JyothikaSahoo at 20:41, 20 August 2023

2023-08-20T20:41:02Z

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[[Mgr.]] '''John Palocaren''' (1886–1948) was the founding principal of [[St. Thomas College, Thrissur]]. Palocaren was born on 8 September 1886 in the [[Nadathara]] Palocaren family, an ancient [[Syrian Malabar Nasrani|Syrian Christian]] family of [[Kerala]] State, [[India]].<ref name=citybefore/>
He was ordained as a minister in 1915, served at the St Thomas High School in Thrissur for three years, and was appointed the principal of [[St. Thomas College, Thrissur|St Thomas College]] when it was founded in April 1919.<ref name=citybefore/> Soon after, he obtained MA in English Literature with distinction from the [[University of Edinburgh]].<ref name=citybefore/> In 1924 he returned as principal of St Thomas College, a status he retained until 1948. In 1937, he was awarded the status of Monsignor ([[Honorary Prelate|Domestic Prelate]]).<ref name=citybefore/> Palocaren died on 19 August 1948.<ref name=stanalecta>[http://stthomas.ac.in/analecta.htm Analecta (of Saint Thomas College, Trissur)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110907052727/http://www.stthomas.ac.in/analecta.htm |date= 7 September 2011 }}, timeline (accessed 19 September 2011)</ref> The 125th anniversary of his birth was celebrated at the college on 8 September 2011.<ref name="citybefore">[http://www.cityjournal.in/Newspaper/20110908/Metro/Metro_7.html St Thomas College remembers Palocaren, its first principal], ''[[City Journal (Thrissur)|City Journal]]'', Thursday 8 September (accessed 19 September 2011)</ref><ref
name=bdaybefore2011>[http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2434748.ece Palocaren Remembrance], ''[[The Hindu]]'', Thursday 8 September 2011 (accessed 19 September 2011</ref><ref
name=bday2011after>[http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2438354.ece ‘John Palocaren was a visionary educationist'], ''[[The Hindu]]'', Friday 9 September 2011 (accessed 19 September 2011)</ref><ref name="cityafterj">[http://www.cityjournal.in/Newspaper/20110909/Metro/Metro_7.html Birth anniversary of Monsieur John Palocaren celebrated], ''[[City Journal (Thrissur)|City Journal]]'', Friday 9 September 2011 (accessed 19 September 2011)</ref>

Among Palocaren's former students are internationally respected spiritual teacher [[Eknath Easwaran]],<ref name=easwaran1996>"The headmaster of my college was Father John Palakaran [sic], a Catholic priest from a distinguished Kerala Christian family who had taken his degrees at Edinburgh University", quotation from page 6 of {{cite book
|title=Seeing with the eyes of love: Eknath Easwaran on the imitation of Christ
|last=Easwaran |first=Eknath |authorlink=Eknath Easwaran |year=1996
|publisher=Nilgiri Press |location=Tomales, CA, USA |isbn=0-915132-87-7
|url= https://archive.org/details/seeingwitheyesof0000easw
|url-access=registration
|page=[https://archive.org/details/seeingwitheyesof0000easw/page/8 8]
|quote=easwaran father john palakaran.}}</ref> former Kerala Chief Minister [[EMS Namboodiripad|E.M.S. Namboodiripad]], former [[George Alapatt|Bishop George Alappatt]], and former [[Kerala High Court#Past Chief Justices|Chief Justice]] M.S. Menon.<ref name=bdaybefore2011/>

Palocaren was an editor of ''Keralam''.<ref name=stchist>[http://stthomas.ac.in/history.pdf "Facets of History" (St. Thomas College Manual, 2011–2012, pp. 12–29)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120329190647/http://stthomas.ac.in/history.pdf |date=29 March 2012 }} ([http://stthomas.ac.in/history.htm ALTERNATE LINK TO TEXT] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110907044749/http://www.stthomas.ac.in/history.htm |date= 7 September 2011 }} (accessed 19 September 2011). Page 16 states that the journal ''Keralam'', though it "did not survive long, it did attain reputation among scholars, men of letters and the reading public of the time for the standards it set for itself and the contributions that it made to the spread of ideas and values that were so essential for the growth of a democratized society and secular culture in this part of India."</ref>

Historian [[George Menachery]] stated that Palocaren played a key role in the construction of the [[Basilica of Our Lady of Dolours]], the largest church in India and the tallest in Asia.<ref name=bday2011after/>

==Recollections==
[[Eknath Easwaran]] (1910–1999), whose writings on the spiritual life have been translated into more than 20 languages,<ref name=PUBPAGEforeign>[http://www.easwaran.org/non-us-editions-of-nilgiri-press-books-by-language.html Non-US editions of Nilgiri Press Books, by Language] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130414201234/http://www.easwaran.org/non-us-editions-of-nilgiri-press-books-by-language.html |date=14 April 2013 }}, accessed 21 Sep 2011.</ref> recalled that Palocaren "taught only one class, Shakespeare. I sat right in front, my eyes riveted, not missing a word... Father John was a true Christian. He taught me more about Christianity than all the books I have read.<ref name=making>{{cite book |title=[[The Making of a Teacher|The making of a teacher: Conversations with Eknath Easwaran]]
|last=Flinders |first=Tim |author2=Carol Flinders |authorlink2=Carol Lee Flinders |year=1989
|publisher=Nilgiri Press |location=Petaluma, CA, USA |isbn=978-0-915132-54-6
}}</ref>{{rp|111}} Easwaran stated that:
<blockquote>
During the four years I spent at college, without calling attention to what he was doing, Father John managed to work a great transformation in me. He helped me find confidence, but detachment as well. I was so grateful that I kept a picture of him in my room.<ref name=easwaranswel>{{cite book
|title=Seeing with the eyes of love: Eknath Easwaran on the Imitation of Christ
|last=Easwaran |first=Eknath |authorlink=Eknath Easwaran |year=1996
|publisher=Nilgiri Press |location=Tomales, CA, USA |isbn=0-915132-88-5
|url=https://archive.org/details/seeingwitheyesof0000easw|url-access=registration
}}</ref>{{rp|11}}
</blockquote>
Raised a Hindu, [[Eknath Easwaran|Easwaran]] stated that "it wasn't a creed or religion I was drawn to, but the sheer nobility of the man himself. I never considered converting, and nothing in my relationship to Father John ever made me think he expected me to ... [it was] through the lives of individuals like Father John that the message of Christ first reached me."<ref name=easwaranswel/>{{rp|11}}

