Fiction: Abbas must retrieve a wooden tiger he made for Tipu Sultan, which the British plundered

It is a well-known fact that of Tipu Sultan’s many children, the one he loves best is Muiz-ud-din.

Muiz is five years old. His skin is as fair as his father’s, his eyes as wide and limpid, possessing the spirit and authority of a born monarch.

His older brother Abdul Khaliq is considered a bit less impressive. Not just because of his dark skin or his full lips or even his flattish nose; no, the problem has something to do with his doleful countenance, as if he’s always on the verge of apologising.

A prince should not make apologies, Tipu believes. Nor should a king. So Tipu did not apologise to his boys when surrendering them to Lord Cornwallis two years before, after the humiliating defeat at Bangalore. Cornwallis had demanded the boys as collateral, in case Tipu failed to hold to the terms of the peace treaty.

No Western artist was present at the moment when Tipu bade his sons goodbye, yet the scene was rendered a dozen times over by Western artists, in immense and inaccurate detail, reproduced in prints and engravings. Here was beautiful Muiz, stepping away from the gaggle of distraught brown men toward the orderly ranks of white men,...

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