The George Mathen Mission Hospital was founded by the Holy Immanuel CSI Church, Mallappally in 1971 to build on the inspirational life of Rev. George Mathen.
Mallappally’s emergence into modernity has a lot to do with the life leadership of Rev. George Mathen. He served Mallappally parish for 16 continuous years from 1847 to 1863. Rev. Mathen was the first native priest of the Anglican Church, in this area of Kerala. His involvement in and around Mallappally earned him the name ‘MallappallilAchen’. His entry to Church and Education marks the bottom to top revolutionary transformation unleashed at this point of history; by initiating modern education for the people of slave cast. Vibrations generated this period triggered multi-faceted reformation movement across a large geographical area. Great leaders of Kerala Renaissance; Sreenarayana Guru, ChattabiSwamikal and Ayyankali were at their childhood at this time.
Rev. George Mathen was well known and accepted by the people and the then rulers of Travancore as a linguist, educationist, liberator, reformer of great intellectual capacity.
Linguist: A scholarly grasp of Malayalam enabled Rev. George Mathen to make a signal contribution to his mother tongue, Malayalam, with the earliest definitive text on Malayalam grammar,‘Malayazhmayude Vyakaranam’ (മലയാഴ്മയുടെ വ്യാകരണം-1863) . It codified grammar rules for the first time in Malayalam.For this, he was honored as the ‘Father of Malayalam prose’ Rev. Mathen as the Editor of India’s first College Magazine: VidyaSamgraham ; modelled it as academic publication in tune with the journals then in circulation in Oxford and Cambridge. This magazine carried reports on expanding knowledge streams of the world of that time. Also it covered the struggles and aspirations of the people of this land.He regularly contributed essays for the first Malayalam periodical Jhananikshepam on topics as diverse as astronomy, education and advaitha. One of the essays that appeared in 'Jhananikshepam' discusses if the earth was indeed round, thereby introducing science writing in Malayalam. He was also a prolific essayist. His forays into non-fiction include Satyavadakhedam and Vedasamyukthi. A highly reputed historian of Malayalam literature Ulloor S. ParameswaraIyer stated "All in all, George Mathan built a permanent framework for Malayalam literature and thus made all Malayalis (people of Kerala) indebted to him, this fact is beyond dispute."
Educationist: Rev. George Mathen was invited to present his treatise on education and its pedagogy at the instances of Sri. Madhava Rao, the then Divan of the state of Travancore. This presentation is supposed to be the first of its kind in Travancore.Later the talk was published as a book entitled Balaabhyasam. In addition to emphasizing the importance of learning in mother tongue, Rev. Mathen defines the fundamentals of general education in Kerala context. He convinces through his thesis 1: Learning occurs through 5 senses, 2: Knowledge is power and 3: Importance of character formation.In this work, he argues for Malayalam to be adopted as the medium of instruction and language of administration besides cautioning educators of corporeal punishment. Further he discussed the techniques and best practices to be adopted to attain the predetermined cognitive levels which are at par with today’s approaches. He was avisionary educationist and a shining advocate of universal education.
Liberator: The abolition of slavery was declared in 1835, by Rani LashmiBai, Queen of Travancore. He was one of the earliest advocates of civil rights for the enslaved community in Kerala who lived in subhuman conditions under caste slavery. It is a well known fact that Rev. George Mathen was the pioneering champion carrying out the liberation of slaves by ensuring basic education and their entry to main stream. He started ‘Slave Schools’ for the untouchables in Mallappally and many places around. His sympathies lay with the poor and oppressed. Mathen was instrumental in converting KaipettaHabel and his family to Christianity in 1854 - the first lower-caste family to convert to Christianity. The conversion of Habel's family into Anglican Christianity at Mallappally was historic and encouraged the conversion of a large number of lower-caste people, denied of a life of dignity under caste slavery and un-touchability, into Christianity.
Reformer: Rev. Mathen spoke vehemently against the caste practices in Kerala. His article titled ‘KozhuMuthalazhma’ prescribes the healthy practices to be followed to keep the employer-employee relation at a humane level. The book authored by Rev. Mathen MarumakkathayathalullaDoshangal is a criticism of the matrilineal social structure prevalent among one of the prominent communities in Kerala, was instrumental for initiating their reformation there also.
In his later years, George Mathen actively raised funds to establish the Cambridge Nicholson Institute (CNI) in Kottayam. He also oversaw the construction of the institute and served as its Principal. CNI was instrumental in spreading English-medium education in Kerala and is today known as the CNI Teacher’s Training Institute.
In short, the deeply spiritual efforts of Rev. George Mathen freed people from slavery. In addition; he worked for liberating language, literature, education, culture and awakened different layers of people to march towards modernity and progress.
The Rev. George Mathen Mission Hospital, Mallappally is a tribute to the stellar contributions of a great man who meant a great deal not only to modern Kerala and Malayalam language but also to Mallappally and its people.