For who was McLeod Ganj named?

[Revenant Threshold]

I was just reading something about the Dalai Lama, and it notes he lives in a part of Dharamsala called McLeod Ganj. Something about the name suggests to me it just might not be named after a native Indian (or Tibetan) - so who was this McLeod?

[Baron Greenback]

There's also a Forsyth Ganj. The only references I can find quickly on-line are fragments of proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society which seem to indicate that a General McLeod was Director-General of a surveying mission to the area, and a Forsythe was one of the surveyers. The relevant documents are on the JSTOR website, but it's subscription only. Your library will have an account.

[Baron Greenback]

Oh, the document is:

Rennell and the Surveyors of India: Discussion
Gilbert Laithwaite, R. C. A. Edge, Waris Ameer Ali
Geographical Journal, Vol. 134, No. 3 (Sep., 1968), pp. 325-327
doi:10.2307/1792960


and it's Forsythe.

[Revenant Threshold]

Actually, I have an account, since my university gives us all passes through Athens. I'll have a dig round.

[Acsenray]

And there's a Cox's Bazaar in West Bengal. I always wondered who that was.

[Baron Greenback]

Originally Posted by acsenray

And there's a Cox's Bazaar in West Bengal. I always wondered who that was.

This one's got a Wiki entry! A Lieutenant Cox, British Army, who died in 1798.

[Dervorin]

McLeod Ganj is named after David McLeod, Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab, and Forsyth Gunj, named after a divisional commissioner.

http://www.tibet.com/dasaguide.html

This site has this to say about McLeod:

A former Governor-General of Canada, he loved the forests of Dharamsala so much that before dying here in 1863, he asked to be buried in the graveyard of St. John's Church in the Wilderness.