministers, then the history of world would have been totally different because the king was strong enough to break the British Power and if British had lost India territories, they wouldn’t have been strong enough to occupy the rest of the world in 18th and 19th centuries. But they were lucky as they were able to bribe a few of Tipu’s ministers who sold their faith for few pieces of land, jewelry and gold to those who wanted to impose slavery everywhere possible. The author claims in this book, that Tipu Sultan has been the only king in the history of world who died on the battlefield fighting his enemies a hand to hand battle despite being sure of his defeat. According to what author claims, the king could have escaped from the battle or surrendered as many other kings had done in the past, but he preferred an honorable death rather than being a subordinate of his enemies for rest of his life. There is a famous saying by the king that (To live like a tiger for one day is far better than to live like a jackal for 100 years).

About the Author

Mohammed Faisal Iftikhar, the author of this historical novel was born in Pakistan. Having a background from Indian-subcontinent, the auhor is not only interested in the history of Indian-Pakistani Subcontinent but also interested in writing about the history of India-Pakistan for those students of history whose primary or secondary interest is in learning about the history of South Asia. The author moved to United States at the age of 17. He went to high school in New Jersey and Connecticut and earned his Bachelors degree in Political Science with a minor in Justice & Law from Western Connecticut State University. He is currently a graduate student doing his M.A in Political Science-Constitutional Law Studies. He began writing for the first time for Urdu newspapers in USA in Urdu (A language widely spoken in India-Pakistan). This historical novel is the only book, author has written as of yet.