Christians in Gujarat have demanded withdrawal of a school textbook that refers to Jesus Christ as a demon whose stories would be remembered forever.

The lesson appeared in the Hindi textbook for ninth grade under the Gujarat State Board.

The education minister and the chairperson of the textbook board have said that the error will be rectified soon. Officials said that the mistake was caused by a misprint.

The reference to Jesus Christ as a demon is made in chapter 16 of the book titled “Bharatiya Sanskriti Mein Guru-Shishya Sambandh” (the teacher-disciple relationship in the Indian culture).

On page 70, the line referring to Jesus Christ reads – “Iss sambandh mein haivan Isa ka ek kathan sadaa smaraniya hain.” Translated, it means that in this context, an incident of demon Jesus will always be remembered. The underlined sentence translates to “an incident of demon Jesus will always be remembered.”

Subramaniam Iyer, a lawyer who noticed the mistake, says that the error attracts section 295 (a) of the Indian Penal Code, which pertains to deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class. Speaking to News18, Iyer said, “Jesus is being portrayed as a demon to students. Quite clearly, this is a case that attracts section 295(a) of the IPC that pertains to hurting the religious sentiments of any class.”

Iyer said that the error may be unintentional, but it can create a rift between communities and cause a law and order problem. “This simply is unacceptable and should be removed immediately,” he added.

The news channel contacted Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama who said he was aware of the error and added that it will be corrected.

Nitin Pethani, chairperson of the Gujarat State Board of School Textbooks, said that it was a typographical error. “The word “haiva,” a disciple of Jesus Christ, got misprinted as “haivan,” meaning a demon,” he said, adding that “Aadam Isa” and “Haiva Isa” were the two disciples of Christ and an “n” inadvertently got printed in the book.

Christians from across the city and district submitted a memorandum to the district collector over the class IX Hindi Textbook published by Gujarat State School Textbook Board (GSSTB) that had printed adjective ‘hevaan’ or demon for Jesus Christ.

Christians from Syrian Church, Pentecost, Brethren Mission, Protestant, Roman Catholic and other denominations have expressed shock over the Textbook referring Jesus Christ as a demon.

Christians took out a rally and submitted a memorandum to district collector Mahendra Patel here on June 12.

Thousands of young people from Africa, many of them Catholics, migrate each year to major Indian cities, mainly to study, creating a new challenge for the Indian church. “The challenges are pastoral,” said Fr Martin Puthussery, secretary of the Commission of Migrants in Bangalore Archdiocese. He said Indian society is prejudiced against Africans, seeing them as wanton drug peddlers.

“It is difficult for them to rent accommodation because of the negative attitudes towards them and those who do find accommo-dation are almost always over-charged,” the Jesuit priest said.
Bangalore, where Father Puthussery is based, has at least 3,000 African students and a third of them are Catholic, he said.

Even though there are no official statistics on the number of Africans in the country, a rough estimate suggests that there are 50,000 Nigerians in India mostly in New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai.

The prejudice against Africans in Indian society cannot be helped but Africans are encouraged to join in with parish activities, Father Puthussery said. “We deliberately try to integrate them and help remove social preju-dice,” he said.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah, winding up a three-day visit to Kerala, gave a clear message to the state unit of the party—win the support of all non-Muslim minorities, especially Christians, and backward caste Hindus, in order to win more seats in the 2019 general election, according to people privy to the discussions.

State BJP leaders, who attended key meetings with Shah, said that he asked to focus on the reality behind getting only one seat rather than boasting about the increase in vote share for the party in the 2016 assembly election.

Kerala is crucial for BJP in its efforts to become a truly national party. The saffron juggernaut, which is on a roll in most Indian states, has not yet been able to make an electoral footprint in Kerala—one of the few states where the BJP has never won a parliamentary seat. However, the party was able to carve some success recently, arguably with the rise of Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi within the BJP. In the assembly election in May last year, BJP doubled its vote share to 16% and won its first seat.

“He has learned Kerala politics better than any state leader. Now he knows how to tackle it,” said BJP state president and national executive member Sreedharan Pillai, NDTV report-ed.

Kerala has a strong presence of Muslims and Christians, who together make up close to half of the state’s population, as per the 2011 census. “The Muslim Lea-gue has more or less consolidated the bulk of Muslim votes, and it may be a tough nut to crack. But he (Shah) believes the Christian votes, along with the backward caste Hindu votes, may swing in favour of the BJP,” said another state BJP leader, who did not wish to be named.

On June 3rd, Shah visited top Christian priests, including Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) major archbishop M.Soosa Pakiam and Syro-Malabar Church major archbishop.

A Catholic nun and four girls accompanying her were on June 13 forced out of a train in the central Indian State of Madhya Pradesh.

Government Railway Police detained them at Satna station in the state after rightwing Hindu groups accused Sister Bina Joseph of indulging in illegal religious conversion.
The group was traveling on Shipra Express to Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh capital, from the eastern Indian State of Jharkhand.

“As our train reached the station, police personnel forced us out and then detained saying the girls were being taken for religious conversion,” Sister Joseph told Matters India over phone from police station.

The nun and the girls were held up in the police station at the time of filing this report at 11:40 pm on June 13 almost 12-hours after their detention. The police personnel also recorded their statements before a Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) who reportedly ordered their release.

Confirming their detention, Satna GRP Police station in-charge S.R.Bagri told media persons, “The police personnel carried out a search in the Shipra Express in which they were travelling following complaint from Bajrang Dal activists.”

The Bishops of Kerala’s Catholic Church said on Jun 8 that it views with “openness” BJP chief Amit Shah’s recent bid to reach out to the Christians in the state, but made it clear that it could not agree with the “basic ideology” of the saffron party.

Expressing anguish over the Centre’s ban on sale of cattle for slaughter in animal markets, the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) said the church will not accept a government that dictates what people should eat.

He said the bishops discussed with Shah the minority rights.

“We did not discuss politics. We had a friendly discussion on minorities and their rights. He said the government is 100 per cent committed to protecting the constitutional rights of minorities,” Pakiam said.

“But, we will never accept a dictum on what we should eat or a government that dictates it. They (the BJP government) may try to impose their dictum as they are mighty. But we are not going to accept such decrees. For us, the Constitution is big,” he said.

Talking to reporters after the monsoon session of the KCBC here, the official, however, alleged rights of minorities were being violated in north India. He also said he had never expected Shah to meet the bishops.

Pakiam further said the bishops welcome those who visit their homes. “We are dealing with openness,” he said.