Reverend S.M. Pandian (Swamikkan Manonemany Pandian) was born in the ancient city of Kallaidaikurichi in Tamil Nadu, India on December 23, 1906.  His parents were Christians and he received his education in a Christian school. After completing high school, he worked with his father in the timber business for a few years. At the age of 23, he decided to seek greener pastures and set sail for Malaya to join his relatives who had settled in the tin-mining town of Ipoh. 

When he arrived in Ipoh in 1929, the town was experiencing exponential growth due to the tin-mining industry. With his business experience in India, he soon found work as an accountant with a Chinese firm in town.    

He started attending the Tamil Methodist Church in the Tamil Settlement in Buntong. The pastor at that time, Reverend S.S. Pakianathan, soon took notice of this young member who was regular at Sunday services, and began to talk to him about going into full-time ministry.^[1]Back then, there were many South Tamil Christian workers scattered in plantations across the country who were not being ministered to. 

Pandian heeded God’s call, gave up his accounting job and moved 20km south to Batu Gajah town to serve the Tamil congregants there. Later, he moved to Sitiawan for a short period before returning to the Tamil Settlement church in Ipoh where he was ordained as a deacon under the Methodist Church in 1938.^[2] He then spent six years in the east coast town of Kuantan in Pahang, one of the stations under the Methodist Church’s Home Mission field. Pandian took charge of the Tamil work in Kuantan until the end of the Japanese occupation. 

In 1947, Reverend Pandian was posted to the southern town of Segamat in Johor where there was a great need for a full-time pastor to minister to the many Tamil Christians working in plantations in the central and southern parts of the state.^[3] In Segamat, he embarked on his ministry in earnest, covering multiple communities located in the heart of the rubber plantations. He would travel monthly to Labis, Chaah, Mersing, Kluang and Batu Pahat, ministering to families of various denominations. His typical schedule saw him preaching at his home church in Segamat on the first and fourth Sunday of the month. In between, he would visit the other parishes. 

While he was away, his wife, Mrs Jeevamoney Pandian, together with his lay preacher, Mr J. Isaac, would conduct the mid-month worship services in Segamat. This enabled Reverend Pandian to travel extensively up to 19 days each month to minister to many Tamil families and communities in south and central Johor. 

In the book Heralds of the Lord: Personalities in Methodism in Singapore and Malaysia, Dr H.B. Amstutz, Methodist Bishop for Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei) from 1956-1964, is quoted as writing in the Methodist Message that “Mr Pandian was widely known by all communities in Johore for his prodigious labours on the rubber estates, and was in effect minister to managers and their families and to people of many denominations.”^[4] 

Reverend Pandian passed away on October 13, 1953. Paying tribute to him on October 18 in The Straits Times, Dr Amstutz said: “It was his regular habit to spend at least three weeks out of every month ministering to the Christian people scattered over this vast area. He was well-known to estate managers, who, as a rule, made his work easier by offering him what facilities they could and sometimes building chapels for the congregations.   

“Gathering his people together he taught them the Bible; at times he gave them instruction in Christian doctrine; at other times he told them stories. No home was too humble, no person too mean, for this man of God.” ^[5]

Reverend Pandian and his wife had seven children – five girls and two boys. Two of them (Mary Samuel and Israel Pandian, their third and fifth child respectively), settled in Karisalpatti village in the Thirunelveli district in the south. Their eldest child Janaki Devathanjam passed away in Ipoh in 1950 after giving birth. David Pandian, the fourth child, was an active member in the Tamil Methodist Church in Chaah, Johor for many years and the sixth child, Esther Gnanatheebam Thangaraj, served actively in the Tamil Methodist Church in Semenyih. The Pandians’ youngest daughter had passed away from illness in Kuantan during the Japanese occupation. 

In an article about his father in A Great Cloud of Witnesses: A Historical Record of Key Pastors in the Indian Churches in Malaysia and Singapore, David Pandian included this poem written by Mr Yong Yew Kim, the then principal of the Anglo Chinese School in Seremban, which was read out at Reverend Pandian’s funeral:

The Death of old Rev. S.M. Pandian

It was the saddest day for us

When from afar and near,

We gathered round to mourn the loss

Of one to us so dear!

The simple coffin laid for him,

The poorest that has been;

The soul that has departed new,

The richest there has been!

The sacrificial life he led,

The love he had for all,

The deeds of kindness done by him; 

All these we did recall.

Well done, good, faithful servant thou!

The Lord is pleased with thee;

Thy life has shown to all the world

What Christian life should be!

With heavy hearts we laid to rest

His body in the grave;

He’ll be remembered for the world

To which his life he gave!

The body is dead; his power still lives!

His life inspires us all

To labour likewise for the Lord

In answer to His call!