M. A. Thomas, founder of the [[Ecumenical Christian Centre]] ([[Bangalore]]), recalled organizing an inter-religious conference for students in 1936. Father Palocaren "encouraged students to participate in the conference even though he had some misapprehension about the prospects of an Inter-religious conference. He told me that though it was not pure milk, some milk with water would be good for the students."<ref name=thomasrec>M. A. Thomas (1977), "Keithahn, the Amos of Our Time" (pp. 17–24) in {{cite book |title=Integrated rural development: Rev. Dr. R. R. Keithahn felicitation volume
|last=Keithahn |first=Ralph Richard |author2=K. Arunachalam |author3=K.M. Natarajan |year=1977
|publisher=Koodal Publishers for the R. R. Keithahn Felicitation Committee
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_9sEAAAAMAAJ}}</ref>{{rp|19}}

[[EMS Namboodiripad|E.M.S. Namboodiripad]] (1909–1998), former [[Chief Minister of Kerala|Kerala Chief Minister]],<ref name=tornquist91>Namboodiripad was the first chief minister of the world's first freely elected communist government. See {{cite journal |author=Olle Törnquist |year=1991 |title=Communists and democracy: Two Indian cases and one debate |journal=Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars |publisher=Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=63–76 |issn=0007-4810 |url=http://criticalasianstudies.org/assets/files/bcas/v23n02.pdf |doi=10.1080/14672715.1991.10413152|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811034858/http://criticalasianstudies.org/assets/files/bcas/v23n02.pdf |archive-date=11 August 2011 |url-status=dead }}. Page 63 states: "The first democratically elected communist-led government in the world actually came to power in 1957 in the southwest-Indian state of [[Kerala]]. Two years later this government was undemocratically toppled-by the union government and the Congress-I party with Indira Gandhi in the forefront. But the communists were reelected and led several of the following state governments." Page 65 describes [[EMS Namboodiripad|E.M.S. Namboodiripad]] as "the fIrst and second communist chief minister" of Kerala.</ref> recalled that during his student days at St. Thomas College,
<blockquote>
There were many teachers who had endeared themselves to us ... One among them deserving special mention was Principal Fr. Poulokaran [sic]. His subject was English. But in those days when English was compulsorily the medium of teaching even in high school classes, Fr. Poulokaran taught English with the help of [[Malayalam]] so as to make the students understand and enjoy the beauty of the English language.<ref name=namb76>{{cite book |title=How I became a communist
|last=Namboodiripad |first=E.M.S. |authorlink=EMS Namboodiripad |year=1976 |others=P. K. Nair (trans.)
|publisher=Chinta |location=Trivandrum
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iCcFAAAAMAAJ}}</ref>{{rp|88}}
</blockquote>

Similarly, another former Kerala Chief Minister, [[C. Achutha Menon]] (1913–1991), recalled that "When Fr John Palocaren began his speech in Malayalam, all of us in the audience were surprised – since he was considered a brilliant scholar in English. He spoke such chaste Malayalam, fluent enough to engage us all."<ref name=citybefore/>

==Selected works==
*{{cite book
|title=The Syriac Mass
|last=Palocaren
|first=John (trans.)
|year=1917
|publisher=St Joseph's Industrial School Press
|location=Trichinopoly, Tamil Nadu, India
|oclc=752448888
}} {{OCLC|315980812}}
*Palocaren, John (1925). The College and its Founders. ''The St. Thomas College Magazine'', Vol. I, nos. 1 & 2 (June–September), pp. 4–11.<ref>Cited by N. J. Francis (2008), [http://www.indianchristianity.com/html/pdf/sapthati-book.pdf Interrogating the Received Notions: Prof. George Menacherry and the History of the St. Thomas’ College, Trichur] in A. M. Francis & Louis Manjaly (eds.), ''EZHUPATHU VASANTHANGAL: Souvenir of the SAPTHATHI OF Chev. Prof. GEORGE MENACHERY'' (pp. 50–55). The Sapthathi Samithi. (accessed 19 September 2011)</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=33em}}

==External links==
*[https://palocaren.com Palocaran family website], with some images of John Palocaran, such as: [https://palocaren.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/PHOTO-2019-12-23-22-03-57_1.jpg #1], [https://palocaren.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/palocaren-e1574330440488.png #2]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palocaren, John}}
[[Category:1886 births]]
[[Category:1948 deaths]]
[[Category:Educators from Kerala]]
[[Category:People from Thrissur]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian educators]]

John Palocaren - Revision history

JyothikaSahoo at 20:41, 20 August 2023