kozhikode the indian business heritage lecture series launched by the indian institute of managementkozhikode iimk on wednesday provided a platform for management students and scholars to get valuable management lessons straight from history the maiden lecture the battle of calicut a landmark event dr oliver noone an amateur historian who hails from calicut recreated an obscure war between the east india company and the forces of tipu sultan in 1790 in malabar this was to drive home the point that the a rather unknown war in the backyard of kozhikode could pave the way for the british colonization of india and alter the trade fortunes of kozhikode forever dr noone who had extensively researched the event which had escaped the attention of mainstream historians said the battle that took place on december 10 1790 near tirurangadi marked the end of tipus reign and it was also the first successful implementation of the british colonisation strategy the war turned the scales in favour of the british who were after the resources and ports of malabar it also had immense implications on trade in the region he said dr noone said that it was a chance discovery of a letter written by the then governorgeneral of india lord cornwallis to colonel hartley who led the battle of calicut stating that the victory had provided great and important advantages that aroused his curiosity he said that the battle also marked the end of calicut as a long standing trading post in the region inaugurating the event iimk director debashis chatterjee said that lecture series was instituted to mark the successful completion of the first phase of the indian business museum project iimk can take pride in having the firstever museum on indian business history with the theme connecting the past to the future the objective is to lend a connecting thread to the contemporary business managers on indias rich business traditions he added eminent historian m g s narayanan presided over the function convener of indian business museum mg sreekumar and iimk faculty anupam das faculty iimk spoke at the function