Sir Thomas Munro, 1st Baronet
Sir Thomas Munro Governor of Madras | |
|---|---|
| In office 10 June 1820 – 10 July 1827 | |
| Governors‑General | The Marquess of Hastings The Earl Amhurst |
| Preceded by | Sir George Barlow, Bt |
| Succeeded by | Stephen Rumbold Lushington |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 27 May 1761 Major-General |
| Battles/wars | Second Anglo-Mysore War Third Anglo-Mysore War Third Anglo-Maratha War |
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colonial administrator. He served as an East India Company Army officer and statesman, in addition to also being the governor of Madras Presidency
.
Background
Munro was born in Glasgow on 27 May 1761 to the Glaswegian
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.[3] Thomas was also claimed to be a direct descendant of George Munro, 10th Baron of Foulis (died 1452), chief of the Highland Clan Munro,[4]
but clan historian R. W. Munro has contested this claim.
Thomas was educated at the
Madras.[5]
Military career
He served with his regiment during the hard-fought war against
Hyderabad, where he introduced the ryotwari system of land revenue. After a long furlough in Britain, during which he gave valuable evidence upon matters connected with the renewal of the East India Company's charter, he returned to Madras in 1814 with special instructions to reform the judicial and police systems.[5]
On the outbreak of 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.[5]
In 1819 Munro was appointed a
Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB).[8]
Governor of Madras
In 1820, he was appointed
Francis Legatt Chantrey, stands in Madras city.[5]At his behest a Committee of public instruction was formed in 1826, which eventually led to the formation of Presidency College.[10]
Incidents at Mantralayam and Gandi (Andhra Pradesh)
The village of
Bellary in 1800, the Madras Government ordered him to procure the annual tax from the Math and Manthralaya village.[11][12] When the Revenue officials were unable to comply with this order, Sir Thomas Munro visited the Math for investigation. He removed his hat and shoes and entered the sacred precincts. Sri Raghavendraswamy emerged from the Vrindavan and conversed with him for some time, about the resumption of endowment. The Saint was visible and audible only to Munro, who received Mantraskata (God's blessing).[13] The Collector went back and wrote an order in favour of the Math and the village. This notification was published in the Madras Government Gazette in Chapter XI, page 213, with the caption "Manchali Adoni Taluka". This order is still preserved in Fort St. George and Mantralayam.[14][15][16]
Statue
Sculpted by
Francis Chantrey, and sitting proud and straight on his horse, in the middle of Chennai's famed Island, is The Stirrupless Majesty.[17] Either due to an oversight, or depicting his affinity for bareback riding, Sir Thomas Munro's statue shows him without saddle and stirrup.[18]
See also
- Munro Baronets
Notes
- ^ Bradshaw, John (1893). Sir Thomas Munro and the British settlement of the Madras Presidency. London: Oxford University Press. pp. 210–212.
- ^ MacLeod, Norman (1871). Peeps at the Far East: A Familiar Account of a Visit to India. London: Strahan & Co. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
- ^ McLaren 2001, pp. 15–16.
- ^ Mackenzie 1898, pp. 359 – , 376 and p. 342.
- ^ a b c d Chisholm 1911.
- ^ Mackenzie 1898, p. 369.
- ^ Mackenzie 1898, pp. 427–430.
- ^ "No. 17540". The London Gazette. 30 November 1819. p. 2146.
- ^ "No. 18151". The London Gazette. 2 July 1825. p. 1155.
- ^ "Presidency College: The Origin and Growth". Archived from the original on 1 May 2013. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
- ^ H. K. Vedavyasacharya (1990). Jagadguru Sri Raghavendra Swamy. Sri Parimala Research and Publishing House. p. 92.
- ^ March of Karnataka, Volume 20. Director of Information and Publicity, Government of Karnataka. 1982. p. 17.
- ISBN 9781848509559. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
- ^ The Hindu staff 2002.
- ^ "Miracles performed by Guru Raghavendra". Retrieved 19 March 2010.
- ISBN 9788122406283. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
- ^ Muthiah 2003.
- ^ Gopalakrishnan 2006.
References
- Gopalakrishnan, ChandraChoodan (23 March 2006), The stirrup-less majesty, Chennai Metblogs.com, retrieved 10 December 2006
- Mackenzie, Alexander (1898), History of the Munros of Fowlis, pp. 369, 427–430[full citation needed]
- McLaren, Martha (2001), British India & British Scotland, 1780–1830: Career Building, Empire Building, and a Scottish School of Thought on Indian Governance (PDF), University of Akron Press, ISBN 978-1-884836-73-2, archived from the original(PDF) on 15 May 2008
- Muthiah, S. (4 June 2003), "Relics of Company times", The Hindu, archived from the original on 9 May 2004, retrieved 11 April 2007
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - The Hindu staff (18 October 2002), "Manthralayam for that healing touch", The Hindu, Chennai, India, archived from the original on 30 June 2003, retrieved 19 March 2010
- The Hindu staff (26 July 2010), "Unsung hero of Madras", The Hindu, Chennai, India, retrieved 28 July 2010
Attribution:
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Munro, Thomas". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 11.
Further reading
- "Munro, Sir Thomas". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/19549. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Arbuthnot, Alexander John (1894). . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 39. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 309–313.
- Harrington, Jack (2010), Sir John Malcolm and the Creation of British India, Chs. 2 & 5., New York: ISBN 978-0-230-10885-1
- Stein, Burton (1990), Thomas Munro: The Origins of the Colonial State and his Vision of Empire, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-562331-2
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