Hands off: academic thinking meets fundamentalism in India

For a while now, I have been following from afar the strange and tragic story of T.J. Joseph, who was a professor at Newman College--a private Catholic institution in Kerala.  One of the questions he had in the exams upset a few students, which quickly became a huge issue, and a couple of months later, Joseph's hand was crudely chopped off in front of his family and was also fired from his job.

All these in India. In Kerala, which is often hailed as India's most progressive state.

First, about the question paper itself:

The question paper, for an internal degree exam in March, contained a text taken from an article written by P T Kunjumuhammed, a director of several award-winning films and former CPI(M) legislator.

Referring to his film Garshom, Kunjumuhammed explained in the article that the thread for a scene in the movie, in which the protagonist speaks to God, was picked from his own experience about a madman who used to speak to God. While reproducing the conversation as a passage for punctuation, Joseph replaced the mad man with Muhammed, thus making it seem like a dialogue between God and Muhammed.

Protesting against the question paper, Muslim organisations, particularly the Popular Front of India and Jamaat-e-Islami, had said it was an insult to Prophet Muhammed. The issue soon gained communal colour, leading to violent incidents in Thodupuzha region.

Just as this was beginning to show signs of calming down, Joseph was brutally, physically, attacked when he:

was returning home after attending Sunday prayers at the local church when he was attacked. He was accompanied by his mother and sister.

Police have taken into custody two suspected activists of the right-wing Popular Front of India. Joseph has been admitted to the Specialist Hospital in Kochi.

According to Joseph’s sister, Stella Joseph, the assailants in a van waylaid their vehicle and pulled out the lecturer, after bursting explosives to create a scare. While Joseph was being attacked, his mother and sister were warned not to step out of the vehicle. The gang fled the scene after severing his right hand.

To recap, a Christian professor at a Catholic college uses a standard text in the exams where he substitutes Muhammad in place of the mad man in the original. This causes a riot in town, and later his hand is chopped off in front of his mother and sister.

But, the story does not end there, as if these tragedies aren't enough. Joesph was:

was first suspended after the question paper row earlier this year and dismissed from service on September 1 on the ground that he had hurt the religious sentiments of a community.

Off with your hand, and off with your job!  That ought to teach everybody a lesson, eh :(

One might think that such a development would draw in the likes of India's equivalent of the FBI. Not!

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday informed the Keral High Court that it would not like to take up the case related to the attack on T. J. Joseph, Professor of Malayalam at Newman College in Thodupuzha, whose right palm was chopped off by the assailants on July 4.

The counsel for the agency made this clear while responding to a public interest litigation demanding that the NIA should take up the investigation of the case. It was pointed out that the case would not come under the purview of the agency, as the police had not included terrorism and anti-national activity charges against the accused.

According to Joseph's sister, Stella:

Even after getting his dismissal order, Mr. Joseph had written to the college management to pardon him. “He has touched the feet of the Bishop and the manager of the college seeking pardon,” she said.

Stella, a nun, said she had also met the Bishop on July 2, before the attack, on behalf of her brother.

The family is also upset by the pastoral letter written by the Kothamangalam bishop against Mr. Joseph. Ms. Stella said the entire family was “upset” and “scared.”

Mr. Joseph is presently undergoing physiotherapy as his right hand was hacked by radical outfit Popular front of India (PFI) on July 4. He was taking pain killers to ease the pain and is recovering slowly, she said.

The faculty body has filed protests that proper procedures were not followed, and the state's education minister calls the dismissal of the professor excessive.

And, al-Qaeda materials found at the attacker's homes?