Note 61 — Chapter X · CALICUT.
Reading edition
In 1788, Tippoo was induced by ill-timed zeal or mistaken policy to order the circumcision and conversion of the Malabar Hindoos, and compelled the Brahmans to eat beef, as an example to the other inferior castes. A general insurrection of the oppressed was the natural consequence of the oppressive measure.
Tradition asserts that there was a forcible but partial circumcision of the natives of Malabar by the people of Arabia long before Hyder’s time. So the grievance was by no means a new one.