Vikram Sampath on Sir Thomas Munro, 1st Baronet

“In a private letter, Sir Thomas Munro, who was an official in Madras then, wrote: ‘A second attack [by Tipu] is daily expected; and if the king [of Travancore] is left alone, all his exertions against a power so superior can delay but for a short time his ruin. The English battalions were behind the Lines, but not at the place attacked; and it is said that they have orders not to act, even on the defensive . . . the barrier once forced, orders for them to act will arrive too late. All their efforts will then avail but little against the numbers of their enemies, and will only serve to draw a heavier vengeance on themselves and the unfortunate Rajah.’”

“The dissensions and revolutions of the native governments will point out the time when it is proper for us to become actors. It can never arrive while Tippoo exists; while his power remains unimpaired, we shall be perpetually in danger of losing what we have. Why then not remove, while we can, so formidable an enemy? But his system, if not broken, may in time be communicated to the successors of the Nizam, or other Moorish [Muslim] people who may hereafter appear in the Deccan. If once destroyed, there is little danger of its being re-established; it would require what may not appear in many ages—another Hyder; and even he would be unequal to the task . . . let us then, while we can, make the most of the superior stability of our own government; and if we are not, for inconceivable reasons of state, to extirpate Tippoo, let us at least humble him, by depriving him of the Malabar coast. When cut off from all intercourse with Europeans, his political and military systems may linger on during his reign, but will soon expire under a successor.”

“Everything now is done by moderation and conciliation—at this rate, we shall be all quakers in twenty years more . . . if peace is so desirable an object, it would be wiser to have retained the power of preserving it in our hands, than to have left it to the caprice of Tippoo, who, though he has lost half his revenue, has by no means lost half his power. He requires no combination, like us, of an able military governor, peace in Europe, and allies in the country, to enable him to prosecute war successfully. He only wants to attack them singly, when he will be more than a match for any of them . . . when we have a General of less ability than Lord Cornwallis at the head of Government, Tippoo may safely try, by the means of Gooty, Chitteldroog and Biddanor, to recover the conquests of the Mahrattas and the Nizam. If Lord Cornwallis himself could not have reduced Tippoo without the assistance of the Mahrattas,—for there is no doubt that without them he could never, after falling back from Seringapatam in May, have advanced again beyond Bangalore.”