"If you look back at the history of our institution, there was no room for mediocrity..."

Founders’ Day Celebrations [for Students]

3rd April 2023 | A Report

The Founders’ Day Celebrations got off to a grand start at 9 am today, to a packed capacity in the Anderson Hall, MCC. 

The programme was envisioned by our beloved Principal Dr. P. Wilson, as an occasion that would focus primarily on involving current students of the College, to help them get to know more about the life, the legacy, the history and the heritage of our great Institution.

The Programme began with the recital of the College Prayer in unison, by the four winners of the College Prayer Recital Competition. The winners were given Cheques of Rs.5,000/- each by our beloved Principal Dr. P. Wilson.

This was followed by a mesmerizing rendition of the College Prayer Song by our students – both past and present. Interestingly, this soulful number was set to tune by Mr. A. J. Mithra, and the lyrics were penned by Dr. Paul Prabhu, and performed [coordinated by our Principal] during the Quartoseptcentennial Celebrations of our College.

The Principal of Madras Christian College, Dr. P. Wilson welcoming the audience, remarked -

This is an occasion I’ve been waiting for a long time – that our students should be imparted with the real history and the real legacy of this institution. 

The college believes in autonomy for the students, but over a period of time we found out that, if the autonomy is not guided and groomed properly, it evolves on its own, and we lose the real essence of our rich legacy.

I had an occasion in my office, where I met up with two boys and two girls from the Research Department of English, who interviewed me for more than 2 ½ hours.  Over the process, we found out that the content of our interactions could be disseminated in the form of a Panel Discussion during the celebration of Founders’ Day. So from here, the idea of celebrating Founders’ Day with students emerged.

Every year we have the Founders’ Day thanksgiving Service which is confined only to  faculty members, and students were not a part of it. Keeping this in mind, we thought of creating one more vertical for our students, to help them get to know the Founders better, Founders who created the base for us to enjoy the benefits of a liberal higher education.

I thank Dr. Joshua for having accepted to moderate this Panel Discussion. Coming to the song that our students performed – this song was performed during the 175th year celebrations of our College. That time, I was given the responsibility of taking care of the Cultural Events. Dr. Paul Prabhu and myself, we sat together in the Pavilion, and we had to write the lyrics, and it was very difficult to translate the College Prayer since we had to take care not to distort its meaning.

So we had multiple sessions, to draft the lyrics for the song. We also had a music teacher in Campus – Mr. A. J. Mithra, who gave us the tune for this song. So we like to remember Mr. A. J. Mithra for his contribution, and we are planning to translate into English and in Malayalam. So the three translations will be released on a memorable occasion.

We would also like to encourage all of you who are musically inclined to be a part of this project. We would also like to produce a video of this performance and place this on the College website.

The vision of the college can never be changed, but the mission can be appropriated. The visions of our founders are embedded in the College Prayer. I hope you understand the whole design of this event. This event needs to be conducted by the students and for the students.

The seniors need to groom their juniors on the life and legacy of Madras Christian College. Being the first event, we had to make a lot of efforts for this event. But hereafter, it should be owned by the students, and if possible, the CUS should come forward and own this event, our Principal said.

Then followed the Release of the College Magazine - [touted as a heritage & history special issue] – by our Principal and the first copy of the Magazine was received by Dr. Johanna Johnsi Rani.

Then came up the exciting Panel Discussion, moderated by Dr. Joshua Kalapatti, [Former Professor of Philosophy, MCC], and author of the famous ‘Life and Legacy of MCC’ book.

The panelists were Ganesh Aadhitya, Joanna Obed and Souparno Bhattacharya, with guidance from Malar.

Dr. Joshua Kalapatti, Moderator of the Panel Discussion, in his opening remarks observed - 

Founders' Day is a day of remembrance, reflection and celebration as well. We the past students and faculty members, we consider Madras Christian College as a sacred space, a sacred ground, because every space in Campus, history is writ large. You find history in every nook and corner in Campus.

Take for example, this Hall – it’s named after Rev. John Anderson, our Founder. All of you walk past the statue of Miller. This statue was unveiled on 30th January 1937 – the very first day of Campus life here. It was unveiled by the Governor Lord Erskine, and that has a rich history. It was donated by a few of Miller’s students.

If you look opposite to Miller’s statue, you will find the sundial. How many of you know the story behind the sundial?

You need to know about the history of your College. Not only about the buildings, but also about the faculty members who have gone before us, who have inculcated a system of values, which are to be understood, propagated and appropriated as well.

I tell you, this is the biggest celebration of Founders’ Day in the last fifteen years or so. We have been observing Founders’ Day right from the time of Dr. V. J. Philip, and this is the first time that students are also involved in the Founders’ Day Celebrations.

Let this be a session of learning – where you learn more about the history, our culture, our values – what makes Madras Christian College a unique institution!

Ganesh Aadhitya spoke first on the panel, on the topic, ‘Academic Rigour as Culture’.

