Philip Kalayil came to Chicago from India in the mid-1950s and became an early leader and organizer of the Indian-American community here.

He helped start organizations for fellow countrymen to stay in touch with their culture and religion and later assisted in efforts to engage in local politics.

“He did a lot, he was almost the co-founder of all these (Indian-American) organizations,” said Dr. Netta D’souza, who knew Kalayil in India and reconnected with him here.

Kalayil and others started the Indian Catholic Association of America around 1960. “It was religious, cultural and helping new immigrant Catholics to get together,” D’souza said. “There were less than 100 (Indian) people here then.”

In 1980, Kalayil helped start the Indo-American Democratic Organization to empower people to register to vote and to make their opinions heard, according to co-founder Ranjit Ganguly. “Philip is the one who really guided us,” Ganguly said. “He was politically astute.”

Kalayil, 86, died March 13 in Skokie Hospital of natural causes, according to his daughter Ann. He lived for many years in Chicago’s West Rogers Park neighborhood.

He was born in the small village of Keezhoor in the Indian state of Kerala. He turned 17 just after India gained its independence from Great Britain.

He was a high school teacher of economics, married with two children, when he decided to come to the United States for more training. He had to convince his father his desire to come to Chicago was more than a lark. “His dad wanted him to stay home and work on the farm,” his daughter said. “His father told him he’d have to pay him back.”

In 1956, he came by ship to New York, then to Chicago by bus, to study at Loyola University, where an uncle, a priest, was also studying.

In 1959, his wife, Annamma, who survives him, joined him in Chicago, leaving their children in India. In 1964, she and their daughter Ann, who was born in Chicago, returned to India. Kalayil followed in 1965 to teach and be the librarian at St. John’s Medical College in Bangalore.

He returned to Chicago with his family in 1967. “He concluded his future was in Chicago, not in India,” his daughter said.

He earlier got a master’s degree in sociology from Loyola and soon finished work on a second master’s in industrial relations.

He taught at a local business college briefly before going to work as a social worker for Catholic Charities in Chicago. In 1970, he went to work for the city of Chicago in its Department of Human Services. He was assistant director of emergency services with the department when he retired about 20 years ago.

His 1961 master’s thesis examined the experiences of racial discrimination by Indian students and its effects on their perceptions of America. That work spurred him to work to bridge gaps between Asian-American groups divided by ethnicity, religion, socio-economic levels and other factors. He also encouraged those diverse groups to get involved in local politics.

Ganguly said a 1979 Indian Independence Day gathering he organized attracted 1,000 Indians living in the Chicago area — and the attention of then-Mayor Jane Byrne. Byrne didn’t attend the event but recognized the potential political strength of the group.

With that encouragement, Ganguly, Kalayil and some others organized the Indo-American Democratic Organization in 1980. It’s still going strong, Ganguly said, now with a new generation of leadership.

Kalayil’s leadership and bridge-building between diverse racial and ethnic groups was recognized by the Association for Asian American Studies, which honored him with its Heart of Asian America Community Award in 2008.

Kalayil is also survived by sons Tom and Sales; sisters, Sister St. John Kalayil, Sister Dominic Savio Kalayil and Tresia; eight grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.

Another daughter, Lisa Pullukat, died in 2006.

Services were held.

 

(source: Chicago Tribune)