Safeguarding Jaffna College & Uduvil Girls’ College From The Dictatorship Of JDCSI
Author: Ramachandran Kulasingam
April 16, 2026
The latest nail in the coffin; Will it be the last?
A senior priest from the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India (JDCSI) has been arrested by police along with his two associates for allegedly sexually assaulting two young women. The women were among the several young women reportedly attended the priest’s birthday party at the KFC restaurant in Kilinochchi. It is suspected that these women were part of a project funded by Compassion Lanka. The priest, married with two children, offered to drop the women in his car at their homes after the party. It is alleged they gave the victims something to drink, stopped on the way, and the three men resorted to sexually assaulting them. The accused priest was only apprehended after initially hiding per social media reports.
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Bishop Pathmathayalan serves as the head of the JDCSI. The accused senior priest is described as being very close to the Bishop and the Secretary of the JDCSI. He is seen standing prominently next to the Bishop and the Secretary in many photographs, similar to the one seen here. It is rumored that several complaints were made about the priest’s behavior during the preceding years, but the JDCSI leadership, including the Bishop and the Secretary chose to ignore.
The Jaffna College Connection
Jaffna College was started in 1872 as a multi-denominational Protestant Christian school. It was a combined effort by the natives of Jaffna and American missionaries to restart the previously shutdown seminary as a liberal college focused on English education. A trust fund was set up in Boston, Massachusetts to fund the operations of the College. While a local board overseas the management of the school, the trustees based in USA manage the fund. The prudent and honest management of the trustees has grown the fund several fold. The trust money, along with vital contributions by alumni over the last three years, is used to fund all the operations of the college. The Trust in Boston also funds few other institutions in Jaffna and Uduvil Girls’ College.
L to R: Rev. Satheesh Daniel, JDCSI Secretary and Uduvil Girls’ College Board Member, JDCSI Bishop Pathmathayalan who is the Chairman of Jaffna College and Uduvil Girls’ College Boards with Rev. Dixon, a married JDCSI priest arrested for sexual assault.
Over the years the JDCSI has clawed its way into the Board and established majority control by changing the constitution. The JDCSI Bishop is currently serving as the chairman of the Boards for Jaffna College and Uduvil Girls’ College. The Board under the previous Bishop Thiagarajah initiated litigation against the trustees in the USA attempting to take control of the funds in retaliation for calls for reforms made by the latter following allegations of financial malpractice and misgovernance by the Board. Due to his weak position within JDCSI from an internal split with the former Bishop’s loyalists when he assumed power from the former Bishop in December 2022 and a sustained pressure campaign by the alumni, Bishop Pathmathayalan was forced to withdraw the litigation and accept a settlement agreement with the Trustees under the American court system. However, Bishop Pathmathayalan continued several dictatorial practices, including abuse of financial responsibilities, of the former Bishop Thiagaraja. This has resulted in trustees deciding to send all the funds to a bank account that comes under the purview of the Principal of Jaffna College, instead of the Board’s bank account from 2025.
As covered in an earlier article in the Colombo Telegraph, in a shocking development, Bishop Pathmathayalan acknowledged to the Board that he kept under his personal custody Rs. 5.5 million from school funds without the knowledge of any others over an undisclosed period. [Refer to “Jaffna College Alumni Association Requests Bishop Pathmathayalan To Resign From The Board” by Dr. Ramachandran Kulasingam on the Colombo Telegraph dated October 2, 2025, ]. This matter has been brought to courts by an alumni lawsuit. Presumably based on legal advice, the Bishop is staying away from attending Board meetings but refusing to heed the request of the Jaffna College Alumni Association (JCAA) to step down from the Board. The Jaffna College alumni locally and around the world have been continuing their campaign using their well-established social media machines to pressure for Board reforms that would revert Jaffna College back to a multi-denominational Christian school free from the clutches of the JDCSI.
