According to this book[1] war rockets were used in India at least as early as the 14th century, and mughal emperor Akbar used metal-headed ones in the 16th. So it would seem neither rockets nor metal ones were invented by Tipu. However it doesn't answer your question of who did invent the war rocket :-)

1. The Mughal Empire at War: Babur, Akbar and the Indian Military Revolution, 1500-1605 (Asian States and Empires) https://www.amazon.in/dp/B01EX69NJ0/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_DMX...

Edit: added the link

But IIUC what you want to who under Tipu's rule invented (or revived) this rocket. You're probably right in thinking it wasn't Tipu himself who did this, since he was a king and not a scientist. But i suspect the real inventor's name is lost to history.

> IIUC what you want to who under Tipu's rule invented (or revived) this rocket.

Precisely. Tipu's subjects, but also subjects from other Indian kingdoms who invented and developed stuff.

>>All that my middle-school textbooks said was Tipu Sultan used them against the Brits.

The area that is now Karnataka, or erst while state of Mysore/Deccan has a rich culture of knowledge and art that has been pervasive regardless of the political entities that have ruled over them.

Its also understandable as that area has relatively more peace, stability and tolerance compared to other areas in the sub-continent, hence economic-knowledge prosperity follows from there.

Tipu like many before him was the beneficiary of a long going positive social inertia. No doubt he was good, but he had a lot going for him.

Even as of now. Karnataka has done relatively compared to bulk of India since Independence.

Tipu is respected by a lot of people, but the genocide of Coorgis who opposed him is well known history.

There are a lot of movements against historically whitewashing his rule.

Even a child with a Mobile phone today can read what they want to read. What's whitewashing in this world?

That's with anything today, not just history.

"Even a child with a Mobile phone today can read what they want to read."

And yet ignorance is just and high and snake oil salesmen have record profits

A child searching for 'hakken kreuz' on wikipedia would be quite confused, if only the child would actually read what the man who came up with it wrote about it in his book.

A lot of motivated misinformation exists even for the most studied symbol.

Let us not underestimate the deliberate whitewashing or brownwashing that happens in India.

There is no deliberate washing of anything happening anywhere.

Try reading a book, it works.

Try what the child above did, try searching for the word on wikipedia.

That isn't washing but victim blaming or blame transfer.

Here's what 'I' think; Gun powder technology got assimilated into Mongol Army through their conquests in Chinese mainland and there have been evidences that Mongols employed them for some primitive rocketry like spear projectiles powered by gun powder.

Mongols were ancestors of Mughals and it's plausible that they brought with them rocketry tech to India as there have evidences that rocketry was prevalent in Mughal empire even before Tipu Sultan's time.