On Friday, Kerala professor TJ Joseph, whose right hand was chopped off by the Islamists over the charges of blasphemy, was awarded the Kerala Sahitya Akademi award for his autobiography named Attupokatha Ormakal, meaning memories that were not chopped off. The author wrote the book with his left hand after his writing hand was separated from his body by radical Islamists.
According to the reports, the author who worked as a Malayalam professor at Newman college at Thodupuzha in the Idukki district has been awarded for writing the best autobiography of the year 2022. The award was announced on Wednesday, July 27, by K Satchidanandan, president of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi. The award carries a certificate, citation, two-sovereign gold locket and a cash award of Rs 50,000.
On July 4, 2010, the PFI activists backed by other Islamist organizations had chopped off Joseph’s right hand, accusing him of blasphemy.
The saga began in March 2010 when Joseph had prepared a set of questions for the Malayalam language paper for 2nd-year BCom students. Reportedly, one of the questions asked students to punctuate a conversation between God and a character. The conversation was extracted from the book ‘Thirakathayude Reethisasthram‘, written by Malayalam Director Kunju Muhammed. The character in the passage was that of a man suffering from schizophrenia and having a constant dialogue with God.
Without thinking much about the consequences, he had named the man ‘Muhammed’ after the name of the Malayalam director. Islamists were quick to cry ‘blasphemy’ and interpret the question as a conversation between Prophet Muhammad and God. Soon, the matter became public resulting in violent protests by radical Islamic outfits such as the Popular Front of India (PFI), Campus Front of India (CFI), Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), and even the Congress party.
On July 4 2010, the Islamists trapped Joseph, who was returning home from church in his car at about 8 o’clock in the morning. He was accompanied by his sister and mother. A gang of 6 Islamists laid siege on his car. Armed with an axe, they chopped off his hand below the wrist and ditched the severed part in a nearby land. The assailants also stabbed the Professor in the leg and arm. Joseph was 52 when the incident happened.
The case was probed by the NIA, and in 2015, 13 people linked to PFI were convicted of the crime by an NIA court. The NIA had charge-sheeted 45 people, 35 of them had faced trial, out of which 13 were convicted. In 2020, NIA had framed charges against 11 more people in the case.
After recovering from the injuries, the professor wrote an autobiography with his left hand that was well received by the readers. The book was also later translated into English titled ‘A thousand cuts’. Reports mention that the Kerala Sahitya Akademi awardee has also written another book titled Bhranthanu Sthuthi (Praise the Madman), which is based on the story of the madman he had referred to in the question paper.