If Keralas cops had taken a good look at a slender graphic novel that came out in 2006,the laid-back twin towns of Thodupuzha and Moovattupuzha in Kochis suburbs would have remained just that. Believers,written by Abdul Sultan and illustrated by Partha Sengupta,tracks the homecoming of Hamid,an anthropologist in Edinburgh University,to his Kerala small town after twelve years. He finds the neighbourhood communally charged and his own brother leading a local band of hardliners. Still new and naïve,he asks an old school buddy to give him a helping hand in setting matters right. The friend retorts,I wont have any hands left to even wave you goodbye when you leave. With characteristic candour,the graphic narrative shows a semi-silhouetted figure with the right hand gone. This July,this is precisely what happened in Moovattupuzha. On his way back from morning mass,T J Joseph,a professor who taught Malayalam at Newman College in adjoining Thodupuzha,was stopped close to his house and assaulted with knives and scythes. His right hand was chopped off and flung into a neighbours front yard. This was instant justice for perceived insult to faith the professor had committed. The routine question paper Joseph set for the March-end exams included an exercise to punctuate a passage. The passage,drawn from an essay on film-scripting by well-known Malayalam moviemaker P T Kunjumuhammad,is the soliloquy of a hallucinating villager in conversation with God. To go with the setting,Joseph says he gave the unnamed villager a common Muslim nameMohammad. In just 48 hours,photocopies of the question paper originally meant for the internal assessment of 32 students sprung up all over town. Scans are still freely floating around on the Internet. However,to detail it further here could amount to sacrilege. l l l A VISIT to this place can make you particularly sensitive to the ever-dipping offence threshold. My driver broke into cold sweat every time I stepped out of the car to sketch. New to these parts,having driven me up from faraway Palakkad,he was quick to sense the fear in the air. The locals have got a bit more seasoned to the might of the easily offended. The eleventh commandment is writ all over the place: Thou shalt not provoke! In just three days after the punctuation test,whoever was waiting to be provoked commandeered a mob to storm the college. The college suspended Joseph and the University withdrew his and the principals designations. Soon enough,the senate found neither culpable and restored their status. The college run by the local Syro-Malabar Diocese,however,showed no hurry to bring the matter to a closure. That happened a clear two months after the assault on Joseph. Monsignor Thomas Malekudy,the manager of the college,terminated the professors 22-year-long service,after what Prof Rajan Gurukkal,the Vice Chancellor of the university,describes as mechanical procedure. Newman College is a government-aided institution,not a pontifical seminary teaching catechism. The government is the pay master. Well use the implied powers in the University Act. Meanwhile,Prof Josephs life got even more eventful. The state slapped a case on him for causing communal disaffection. He went underground before he could arrange bail and surrender. His son Mithun,an MBA student,was allegedly picked up and harassed. The professors colleagues were grilled too. While at it,one cop did an uncanny gestural demonstration. He caught hold of a teachers arm and raised it to point out where exactly it would get cut off if he kept covering for Joseph. This,a clear two months before the assailants struck. Is the crystal ball part of the police kit? With such precise premonition on the nature of the backlash,why didnt they protect Joseph? Out on bail,he had no police escort when he was attacked. On the Sunday I reach Newman College,there are only policemen there. They wouldnt let me sketch. We havent even allowed TV chaps from Delhi to shoot. So whats the way out for a lowly doodler? Get proper permission to sketch. Which I manage,thanks to a helpful sub inspector at the local station. He persuades his superior and radioes the message to the campus contingent. That starts a most cordial debate on whether the wireless message amounts to consent for sketching from outside the gates or inside. Amidst the time-consuming cordiality,an odd cop suddenly flares up. The college authorities havent cleared you. Beat it! I wonder from whom he takes his orders. Keralas men in khaki have strange loyalties,including political. Elections to the police associations for both the officers and men are fought on party lines. Ironically,the students of Newman College have had far fewer opportunities to articulate their politics. College union elections have happened only once in the last six years. A little politics however,is visible outside the college gatesSFI posters thundering against the college management. Unlike its students wing,the parent party has been quite guarded. The Marxist minister for Education,MA Baby,made three distinct remarks coinciding with each of the incidents that marred Josephs life and career. The first,when the question paper became a controversy and the university probe was still on: The professor