Sir Thomas Munro, 1st Baronet

Sir Thomas Munro, 1st Baronet KCB (27 May, 1761-6 July, 1827), Scottish soldier and statesman, was born at Glasgow, the son of 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 [ [http://www3.uakron.edu/uapress/pdfs/mclarenweb.pdf 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] ] .

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. [ [http://www.electricscotland.com/history/other/munro_thomas.htm Major-General Sir Thomas Munro ] ]

He served with his regiment during the hard-fought war against Haidar Ali (1780-1783), and again 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 district 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:

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. 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.

tatue

Sculpted by Francis Chanterey, and sitting proud and straight on his horse, in the middle of Chennai's famed Island, is The Stirrupless Majesty [http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2003/06/04/stories/2003060400180300.htm S. Muthiah, " Relics of Company times", "The Hindu," June 4, 2003.] . Either due to an oversight, or depicting his affinity for bareback riding, Sir Thomas Munro's statue shows him without saddle and stirrup. [ [http://chennai.metblogs.com/archives/2006/03/the_stirrupless_majesty.phtml ChandraChoodan Gopalakrishnan, "The stirrup-less majesty" Chennai Metblogs.com (March 23, 2006)] ]

References

* Burton Stein, "Thomas Munro: The Origins of the Colonial State and his Vision of Empire," Oxford University Press (1990) ISBN 0195623312
* 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

*1911

External links

* [http://www.electricscotland.com/history/other/munro_thomas.htm http://www.electricscotland.com/history/other/munro_thomas.htm]
* [http://chennai.metblogs.com/archives/2006/03/the_stirrupless_majesty.phtml Thomas Munro Statue]