Thiruvanathapuram: Joseph Pulikunnel, a veteran Christian social reformer and a former faculty in economics and former member of the Kerala University Senate passed away on Thursday. He was 85. The last rites will take place at the houses premises at Bharananganam on Friday at 11 am.

He was the director of the Indian Institute of Christian Studies in Kottayam. He was the author of several books and the organising editor of the Malayalam Bible Translation Project. He has published the most authentic translation of the Bible in Malayalam.

Since 1976 he had been pursuing his interests in social work and founded several social service organizations including the Good Samaritan Project India; the Word and Deed Hospital and Palliative Cancer Care Centre, and a Juvenile Diabetic Centre. He is best known for his independent and scholarly views on the state of the established church in India.

For about three decades he had challenged aristocratic authority of priesthood of Catholic church. He wrote and fought against their dominance.

Having taken Honours degree in economics from Madras Presidency College, he worked as a teacher in Kozhikode Devagiri College. His unflinching dynamic character that would not succumb to any pressure led to even his near ouster from the college.

The Magazine Oshana he started in 1975 aimed at criticism of churches. Prof Joseph Mundassery had launched the magazine from a rented room at Pala

He organised marriages and burials that caught in ecclesiastic red tapism. When his wife Kochu Rani died in 2008, he cremated her body at his own land at Edamattam. In his will he wrote before his death, he had mentioned that his body also should be cremated at the same place. He had even much earlier the way his last rites should be held and given that in printing tohis relatives and friends.

In 1960 Pulikunnel was in Congress district Executive and joined hands with R Balakrishna Pillai when he formed Kerala Congress in 1964. Though he contested from Kalpatta Assembly constituency in 1965, he failed to make it to the seat.

His late wife was Kavalam Mundapalliyil Kochurani. Children: Rasheema, Reenima, late daughter Ragima, Raju and Rathima.