Paul David Devanandan


Paul David Devanandan, spelt also as P.D. Devanandan or Paul D. Devanandan, was an Indian Protestant theologian, ecumenist, and one of the notable pioneers in inter-religious dialogues in India.

Biography

He was born in Madras on 9 July 1901, and graduated from Nizam College, Hyderabad. He did his M.A from Presidency College, Madras. While studying at Madras, he was acquainted with K. T. Paul, a prominent Social activist, Christian and YMCA leader. He taught briefly at Jaffna College, Ceylon, Sri Lanka. With assistance from K.T. Paul, he flew United States in 1924 and studied theology at Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California. He received his doctorate in Comparative religion from Yale University in 1931 - for his dissertation on the concept of Maya in Hinduism.
Upon his return to India in 1931, he was absorbed as a professor of philosophy and religions at United [Theological College, Bangalore] for seventeen years between 1932 and 1949. He had a lasting and long association with Christian Association">Christians">Christian Association ; he worked as a secretary at the Delhi YMCA, and later as national literature secretary at YMCA between 1949 and 1956.
In 1954, he was ordained as a presbyter of the Church of South India. In 1956, he was appointed as the director of the new "Center for the study of Hinduism" - later renamed to "Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and Society", Bangalore. He was the first person appointed to the post.
His address to the Third Assembly of the World Council of Churches at New Delhi in 1961, under the title "Called to Witness," was delivered a few months before his death and caught the attention of the large ecumenical church. He died on 10 August 1962 at Dehra Dun, India, on his way to a conference at the Christian Retreat and Study Centre.

Works

His publications include the following;