Uduvil Girls’ College
Unlike Jaffna College, Uduvil Girls’ College is not a multi-denominational Christian school. It was an American Ceylon Mission (ACM) school which later became a JDCSI-run institution. It is partly funded by the Jaffna College trust fund. Per the settlement agreement, Jaffna College Board and the trustees need to approve the funding to Uduvil on an annual basis.
At this time, Uduvil does not have a strong alumni network around the world to launch a pressure campaign like Jaffna College alumni. The alumni representative to the board is appointed by JDCSI and not elected by the alumni association as in the case of Jaffna College. Unchecked by anyone, the Bishop who serves as the chairman of both school boards has gone on to appoint his wife as the manager of Uduvil Girls’ College and his sister-in-law, Prof. Thulasitha William (University of Jaffna) as the Uduvil Board Secretary. Mr. Joe Inparaj, a banker, serves as the treasurer for the school and the Diocese whereas his wife Mrs. Thamari Inparaj (an academic attached to the University of Jaffna) is the JDCSI-appointed alumni representative. Earlier Mrs. Inparaj left the Jaffna College Board as treasurer under controversial circumstances without submitting the annual accounts as required by the Constitution of the Jaffna College Board. Her board member slot was taken by Mr. Inparaj in a comical musical chair move, before the husband too resigned under the pressure of questions by alumni. The Uduvil Board is referred to as the kitchen Board by many alumni.
The JDCSI – CACM Split, Rivalry, and Impact on Schools
The JDCSI was carrying on the legacy of the American Ceylon Mission (ACM) but gradually started to claw into the autonomy enjoyed by Jaffna College. With dwindling church membership due to the exodus from the Tamil speaking areas in Sri Lanka and the migration of the majority of its membership to the Church of the American Ceylon Mission (CACM) founded in 2006 as a result of schism within the JDCSI, the large Boston-based trust fund for Jaffna College was always attractive to the JDCSI. When Bishop Thiagarajah was appointed as Bishop by the South India based church leaders in 2006, majority of its members and vast majority of the educated, fluent-in-English, Christians left JDCSI and formed a separate church called CACM, modelled on the congregationalist traditions of the ACM. This left the JDCSI depleted, in quality, quantity, intellect and resources. A previous article covered how they have been exaggerating their numbers in reports to South India. [Refer to “Inflating The Membership: Massive Fraudulence By The JDCSI Leadership” by Dr. Ramachandran Kulasingam on the Colombo Telegraph dated May 22, 2025 ]
The last 20 years of history after schism are marked by legal and physical fights, deals and crossovers from one church to the other, and various malpractices. Those found guilty of misbehavior in one church would cross over to the rival one. Culprits crossing over are welcomed as boosting new recruitment and offered key positions. In some cases, the family members of priests and laymen who crossed over were rewarded with teaching and other positions at Jaffna College and Uduvil Girls’ College. This also fed a culture of indiscipline, especially in historically underprivileged regions and villages where the most vulnerable populations are taken advantage of by priests and their associates. School board positions started to be given to priests and associates as favors. Most have questionable educational credentials and view English as a threat. They in turn, from their board positions, vote out nominations of members from other churches who are better educated, honest, fluent in English, and had better experience. This culture of insecurity extended to staff and administrator appointments in both schools. Alumni activism and the Trustees’ constant push for reforms have been the guiding lights which resulted in reasonably credible outsiders as Principals of both schools.
The South Indian Worrisome Culture and its Connections to JDCSI and the Two Schools
The JDCSI does not seem to be receiving any money from their South Indian leaders. It is not possible to independently verify the financial strength of the JDCSI, as the accounts are not released even to the members of the Church as reported by some members. The situation is no different at both schools. However, South Indians take the lead in appointing the Bishops of the JDCSI. For example, the current Bishop Pathmathayalan came a distant second in voting within the JDCSI. However, he strategically used his connections with South Indian leaders and caste politics to get appointed as the Bishop. The South Indian dioceses and the CSI Synod are embroiled in several legal battles and facing multiple accusations involving financial embezzlement to severe violence. This toxic culture breeds further into the JDCSI in Jaffna and the institutions that it controls such as Jaffna College and Uduvil Girls’ College.