Ganesh presented his points in a very structured and balanced way, based on what he’s seen, gathered and experienced in the past five years as a student of MCC. Excerpts from his talk –

I will be focusing on academic excellence. If you look back at the history of our institution, there was no room for mediocrity, right from Dr. Miller’s time – when he upgraded the General Assembly School to College.

Academic Rigour according to me, is the culture of celebrating and respecting knowledge. One specific instance that I’ve chosen is the history of Tamil Nadu. All intellectual movements, in the Tamil intellectual front, back then, had had their origin here in MCC.

From 1920s to 1950s, dedicated scholars came up with works in Tamil that transformed the way Tamil society thought.

For example, we had the pure Tamil movement, and it was spearheaded by the great Parithimar Kalaignar and Maraimalai Adigalar, who were from the Department of Tamil. Next you have Madhavaiyya, a pioneer of Tamil novels, and many other scholars such as Rajam Iyer, and Krupabai Satthianadhan – the first woman novelist – whose works had also come out in the College Magazine.

S Vaiyapuri Pillai, one of the first lexicographers, and then the feminist Ambai, who sowed the seeds for feminism in Tamil Nadu even forty years ago.

In the case of science, we have an article in this year’s College Magazine, where we have Dr. Lakshminarayanan talking about the role of MCC Physicists in the making of Modern India.

The exceptional quality of our College Magazines is another phenomenal quality about the richness of our past. Our eternally curious professors, they literally wrote almost on anything. There was even an article on Artificial Intelligence back then in 1978, even!

Dr. William Miller, who has written the first Editorial of the College Magazine, writes,

To awaken thought among the class upon whom the future must depend, is the first object at which the Magazine will aim!

And true to his words, the high academic standards, and the diversity of materials published, can be seen in the past issues – the quality of the Magazines – when I visited the Archives.

Some of the old articles, they ran even for 20 pages. Each Hall had a magazine. The College Union Society too had a magazine called, Wood Chips, which was testament to the academic rigour.

That spirit of free thinking – through discussion and dialogue – that has been in the DNA of MCC – we should continue that.

Coming to my experience, on the encouragement of my professors, I presented a paper at an International Conference, where I presented a paper on Chicken Biryani and lemon rice, with regard to a Marxist concept on False Consciousness.

The response that I received from my audience – made me delighted that to know that my ideas resonated among the audience. That is how I guess, it must have felt for the MCC-ians who influenced society that way.

A mini-scale demonstration of what our MCC-ians did on a large scale.

The ancient Greeks believed that, the pleasure of learning is the most sublime of pleasures, but today, many trivialities are foregrounded. That vibrant academic atmosphere, although it is palpable, is overshadowed by the exceptional number of trivial events that are happening.

There should be a balance effected here, evaluating the purposefulness of every event.

All cultural activities should exist in continuity with academic endeavours, and not in opposition.

In my experience in Campus here, - a life-giving campus – that serene and relaxed atmosphere of our Campus – when it is combined with the ethos of our College which is self-governance, where the College grants freedom to each member of the Campus community – when these two are combined, it produces unique individuals with very strong character – a strength of character that I myself have experienced.

Souparno spoke next.

He started off with a brilliant quote. Said he –

A month ago, I was reading from a book titled, Emancipated From Mental Slavery by Marcus Garvey, where I came across a quote – “A people without knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots”.

At that point, I had a question. As MCC-ians, are we aware of the true culture of our College. And what exactly is the MCC Culture?

I was privileged enough to read through Dr. Kalapatti’s book on the Life and Legacy of MCC. Our prestigious archives gave me a better idea on our culture as well.

I would like to introduce you to the terms, culture, subculture and counterculture that are there in our Campus.

Joanna Obed spoke next, on the concepts of Innovation and Research in Campus.

She suggested that, courses on Value Education, Personality Development etc can incorporate the values of our Founders, their driving principles that steered them to fulfilling their vision.

Dr. Joshua gave a fitting summing up the Panel Discussion, which was followed by a five minute documentary on the Founders of MCC, edited by Dr. Selvaraj.

Then, the cream of the session, a scene from the “Life of John Anderson” - From the play “Kadaikaalgal” written by Bharathi Prabhu, and directed by Ranjith, III BA English was staged to a thunderous applause from the audience.

Dr. Paul Prabhu and Mr. Bharathi Prabhu gave glimpses into the first staging of the play in Campus, over two decades ago. Mr. Bharathi Prabhu, the writer of the original script said that, 

Madras Christian College is not another College that gives you a degree and thereby helps you ‘survive’ anywhere in this world.

Rather, this is a hallowed ground that produces human beings who are filled with the spirit of humanity. The knowledge of all our Professors was really astounding. They used to give us amazing compares and connects – like connecting Thiruvalluvar with Shakespeare etc. Dr. Ganesh who taught us English, opened up vistas that would help us think for ourselves, he said.

Dr. Huldah Samuel did an amazing MC-ing, and Dr. Samuel Rufus gave the Vote of Thanks, followed by the Closing Prayer offered by Dr. Jannet and the Benediction by Rev. Ross.