is a pozhan (dumb). Next,when the assault happened: The professor had no business to hurt religious sentiments but the incident is regrettable. And finally and unequivocally,when the dismissal order came: This is unfortunate. He has already been punished. We will act. Five months and much political ground lost,Marxian clarity finally surfaced. In the rival Congress-led camp,ironically,the Muslim League hesitated the least. Their leaders went public distancing Islam from terror. With local body elections just a fortnight away and the assembly polls due early next year,no one is bothering too much about the big picture. Which,in fact,has been staring everyone in the face for a good eighteen years since the Babri Masjid fell. This Kochi suburb has a considerable Muslim presence,the bulk of which was traditionally with the Congress. Local Muslim Congress leaders had made it big in the party and the government. When the national party failed to protect the mosque,many became easy picks for the likes of Abdul Nasser Madani,the PDP leader. Quite a few part-legit,part-suspect Islamic outfits have since emerged. The Popular Front of India,much talked about since the assault on the professor,is one such. Among other things,it is known for its uniformed cadre,outfitted apparently at a cost of Rs 1,500 per activist. No party takes on a player in uniform or cassock. The public does,at least some sections of it. Joseph is backed by his colleagues,mostly Christians,and the teachers associations are fundraising for his medical care from members across the state and communities. l l l If there is one spot in town where intimidation hasnt worked at all,it is the professors home. Almost inhumanly stoic,his mother,wife,daughter and son betray no sign of stress. Sitting cross-legged on his bed like a sadhu,Joseph answers all obvious questions,perhaps for the nth time. No posturing,no finger pointing,not a trace of victimhood. If this is rehearsed performance,I have neither the Kerala cops crystal ball nor its politicians wisdom to see through the act. I once wanted to research the black humour in Malayalam short stories for my Ph.D. A bit of it seems to have caught up with me. I went into custody on Maundy Thursday,was sent to the local sub-jail on Good Friday and unlike the Lord who spent three days on the crucifix with two thieves,spent six days with 14 undertrials. They turned out to be a most pleasant lot that made sure the floor was clean enough to sleep on and the toilet as good as it gets. Prison is where Socialism works. Joseph thanks everyone who chipped in for his rehabilitation. The medical bills have mounted. He needed intricate micro vascular surgery to sew back the severed hand and is still on physiotherapy six days a week. The closest he comes to blaming someone is when he refers to the threat calls the principal received. The warnings werent passed on. Even the principal finds no motive for his slip or any flaw in his track record. Joseph was the colleges choice for conducting value education. His course material touched upon many religious texts with empathy rather than any proclivity to provoke. So what went wrong on that summer day? If at all there was anything amiss,it was that one of the four Muslim students in the class answered the controversial question with a note that asked,why the M-name? Let me replace it with another. Not out of any hurt,she hastened to tell the professor,more in mock-seriousness. She lost nothing in the process. The professor evaluated the amended answer like the rest. Then why the sack order? I ask the Principal. Weve to protect the reputation of this 46-year-old institution. Joseph shouldve known better than to trigger the kind of reaction he did. This is hindsight. How can you anticipate the days offence level? It isnt part of the weather bulletin. Ask the manager! He takes decisions here. The manager,Thomas Malekudi,turns out to be as formidable as the mammoth engineering college he works out of,a recent addition to the Dioceses educational chain. He wouldnt talk. Enough has been written against us. I tell him thats precisely what brings me here,to get your side of the story. Who cares? Go speak to that fellow (meaning the sacked professor) and write what you want! Our version is all over the newspapers. Go and copy out the reports! In any case,I cant speak. The matter is sub-judice. After I leave Thodupuzha,an old colleague calls up. An emissary from the monsignor wants him to find out if I felt hurt. The big man apparently thought I was from the Malayalam daily Express,defunct for a good decade. Forget the time warp,how does that change the situation? Does the sub-judice provision have linguistic jurisdiction? Which court would let him speak to the English press and not to a Malayalam reporter? Prof Josephs question paper has put to test many more than it was meant tofrom police to priest to politician. Not one has come up trumps. Little wonder the professor found the local sub-jail far more pleasant than the college that carries the just beatified Cardinal Newmans name. Yes,it is the same John Henry Newman who famously wrote,Lead kindly Light The light at the moment is low beam and worse,youve been bullied into dipping it.
