A Bangalore court has passed a temporary injunction on the distribution and sale of a book that negatively portrays Tipu Sultan and allegedly contains adverse remarks about Muslims apart from unsubstantiated information about the 18th-centuryruler of Mysore who has of late become a polarising figure in Karnataka.

Additional city civil and sessions judge J.R. Mendonca restrained author Addananda C. Cariappa, publisher Ayodhya Publications and printer Rashtrothana Mudranalaya from distributing or selling the book, which is a play titled Tipu Nija Kanasugalu (The Real Dreams of Tipu).

But the court cited jurisdiction to refuse to grant an injunction on the staging of the play in Mysore. Also, the order would not come in the way of the defendants “printing the said books at their risk and storing the books which are already printed”.

The order came on a petition filed by former chairman of the Bangalore District Waqf Board Committee, Rafiulla B.S. who had argued that the book contains wrong information about Tipu and Muslims. The book portrays the Mysore ruler as a tyrant and accuses him of forced conversions and the massacre of Hindus, which reflect the Sangh parivar’s claims on Tipu.

“He (the petitioner) has stated that the ‘Azaan’, which is the religious practice of the Muslim community, is extracted in the book wrongly in order to hurt the feelings of the Muslim community,” the court stated in its order passed on Monday.

Rafiulla also cited the book carrying a derogatory reference to Muslims in Karnataka. “He has stated that the publication of this book would cause unrest and communal disharmony,” the court noted. “If the book is circulated pending appearance of the defendants, the purpose of the application itself would be defeated,” it stated.