The Buddhists objected to the textbook’s claims that the religion has two levels — upper and lower — of people, its religious teacher is known as Lama, and that it believes in reincarnation, among others.

The office of the GSBST director Thursday received representations from Gujarat Buddhist Academy (GBA), GPSC former member Mulchand Rana and many followers of the religion seeking to remove the “lies” from the textbook and replace it with correct information. Copies of the representations were also marked to the Chief Minister, Governor and Education Minister. GBA is a leading Buddhist organisation in the state. It claimed that the false information has been published with an “ill-intention”.

However, GSBST director Gosai, said it is “more of a matter of factual error”. “The Sociology textbook of Class XII has been printed since 2017 and there is a paragraph on Buddhism in it. In its previous edition of 2005, too, this content was there. We have got representations related to it for the first time. We have taken it (the representations) seriously,” he said.

The controversial paragraph appears in a subsection of the chapter ‘Indian Culture and Community’ that deals with eight religious communities residing in India, one being Buddhism. The paragraph reads: “Like Sikhs, the portion of the followers of Buddhism is also meager in India. Most of them live in Maharashtra. They also reside in north-west India and in Arunachal Pradesh.

Buddhism had a considerable spread in India at the time of the emperor Ashoka. Buddhism has three branches, namely, Hinyana, Mahayana and Vajrayan. It has two levels. The upper level of Buddhism includes Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and certain elites, while the lower level consists of the tribals and marginal groups converted to Buddhism. Sarnath, Saanchi and Bodhigaya are important centers of Buddhism. Their religious teacher is known as Lama. Their religious places, known as Buddhist temples, have ‘wish wheels’. Tripitaka is their scripture and they believe in karma and reincarnation.”

The Class 12 textbook is available in Gujarati, Hindi, English, Marathi, Urdu and Sanskrit.

Taking note of the ‘controversial’ paragraph, GBA has pointed out five “lies” about Buddhism and its followers in it. In reference to textbook mention of “two levels” of Buddhism, the GBA memorandum stated that the religion is like “an ocean” that includes and accepts people from all groups of the society, and “unlike Hinduism, does not follow a caste system”.

It has also called it a lie that Buddhists believe in reincarnation. On the reference to Lama as the religious teacher of Buddhists, the memorandum says, “Lamas are religious gurus of Tibetan Buddhist sect and not of entire Buddhism. The religious gurus in Buddhism are known as Bhikshu.”

The memorandum said the wish wheel is a Tibetan tradition and not a symbol of Buddhism accepted by all. The Buddhist symbol is a “dhamma chakra (Ashok Chakra) that is there in the emblem of India”.

Mulchand Rana’s representation stated that Buddhist religious places are not Buddhist temples but Bauddha Vihar.

The state board has asked the representatives to share the correct facts. “We will circulate the corrected paragraph in schools and the question on it will also be asked accordingly in exams. When the book gets printed next, the correction will be made in it… We are open. They (the Buddhists) have told us that they will provide the correct details in two days. Once they provide it, we will discuss it with the authors and decide on the new details to be kept (in the textbook),” Gosai added.

GBA secretary Ramesh Banker said, “The board has accepted the mistake and asked us to provide a correct version to replace the current text with. We will provide it in a day or two.”