Tipu Sultan was my hero, Armstrong. In Sanjay Khan's the Sword of Tipu Sultan, the initial commentaries about the degrading political changes in Indian theater, the cannon fires, the mesmerizing music by Naushad and lastly, the majestic monarch sitting boastfully on an equally majestic elephant had made enormous magical impression on a seven/eight year old kid in the 90's. No matter how scholars continue to pass their judgement about him, Sanjay Khan's Tipu will remain as my hero as the last standing guard against the English conquerors.
Tipu was an autocrat, just by the simple fact that neither he nor his father were chosen by referendum. But I will be rather more cautious unlike the right wing quarters to judge him as necessarily evil/ ruthless religious maniac or as the melodramatic hero the left wing historians often prefers to see him, just as they tends to do in case of Akbar the great. There is little to argue against the fact that there had not been any case of forced conversion. In fact, Tipu himself had acknowledged that he had inflicted punishment on Nairs of Coorg and Malabar and we all may agree unanimously that forced conversion was an universal signature of every medieval Islamic rulers as religion based retribution to the non-believers for non-religious reasons. Tipu was not an exception. But the extent of this accusation must be and should be a subject of serious scholarly investigation. For example, demographic facts often defy the claim that Tipu was encouraging rampart forced conversions. Mir Hussain Ali Khan Kirmani claims that during his military expedition in 1783, Tipu converted 80,000 Hindus in Coorg. But half a century later in 1839-40 total population of the area was estimated around the same and Muslim population did not exceed merely 6,000 even late as 1870.
If Tipu was a radical anti-Christian as regularly claimed by British officers of the company like Wilks or Kirkpatrick for his forced conversion of 60,000 Kanarese Christians who allegedly helped the British in the second Anglo-Mysore war, it no way explains why he encouraged Armenian merchants to settle in Mysore or well treated Syrian Christians. Also, not to forget that the most convincing proof of his religious tolerance does not come from any loyal admirer among his courtiers but from the records of Sringeri Math.
last but not the least, it is not always necessary to see historical figures as 'Good' or 'evil' based upon the commentaries of contemporary records as most of them are often vulnerable to personal bias or religious/ethnic/political prejudices. Tipu Mastan Oliya was and will continue to be a matter of scholarly debate in future but let the Tipu Sultan of Sanjay Khan to remain as the last standing hero against the British, there is no scope of doubt in this regard.
I am willing to bet my life that you will get this verdict. Tipu was a saint or at least as good/bad as any other Hindu king. 