The Future of the two Christian Private Schools Serving Rural Communities
The pool of suitable JDCSI candidates to serve in the school Boards is extremely thin and even acknowledged by JDCSI members themselves. This has partly led to the appointment of several members of few families on the school boards, creating severe conflicts of interest. The JDCSI is also keen to appoint their members as principals and key administrators, further aggregating conflicts of interest concerns. This impacts the financial wellbeing, quality of education, and reputation of the schools.
Nearly 95% of the hostel students at both schools are from struggling families located in historically underprivileged areas and communities. Their parents generally refrain from questioning school authorities in ensuring the wellbeing of their children when they handover them to mostly JDCSI priests for housing in the school hostels. The alumni mostly fund the hostel students brought and dropped over at the hostels without pre-arranged funds. Recently a hostel student from the Vanni area jumped from Uduvil Girls’ College building and miraculously survived.
A male JDCSI priest who crossed over from the CACM and became close to the JDCSI Bishop is serving as the chaplain of Uduvil Girls’ College in spite the availability of female priests in the Diocese. This chaplain was removed from the position of chaplain by the previous Bishop but reappointed by the current Bishop who also rewarded him with memberships in both school boards. It is interesting to note that Bishop Chairman Pathmaythayalan and his manager wife, sister-in-law Secretary Prof. Thulasitha William, and the Treasurer Family Mr. and Mrs. Inparaj all send their daughters to a prestigious private Jaffna town school run by the Anglican church, Chundikuli Girls’ College. This defeats the Bishop’s main argument that he comes from a historically oppressed community, and he is a savior of his people. There are many such examples of elitism and nepotism within JDCSI papered over with an empty rhetoric of Dalit liberation.
Many of the leaders are rumored to be taking significant amounts of money as allowance from projects. One example is the monthly petrol allowance of Rs. 20,000 to 25,000 to Bishop Pathmaythayalan with additional allowance to few others from the charity running the historic Green Memorial Hospital in Manipay. The salary of a JDCSI priest is merely Rs. 35,000. A portion of the staff salary from Uduvil Girls’ College is cut by the JDCSI as religious contribution. The current Jaffna College Principal who came from outside Jaffna College and the strong Jaffna College alumni have mostly cut off JDCSI siphoning funds from Jaffna College.
In summary, it is clear there is no future for Jaffna College and Uduvil Girls’ College till they remain under the clutches of the JDCSI. Jaffna College was started and functioned as a multi denominational Christian school until JDCSI gradually clawed their way in to take control. It is not too late to initiate a concerted effort by all stakeholders to restore Jaffna College back to its earlier status as a multi-denominational Protestant Christian school. As sister school to Jaffna College, serving a similar rural community and funded by the Jaffna College trust fund, the same governance mechanism would be the best for Uduvil Girls’ College as well. This will ensure both schools provide a compassionate holistic education based on the liberal Christian principles and English-language traditions initiated by the American Ceylon Mission. Furthermore, these schools can serve needy children from hill country, the Vanni, the East and Jaffna areas by housing them in hostels run with a transparent system that ensures accountability and proper oversights necessary for the wellbeing of the children. A vibrant campaign with the participation of the alumni and the local communities should start immediately to transform these two schools into multi-denominational Protestant Christian institutions and restore the values for which they were founded by American missionaries in the nineteenth-century. Will the alumni and the community rise up to this challenge?
*Dr. Ramachandran Kulasingam, Ph.D. (Student at JDCSI Nursery and Jaffna College from 1975 to 1990)
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/safeguarding-jaffna-college-uduvil-girls-college-from-the-dictatorship-of-jdcsi/
L to R: Rev. Satheesh Daniel, JDCSI Secretary and Uduvil Girls’ College Board Member, JDCSI Bishop Pathmathayalan who is the Chairman of Jaffna College and Uduvil Girls’ College Boards with Rev. Dixon, a married JDCSI priest arrested for sexual assault.
