♫ IN MEMORIAM

Dr. Rev. Thomas Gnanamuthu

& Mrs. Janet Gnanamuthu

Surgeon. Minister. Counsellor. Music-maker. A couple who gave RTMC its distinctive voice.

Written by their son, Dr. Chandran Gnanamuthu

There are people whose names, when spoken in a particular company, produce an immediate and unanimous response. Among those who have been members of Richmond Town Methodist Church since the mid-1970s, the name Thomas Gnanamuthu is one of those names.

‘Doc,’ as he was universally known, occupied a unique space in the life of RTMC: surgeon, minister, counsellor, choir director, community builder, and — alongside his wife Janet — one of the most musically gifted couples the church has ever been fortunate enough to call its own.

WINSLOW – CARRY Image No.13 from SHORTLISTED folder of Mr and Mrs Gnanamuth.

Bangalore, 1974: A New Chapter Begins

In 1974–75, Dr. Thomas and Mrs. Janet Gnanamuthu moved with their family from Lucknow to Bangalore. RTMC became their place of worship, as naturally as the city became their home. Rev. Theodore Williams was the pastor at RTMC during that period, and it was into this community — already purposeful, musically rich, and committed to both worship and outreach — that the Gnanamuthus brought their own considerable gifts.

Thomas was given a small room in Stephen’s Hall annexe for his counselling work. It was here that many members of the congregation, and people from beyond it, came to him with burdens that were not easily named in public — depression, anxiety, broken relationships, and the grief that has nowhere to go.

He received them all with a discretion and a skill that his years of training had honed, and with a pastoral warmth that no training can manufacture.

“He realised that the emotional and spiritual needs of people are far greater than their physical needs — and changed course accordingly.”
— Chandran Gnanamuthu, on his father’s defining decision

Janet: The Music and the Ministry Behind the Ministry

A tribute to Thomas Gnanamuthu that does not give Janet Gnanamuthu her proper place is an incomplete tribute. She was not simply his support. She was his musical equal, his pastoral partner, and — in the lives of the young people who came through the Praise Singers — a presence whose warmth and constancy were as formative as anything her husband offered from the front of the room.

Janet was a gifted pianist whose playing shaped the worship life of RTMC across two decades. Before the evening service, she and Thomas would perform together: she at the piano, he at the electronic organ. The quality of their music was such that congregation members began arriving early specifically to hear them play.

This was not incidental background music. It was an act of preparation — an offering that set the atmosphere for everything that followed.

Beyond the music, she was the person in the Gnanamuthu household to whom the young people of the Praise Singers came when they needed something other than rehearsal. Amritha Sarah Singh, who was part of the Praise Singers from the late 1970s, remembers her with particular warmth:

“Mrs. Janet Gnanamuthu was loving, caring, always ready to guide and advise.”
— Amritha Sarah Singh, Praise Singers member since the late 1970s

This was not the role of a supporting actor. It was the role of a woman who had created, alongside her husband, a household that functioned as a second home for a generation of young people.

The Praise Singers: A Fellowship That Has Lasted Forty-Five Years

The Praise Singers began as a youth choir — a group of young people mentored by Thomas and Janet in the early years of their time at RTMC. It grew quickly, as the quality of the music and the warmth of the community around it became known. It was, by the account of those who were part of it, the best gospel sound in Bangalore at that time.

Thomas brought to the Praise Singers the same rigour he had applied to his surgical practice. He trained the singers in voice production and tonal harmony. He planned repertoires with care, creating a characteristic musical signature that set the Praise Singers apart from other choirs.

He also went to considerable lengths to organise transport for rehearsals — driving or arranging vehicles to collect the young singers from their homes and bring them safely back. In an era before mobile phones and ride-hailing apps, this was a pastoral act as much as a logistical one.

The Praise Singers performed at RTMC’s evening services to audiences that grew, over time, to fill the church. They gave several concerts each year in Bangalore and toured to other cities. Thomas recorded many audio cassettes, which sold well and carried the music of the choir into homes that the concerts themselves could not reach.

“He created a fellowship of believers who are still in touch with each other after more than forty years.”
— Sunitha Gokavi, Praise Singers member

The result of all of this was something that outlasted the Praise Singers’ active years and has outlasted Thomas’s own life: a fellowship.

Sunitha Gokavi names it precisely: “He created a fellowship of believers who are still in touch with each other, after more than forty years.”

Amritha Sarah Singh confirms it: “Right from school in the late seventies until now, we are all connected — forty-six years since.”

A choir director who maintains a congregation of relationships for nearly half a century after the last rehearsal has done something that transcends music.

L.R. Nagar: Building a Church and a School for a Community

Dr. Gnanamuthu’s years at RTMC were also marked by his active association with the MMF project and his engagement with the Christian community in L.R. Nagar, a neighbourhood of daily-wage earners and their families in Bangalore.

What began as a medical outreach — his instinct, always, to begin with the body before reaching the spirit — became, over time, the dominant commitment of his working life.

He led MMF’s effort in building a church and a school for the community. To ensure that ministry, he was ordained as a minister of the Methodist Church — an ordination that took place at RTMC itself.

The same care that had brought people into his counselling room and young singers into his home now found another expression: building a community in which children could learn, families could worship, and people could find practical as well as spiritual support.

Joel Francis, a Praise Singers member, remembers the personal dimension of that ministry:

“Doc gave personal attention to each child. Those who were facing challenges in studies and in life were greatly helped by his mentorship, care, and advice.”
— Joel Francis, Praise Singers member

Perhaps that is the thread that runs through the many roles Thomas Gnanamuthu carried — doctor, counsellor, musician, mentor, minister. The setting changed, but the instinct remained the same: to notice the person in front of him, to understand what was needed, and to stay long enough to help.

His life at RTMC cannot be separated from Janet’s. Together, they gave the church music, counsel, hospitality, mentorship, and ministry. Their influence lives not only in memories of services and concerts, but in the relationships that continued long after those moments had passed.

And perhaps that is why the name ‘Doc’ still carries such recognition among those who knew him. It belonged not only to the surgeon he was, but to the man who listened, taught, organised, encouraged, accompanied, and served.

Some people leave behind buildings. Some leave behind songs. Some leave behind students and patients and friends. Thomas and Janet Gnanamuthu left behind something of all of these — and, above all, people who remember.

✞

This tribute was written by their son, Dr Chandran Gnanamuthu. Additional memories of Dr. Rev. Thomas and Mrs. Janet Gnanamuthu from Praise Singers members are woven throughout the ‘People You Remember’ section of this magazine.

Richmond Town Methodist Church • Bangalore • 1875–2025