ICC Note:

Christians in India’s Gujarat state are protesting against a school textbook that refers to Jesus as a demon and are demanding the local government change the reference and make a public apology. According to reports, the school textbook has been in circulation for a year and so far the government has refused to remove the offensive reference. Religious intolerance and violence against Christians and their places of worship have skyrocketed in recent years with the rise of the Hindu nationalist BJP-led government. Will the government take the necessary action to remove the offensive reference to Jesus as a demon? 

06/09/2017 India (The Indian Express) – The Christian community in Gujarat has demanded the immediate withdrawal of the Class IX Hindi textbook and the scrapping of the chapter on Guru-Shishya sambandh for referring to Jesus as ‘hevaan’ (demon). They held a protest demonstration outside the office of the District Education Officer Friday against the error ​that has not been corrected since the book was put out last year, by the Gujarat State School Textbook Board (GSSTB)​.

The community has also demanded a public apology to be published by the Gujarat government. ​ In chapter 16 ‘​Bhar​a​tiya sanskriti me guru-shishya sambandh’ on page number 69 ​has a line that says ‘iss sambandh me hev​a​an ​Isa ka ek kathan sada smarniya hai’. ​(In this context one anecdote of ‘demon’ Jesus, is very memorable)​.

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