Mammootty, Tapaswini Amma and more luminaries included in Maharaja's college syllabus

KOCHI: Megastar Mammootty, Dakshayani Velayudhan, Professor P.S. Velayudhan, Tapaswini Amma and other eminent personalities are the subjects of study for the undergraduate students of Maharaja's College, Ernakulam.

Mammootty is a subject of study in the history of Malayalam cinema for second-year undergraduate students. The life and works of Dakshayani Velayudhan were included in the paper titled Local History of Kochi in the four-year B.A. Honours syllabus. Dakshayani Velayudhan, a native of Mulavukad, who graduated from Maharaja's College, was the first Scheduled Caste graduate in India and one of the 15 women elected to the Indian Legislative Assembly.

In the paper titled "Thinkers and Social Reformers", Prof. P.S. Velayudhan, who was the first principal of the same college from a backwards class and also served as the president and general secretary of the SNDP Yogam, was featured.

The lives of Tapaswini Amma, who founded Abalasaranam and Sree Narayana Vidyartini Sadanam (SNV) in Ernakulam for homeless women; Ernst Hanxleden alias Arnos Pathiri, a German linguist and missionary; Abraham Salem and S.S. Koder, who were Jewish social reformers; Hamadani Thangal, who took the lead in establishing a college for the Muslim community in Aluva; Fathima Rahman, the first Muslim woman lawyer in Kerala, and K.P. Vallon, who was a frontline fighter in many Dalit struggles in Kochi and a Kochi legislator, are also part of the curriculum. The new syllabus will be taught from the 2025-26 academic year.

Dakshayani Velayudhan obtained her degree while staying at the Sree Narayana Vidyartini Sadanam, founded by Tapaswini Amma, at a time when backwards girls were denied admission to college hostels due to untouchability. Prof. P.S. Velayudhan served as the president of S.N.V. Sadanam for 39 years.