Welcome to Munroe Island, the Paradise in God's Own Country, Kerala, India. An Island of eighty Tiny Islands surrounded by Ashtamudi Lake and Kallada River. A place where you will find Nature in its complete serenity, and you may love to be in your own deep from mind to body.
Spread over 13 Kilometers in total divided by the rivulets and lakes the breeze at Munroe Island carries with it the warmth of the sun and the coolness of the lake. The days are vibrant with glorious sunshine and the frenzied crescendo of the waves, and nights balmy with subtle rhythm of tiny waves meeting the banks.
History
In 1795 the British established their supremacy in South India and Kerala came under their governance. From 1800 onwards, in order to maintain British supremacy in Kerala, a Resident was appointed by the British administrative head.
The first Resident was Colonel Collin Macaulay followed by Colonel John Munro . During Munro's time, a senior priest of the Malankara Sabha, Pulikkotil Joseph Kathanar expressed his desire to establish seminary for training priests and a place to settle the newly conveted Christians. The piece of land thus provided by the Mercy of Colonel Munro was named after him by the locals and is still known as Munro Thuruth( Munro Island).
Colonel John Munro (1770-1858)
John Munro enlisted in the British army in 1791. He fought in Sri Rangapattanam, under Arthur Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington). He was a linguist and was a Persian translator. By 1806, he became the Quarter Master General of the Madras army with the rank of Lieutenant Col. He was considered by the board of directors to possess a “luminous view” and at Lord Minto’s suggestion, he replaced Col. Macauley as Resident of Travancore and Cochin. He was ruthless to root out corruption and crime, but was just and forgiving. He introduced several basic reforms, increased revenues, and paid off debts in record time. Though he was a British Resident, as a Diwan (minister) of Travancore and Cochin, time and again he argued against the British on behalf of the states. In due course, he was loved by the Rajas and Ranees as well as by the people. He had already chalked out a plan for a new beginning for these states.
When John Munro’s term as resident ended in 1818, the Rajah of Cochin wrote to the British East India directors, “Since Col. John Munro was appointed resident in my country in the year 1811, that gentleman, has by his indefatigable exertions and vigilance, rescued me from an ocean of debt in which I was unfortunately involved by the corrupt and treacherous conduct of my ministers, enabled myself, my family and my subjects now to live happy and unconcerned, with favorable circumstance I cannot in justice avoid bringing to the notice of your Lordship in council.”
The British administrator directly responsible was known as Resident. From 1800 to 1810, Col. Macaulay was the Resident. This was a tumultuous period. Aftermath of a failed rebellion, new treaties, belligerent ministers and weak rajahs combined with a tactless, unpopular Resident, had sunk the country into a dismal abyss. This was the context when Col. Munro, 33, took charge as the Resident. In 1808 he had married Charlotte Blacker.
History has recorded that Col. John Munro was the greatest British administrator of Travancore and Cochin in 150 years of British domination.
John Munro went back to his birth place in Teaninich, Ross-shire in Scotland and lived there until he died in 1858.
