Indian judoka Harsh Tokas is aiming to script history at the Commonwealth Games 2026 in Glasgow, with the 81kg competitor setting his sights on becoming the first Indian to win a judo gold at the Games. The 23-year-old, who will be making his Commonwealth Games debut, said he has left no stone unturned in his preparations and is looking forward to competing on one of the biggest stages of his career. "The preparation is going really well. It has been at a next-level intensity for the past 2-3 months. I have given it my absolute 100% effort. This is the first time I've played at this level; it's going to be a unique experience. I am competing in the 81kg category. As for the challenges, I'll only find out the specifics once I'm there, but the plan is to play freely. The goal is definitely gold. No one from our country has ever won gold in this event at the Commonwealth Games, so bringing back gold would create history and be a wonderful achievement for the nation,...
External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Saturday attended the launch of Indian historian Vikram Sampath's book 'Tipu Sultan: The Saga of the Mysore Interregnum' at the Indian Habitat Centre here in Delhi. S Jaishankar described Tipu Sultan as a "very complex figure in history," highlighting both his resistance to British colonial control and the controversial aspects of his rule.
Speaking at the event, S Jaishankar said, "Tipu Sultan is actually a very, very complex figure in history. On the one hand, he has the reputation as a key figure who resisted the British colonial control over India, and it is a fact that his defeat and death can be considered a turning point when it came to the fate of peninsular India."
However, S Jaishankar also noted the "adverse" effects of Tipu Sultan's rule in the Mysore region. "At the same time, he evokes strong adverse sentiments even today in many regions, some in Mysore itself," he added.
S Jaishankar further emphasized that Indian history has focused more on Tipu Sultan's battles with the British, and "underplaying" or "neglecting" other aspects of his rule. "Contemporary history writing, certainly at the national level, has focused largely on the former, and underplaying, if not neglecting the later. Let's be honest, this was not an accident," he said.
Asserting that History is complicated, S Jaishankar said that "cherry-picking of facts" in the case of Tipu Sultan has led to the advancement of a "political narrative".
"History, in all societies, is complicated, and politics indulges in cherry-picking the facts. This has happened in the case of Tipu Sultan. By highlighting the Tipu-English binary, to the exclusion of a more complicated reality, a particular narrative has been advanced over the years," he said.
S Jaishankar reaffirmed that under PM Modi's government, India has seen the emergence of alternative perspectives.
"In the last 10 years, the changes in our political dispensation have led to the emergence of alternative perspectives. We are no longer prisoners of a vote bank, nor it is politically incorrect to bring out inconvenient truth," he added.
Speaking further about the book, S Jaishankar said, "As someone from the diplomatic world, I was really struck by info and insights which are provided in this volume on Tipu Sultan. We in India have tendered to mainly study post-independence foreign policy -- perhaps this too was a conscious choice. But the fact is that many of our kingdoms and states forayed into international affairs in previous centuries in pursuance of thier particular interests, and some, by the way, continued to do so even till independence. The interaction of Tipu's missionary with their French and English counterparts is really fascinating."
S Jaishankar concluded by saying that open-minded scholarship and genuine debate are central to India's evolution as a pluralistic society and vibrant democracy.
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