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The American College Madurai is a Christian College with some difference. It is no doubt Christian in its out look and its practices but not parochial as some people may want it to be. Here are a few examples from the history to substantiate what I mean. The land on which The American College campus now stands was procured for the College by Prof. N. Ramaswany Iyer one of the Professors of the College when Rev. Zumbro was the Principal. The land records of the College will throw light on this. In recognition of that, I was told, that Prof. N. Ramaswamy Iyer was made a life time member of the Governing Council of the College!
Prof. Ramaswamy Iyer was the Professor of Chemistry to begin with. It seems he fell ill (as a heart patient) and was advised not to climb the stairs of James Hall. To help him continue in the College till his retirement, Prof. Edger M. Flint the then Professor of Physics decided to be the Professor of Chemistry while Prof. Ramaswamy Iyer was made the Professor of Physics! Thus he retired as the Professor of Physics. Prof. Edger M. Flint died in the year 1951 as Professor of Chemistry, the year I joined the College as a student. Dr. A. R. Venkitaraman joined the Chemistry Department that year probably in that vacancy.
In that year (1951) when I joined the college as a student the following were the heads of departments: English (Prof. K E Ninen), Tamil (Prof. P Jothimuthu), Zoology (Prof. K. J. Joseph), Economics (Prof C. I. Philip) and Logic (Prof. D. G. Paul) Prof. T. Natarajan (Mathematics), Prof. N. R. Krishnamurthy Iyer (Physics), Prof. P. S. Lakshminarayanan (Chemistry), Prof. C. R. Narayanan (Botany), Prof. S. Sundararajan (History), Prof. Vanchinathan (Hindi), Prof. Mallikarjunan (Commerce). It should also be noted that Prof. Karmega Konar was the Head of the Tamil department till 1950 while in 1952 Prof. V. Subramaniam became the Head of the English Department! They were just learned professors without any religious boundaries or stigma.
I wonder how many in the College to day knows that the College worked only for half a day (after-noon only) on all new-moon days to enable the Hindus to carry out the observances of the “Ammavasai”! A look into the old College Calendar in our library will confirm this. That was the spirit of accomodation of our college.
I am proud to say that I was able to serve the College as the head of a Department for a full 20 years (1974 to 88 UG Physics and 88-94 PG Physics). I would say it is a record yet to be broken by any Head of the Department of the College. I enjoyed all the rights and privileges of a Head of a Department for two decades!
Principal Chinnaraj has been accused by some for not being Christian in his administration of the College. If it is really so, I would say it is good. That is what it has always been. There is need to preserve the secular nature of the College. I hope the large number of students Hindus, Muslims or Christians will join hands in maintaining the secular credentials of the College. That will be the greatest tribute to the founders of the College half way across the globe.
I think very soon the College should create an elective course to teach the history of the American Board of Commissionaires of Foreign Missions (ABCFM) the founders of the College and the life and work of the early, if not all, missionaries. The sacrifices some of them had to make to create the College is something the present generation is not aware of. There is enough material available in the College library. If only our present history Professor Dr. George Slevakumar would go over some of those details he will probably leave the wrong side in which he is held at present.
May I appeal to all the old students to join hands with Chinnaraj. If every old student of the college would contribute even a very small amount like Rs 100 or so we will have a few crores of Rupees to fight and get justice.
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