Places · School
Dr John Matthai Centre, Lalur
The University of Calicut campus at Lalur, on the green estate where John Mathai lived, home to the Department of Economics and the School of Drama.
Photo: aranattukara.org, 2026 · All rights reserved
On the road from Lalur towards the kol (low-lying paddy wetlands) lies a quiet, green campus. This was the home of John Mathai, independent India’s first Railway Minister and later its Finance Minister. Today it is the Dr John Matthai Centre of the University of Calicut.
A minister’s garden
Mathai’s bungalow stood in large grounds full of trees, creepers and bamboo. The book says he brought rare trees from as far as Ceylon and Malaysia, among them camphor and star apple. Steps led down from his gatehouse to the canal, so he could step off a boat from Kochi straight into his home. The bamboo groves are still here; the book calls this the one place in Thrissur city where bamboo still “sings”.
A campus
After Mathai’s death in 1959, his family’s wish was that the estate should serve learning. (The book tells this in two ways: as a gift of his home by the family, and as land given to the government at a nominal price.) The 18-acre site passed to the University of Calicut, and its Department of Economics opened here in 1976.
In 1977 the School of Drama and Fine Arts began on the same campus, with the theatre pioneer G. Sankara Pillai as its first director. Many well-known names in Malayalam theatre, film and television trained here. Other courses, including MCA and B.Ed., were added later.
The environmental group PLANT has prepared a guide that numbers the rare trees on the campus.
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John Mathai
Economist and India's first Railway Minister, later Finance Minister, who made his home at Lalur in Aranattukara.
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