Tipu Sultan descendants to have royal status restored

Today his descendants are rickshaw pullers and domestic servants in Calcutta, shunned by India's remaining royal families and humiliated by officials of a trust established to provide for their welfare.

But more than 200 years after Tipu Sultan was finally overpowered and killed by East India Company forces, mainly led by Scots officers, in the Fourth Mysore War at Seringapatam, his impoverished descendants are to have their royal status restored.

They are being rehabilitated as a mark of respect to the ruler many Indians regard as the first hero of their freedom movement.