Dalhousie, James Andrew Broun Ramsay, marquess

Dalhousie, James Andrew Broun Ramsay, marquess of

Dalhousie, detail of an oil painting by Sir John Watson-Gordon, 1847; in the National Portrait …

(credit: Courtesy of The National Portrait Gallery, London)

(born April 22, 1812, Dalhousie Castle, Midlothian, Scot.—died Dec. 19, 1860, Dalhousie Castle) British governor-general of India (1847–56). He entered Parliament in 1837 and later served as president of the Board of Trade, gaining a reputation for administrative efficiency. As governor-general of India he acquired territory by both peaceful and military means. Though he created the map of modern India through his annexations of independent provinces, his greatest achievement was the molding of these provinces into a modern centralized state. He developed a modern communication and transportation system and instituted social reforms. He left India in 1856, but his controversial policy of annexation was considered a contributing factor to the Indian Mutiny (1857).