THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A Kerala professor who had his right hand chopped off due to alleged  blasphemy charges from Islamists, has won an award for an autobiography he wrote with his left hand.

The Kerala Sahitya Akademi award for the best autobiography of 2020 was just announced, and it went to Professor T J Joseph's Malayalam autobiography titled "Attupokatha Ormakal" (Unforgettable memories), which was announced the other day.

Joseph's right hand was severed in 2010 by members of the "Popular Front of India" (PFI) after they reportedly accused him of blasphemy. In the Idukki area, Joseph, a professor of Malayalam at the Newman College, Thodupuzha, angered the fundamentalists by giving the character Muhammad's name in a question paper for an internal exam.

Later, Joseph explained that he had borrowed a quote from well-known author P T Kunju Muhammad about a madman's conversation with God. Although the article did not give the madman's name, Joseph gave it in the exam because Muhammad was the name of the author.

When the PFI assaulted him on July 4, 2010, he was 52 years old. He had his right hand severed. He wasn't brought back to life for a very long period. But because of the abnormality, he was no longer able to write with his right hand. So he began studying how to write with his left hand. In the end, he used his left hand to write his memoirs, which was then released in 2020. It detailed his life's hardships.

The college administration also refused to back Joseph. Due of depression, his wife took her own life.
After receiving positive reviews, the autobiography was then translated into English under the name "A thousand cuts." In addition, Joseph wrote a second book, Bhranthanu Sthuthi (Praise the Madman), on the madman mentioned in the exam question.

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