St Thomas College Pala in Kottayam district of Kerala is celebrating the 75th year of its foundation in January 2025. When it was first set up in 1950, it was among just a few colleges in the area, even before the state of Kerala was formed in 1956.
Students arrived in Pala from nearby areas to study at St Thomas College, and the vast campus housed several young men. As it celebrates its 75th year, however, it appears as if the academic substance of this celebrated place of learning has been attenuated – the college advertises ‘horse ride’ and ‘camel ride’ as part of the celebratory programmes for its jubilee year.
A gala musical event is also planned, as are stalls promoting pottery and bamboo handicraft.
While one can understand the need for celebrations, it appears to this reporter that the celebrations at St Thomas College Pala are somewhat over the top. The 75th jubilee could have been commemorated with year-round events hosting speakers on important subjects of current interest that could have been opened up to the local community of residents near the college.
The college campus remains splendidly isolated from its neighbourhood. Some months ago, this reporter attempted to get a student to stand in for her to supply food each morning to a patient undergoing dialysis near the college. This reporter, who lives across the college, was set to travel, and wanted a student to please undertake the daily responsibility of carrying breakfast to a tailor nearby who was struggling alone with ill health.
A student at the college hostel agreed to take the food, but requested that the hostel warden please be informed. When this reporter spoke with the hostel warden on the phone, he responded with immense anger. The warden implied that carrying food for local people was not what students at the college were here for – he said the student who had agreed to carry food was from a family where parents were abroad, and they would be infuriated if their son was put to such tasks.
Wealth appears to have blinded even the Catholic priests who run this college to the sacredness of life, and the nobility of simple actions done in service.
Some college alumni like journalist Sunny Sebastian, who served for a long time as The Hindu’s correspondent in Rajasthan, remembers that the college served students milk in large cups called “copa” – the college ran its own dairy, and the milk was served fresh from the udders of nearby cows.
Much has changed since the college was first founded. The dairy farm has wound up, and the vast premises have been constructed upon. Many old buildings remain, but have been spruced up, and you will be hard-pressed to find a structure that retains the old Mangalore tile roof.
What has changed most, however, is that the college now also admits women students. In October 2021, the college was in the news as a young woman student was murdered by a fellow student.
The college is also now autonomous, and has a range of courses. With newer colleges in other towns, the regular inflow of students from other parts of the state has dwindled; in the meanwhile, Pala town itself has emerged as the Kota of Kerala, and vast numbers of students arrive here after Class 12, taking years off from their academic career to prepare for the entrance examinations to medical and engineering colleges.
The coaching industry has become the bigger draw for young students, and many of the hostels that these young students occupy are in homes of residents of the town. There are also structures several storeys tall that some residents have erected to house these coaching centre students.
The Meenachil, the river that flows just behind St Thomas College, has witnessed a spike in pollution with the influx of the students in the coaching centres.
One minor change in the recruitment policy of engineering and medical students would burst the bubble of the coaching industry, and make redundant vast numbers of structures in Pala town erected to house the students.
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*Senior journalist
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