Sir Thomas Munro, 1st Baronet
- This article is about the general and colonial governor. For the solicitor and clerk to Lanarkshire County Council, see Thomas Munro (solicitor). For the American philosopher of art, see Thomas Munro (art historian).
Thomas Munro, 1st baronet | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Governor of Madras | |
| In office September 16, 1814 – July 10, 1827 | |
| Preceded by | John Abercomby (acting) |
| Succeeded by | Henry Sullivan Graeme (acting) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | July 25, 1761 Glasgow, Scotland |
| Died | July 6, 1827 (aged 65) Ceded Districts, India |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland |
Major-General Sir Thomas Munro, 1st Baronet KCB (27 May 1761 – 6 July 1827) was a Scottish soldier and colonial administrator. He was an East India Company Army officer and statesman.
Lineage
Munro was born in Glasgow to a merchant called Alexander Munro. Thomas' grandfather was a tailor, who prospered by successful investments in American tobacco. After working as a bank clerk, Alexander Munro joined the family's prosperous tobacco business, but was ruined by the collapse of the tobacco trade during the American Revolutionary War.[1] Thomas was also a direct descendant of George Munro, 10th Baron of Foulis (d.1452), chief of the Highland Clan Munro.[2]
Education and sport
Thomas was educated at the University of Glasgow. While at school, Thomas was distinguished for a singular openness of temper, a mild and generous disposition, with great personal courage and presence of mind. Being naturally of a robust frame of body, he surpassed all his school-fellows in athletic exercises, and was particularly eminent as a boxer. He was at first intended to enter his father's business, but in 1789 was appointed to an infantry cadetship in Madras.[3]
Military career
He served with his regiment during the hard-fought war against Haidar Ali (1780–1783), serving under his distant relation Major Sir Hector Munro, 8th of Novar.[4] Thomas served again with his regiment in the first campaign against Tipu Sultan (1790–1792). He was then chosen as one of four military officers to administer the Baramahal, part of the territory acquired from Tipu, where he remained for seven years learning the principles of revenue survey and assessment which he afterwards applied throughout the presidency of Madras.
After the final downfall of Tipu in 1799, he spent a short time restoring order in Kanara; and then for another seven years (1800–1807) he was placed in charge of the northern districts ceded by the Nizam of Hyderabad, where he introduced the ryotwari system of land revenue.
After a long furlough in the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, during which he gave valuable evidence upon matters connected with the renewal of the British East India Company's charter, he returned to Madras in 1814 with special instructions to reform the judicial and police systems.
On the outbreak of the Pindari War in 1817, he was appointed as brigadier-general to command the reserve division formed to reduce the southern territories of the Peshwa. Of his services on this occasion Canning said in the House of Commons:
He went into the field with not more than five or six hundred men, of whom a very small proportion were Europeans .... Nine forts were surrendered to him or taken by assault on his way; and at the end of a silent and scarcely observed progress he emerged... leaving everything secure and tranquil behind him.
Governor of Madras
In 1820, he was appointed governor of Madras, where he founded systems of revenue assessment and general administration which substantially persisted into the twentieth century. He is regarded as the father of the `Ryotwari system'. His official minutes, published by Sir A. Arbuthnot, form a manual of experience and advice for the modern civilian. Munro was created a Baronet, of Lindertis in the County of Forfar, in 1825. He died of cholera while on tour in the ceded districts, where his name is preserved by more than one memorial. An equestrian statue of him, by Francis Legatt Chantrey, stands in Madras city.
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams still hold a huge cauldron gifted by him called Munro Gangalam, in which food for the Lord Venkateswara is prepared, even though Lord Munro never visited the temple.
Incidence in Mantralaya (Andhra Pradesh)
Mantralaya village in Andhra Pradesh is a place where `Samadhi' of famous `Dvaita' saint `Raghavendra Swami' is located.
When Sir Thomas Munroe was the Collector of Bellary in 1800, the Madras Government ordered him to procure the entire income from the Math and Manthralaya village. When the Revenue officials were unable to comply with this order, Sir Thomas Munroe visited the Math for investigation. It appeared as if he spoke with someone near the Samadhi and later Munroe cancelled the order and Mantralaya remained exempt from any collections.
This notification was published in the Madras Government Gazette in Chapter XI and page 213, with the caption ``Manchali Adoni Taluka. This order is still preserved in Fort St. George and Manthralayam.[5][6]
Statue
Sculpted by Francis Chanterey, and sitting proud and straight on his horse, in the middle of Chennai's famed Island, is The Stirrupless Majesty.[7] Either due to an oversight, or depicting his affinity for bareback riding, Sir Thomas Munro's statue shows him without saddle and stirrup.[8] It has been recently reported that this statue will be removed.[9]
See also
References
- ^ Martha McLaren, British India & British Scotland, 1780-1830: Career-Building, Empire-Building, and a Scottish School of Thought on Indian Governance, University of Akron Press (2001), pp.15-16. ISBN 1884836739
- ^ Mackenzie, Alexander. "History of the Munros of Fowlis". Published in 1898.
- ^ Major-General Sir Thomas Munro
- ^ Mackenzie, Alexander. "History of the Munros of Fowlis. P. 369. (1898)
- ^ "Manthralayam for that healing touch". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 18 October 2002.
- ^ http://www.gururaghavendra1.org/miracragh.htm
- ^ http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2003/06/04/stories/2003060400180300.htm S. Muthiah, " Relics of Company times", The Hindu, June 4, 2003.
- ^ ChandraChoodan Gopalakrishnan, "The stirrup-less majesty" Chennai Metblogs.com (March 23, 2006)
- ^ "Unsung hero of Madras". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 26 July 2010.
- Burton Stein, Thomas Munro: The Origins of the Colonial State and his Vision of Empire, Oxford University Press (1990) ISBN 0195623312
- Harrington, Jack (2010), Sir John Malcolm and the Creation of British India, Chs. 2 & 5., New York: Palgrave Macmillan., ISBN 978-0-230-10885-1
- Martha McLaren, British India & British Scotland, 1780-1830: Career-Building, Empire-Building, and a Scottish School of Thought on Indian Governance, University of Akron Press (2001) ISBN 1884836739
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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External links
- . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
- http://www.electricscotland.com/history/other/munro_thomas.htm
- Thomas Munro Statue
- 1761 births
- 1827 deaths
- Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom
- People from Glasgow
- British military personnel of the First Anglo-Burmese War
- Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath
- Deaths from cholera
- Clan Munro
- Infectious disease deaths in India
- British East India Company Army generals
- Scottish generals
- Scottish knights
- Scottish civil servants