Textbook terms Jesus a demon, just a printing mistake say authorities!

A ninth standard Hindi textbook in Gujarat termed Jesus Christ as demon (Haivaan) The Gujarat State School Textbook Board President reacted to the issue as ‘print mistake.' The Board has currently removed the word from their online edition of the book Christian communities staged a protest and demanded withdrawal of the textbook

A ninth standard Hindi textbook in Gujarat termed Jesus Christ as a demon (Haivaan). The Christian community has demanded to withdraw the textbook.

The Gujarat State School Textbook Board (GSSTB) which has published this Hindi textbook is being criticised for using the term haivaan instead of bhagawan. After the issue became public, the Gujarat Board has removed the controversial word haivaan from the online version of the textbook, published on the website of the Board.

However, to the shock of people who raised this question, GSSTB Executive President Nitin Pethani has told it was just a typo. His ‘printing mistake’ excuse has made the Christian community leaders angry.

However, Nitin has assured an internal inquiry into the blunder. The controversial reference appears on page 16, which is in the chapter titled "Teacher-student relationship in Indian culture".

Taking offence, several members of the Christian community gathered outside the office of the District Education Officer (DEO), staged a protest and demanded withdrawal of the book. "The textbook has depicted our God in a bad light. We condemn the word used for Jesus Christ. It has hurt our religious sentiments. We want the government to withdraw the book immediately."

Though GSSTB has removed the word from the online version of the textbook, they said it would not be possible to withdraw the textbooks as they were already distributed to students across the state.

"This was nothing but a printing mistake. Instead of word 'Bhagwan', the word 'haivaan' got printed. We have already made the correction in the online version. Since books have already been distributed among students, it is not possible to withdraw them now," Pethani said.

Following the criticism, GSSTB President said, "To make sure that the corrected version is taught to students, we will issue a written advisory to all the teachers, asking them to take into account this correction while teaching this subject".