by A. J. PHILIP
Professor T. J. Joseph with his wife Salomi. Joseph’s right hand was cut off at the wrist by Muslim fanatics for so called “blasphemy.” The Newman College’s refusal to reinstate Joseph back into the college and other pressures led Salomi to commit suicide. PHOTO/Matrubhumi
The religious zealots left him only after his right hand was cut at the wrist and thrown away like a piece of rubbish. With so many deep wounds all over his body, few expected Prof Joseph to survive, let alone return to teaching on March 28, 2014.
I was at that time in Delhi. I wanted to know what provoked the warriors of faith to attack an unarmed person in the presence of his aged mother, wife and children. Alas, no mainstream newspaper or television channel gave any details about the alleged blasphemy.
I used my contacts in Delhi to reach Prof Joseph’s acquaintances on phone and get hold of a copy of the impugned question paper in which he was alleged to have committed blasphemy and the text, based on which he had prepared it. I was convinced that there was no blasphemy and I mentioned it in my first column on the subject that appeared a few days after the horrendous chopping.
Blasphemy has always been a contentious subject. Last week, I read Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar’s article on blasphemy in the “Pakistan Times”. She has enumerated several false blasphemy cases in Pakistan, “the land of the pure”. A majority of the victims were Christians. One is alleged to have written a pamphlet against the Prophet when, in fact, he was an illiterate! It is the easiest charge that can be made against a person. Even judges who decided in favour of the alleged blasphemers had to pay a heavy price, some with their own lives.
To return to Prof Joseph, whom I visited last week at his house at Moovattupuzha, doctors did a commendable job when they joined the severed portion with his hand and took large portions of flesh from his thighs to reconstruct his hands and legs. Today, he can lift a bucket of water with his re-constructed hand and walk almost normally. Medicine and physiotherapy have been doing wonders to his body.
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