On the site of the Peepal tree on the banks of the now dry river Niranjana, where Siddhartha Gautama became Buddha, is barely someone in the place of the Peepal tree (perfect enlightenment). The tree is located in the temple complex of Mahabodhi in Bodh Gaya, about 115 km south of Patna, the capital of Bihar. Also in the temple visitors are thin. The crowd is a few kilometers away, from a distance like a color palette of the circuit and chestnut. Details appear closely: of about 300 male monks sitting on protest, scattered with several women in white, in front of the statue of the Golden Buddha.
Buddhist monks under the auspices of the Buddhist Forum All India (AIBF) protest in the temple city of February 12, 2025 and demand the abolition of the act of sting gaya Temple Act (BT), 1949, which was accepted to regulate the temple management and resolve disputes between Hind and Buddhists.
“We want full control over the temple management committee. Why should there be members from other religions to control our temple management?” Says Akash Lama, a monk at the head of the protest. He says demand is not new, but now the Buddhist community is determined to continue protest on the street until their requirements are met.
The monks demand the abolition of the act of Bodh Gaya Temple Act, 1949. Photo Credit: Moorty RV
Currently, the UNESCO World Heritage Site has been built since 2002, built by Emperor Ashok in the 3rd century BC-prepared by the Bodh Gaya (BTMC) Temple Committee, consisting of four Buddhists and four Hindes, with the Gaya district judge as a former chairman.
The protest began near the temple, but the local administration moved people out of there and called it “forbidden zone”. 1 March moved to Domuhan, next to the road, on government soil. Here they eat and sleep under a waterproof canopy. There is a kitchen that feeds the protesters, most of the Maharashtra, and bare mattresses that accumulate when they are not used.
Jostling for Space are colored Buddhist flags; BHIM Army posters, a sociopolitical organization founded 10 years ago; and banners Dr. Bhima Rao Ambedkara, who managed the Indian design of the Constitution. Dr. Ambedkar, Dalit, was transferred to Buddhism to step out of the Hindu caste system. “Everyone who watches Ambedcar is Buddhists,” Akash says. Those around him nodded.
Temple control
In a letter to the District Municipality of Gaya in March 2025, Aibf called the current BTMC constitution “complete scam” dominated by people “witness”. He said, “The so -called four Buddhist members are also manually selected by this interest” and “Buddhist image, tradition and culture” will tarnish.
Four contemporary members of the Buddhists of the Temple Management Committee distanced themselves from protest and stated that key people have “personal ambitions”. Only two Hindu members are listed on the BTMC website.
Mahabodhi temple, which is regulated by the act of sting gaya Temple Act, 1949. Photo Credit: Moorty RV
In 2012, the Buddhist monks filed a written petition before the Supreme Court to abolish the 1949 law. In his plush office in Bodh Gaya, Mahashwet Maharathi, BTMC member secretary, “I cannot comment on this protest because it is unconstitutional. He says the current committee was created on July 17, 2023 with a hold of three years.
District judge Gaya Thiyagarajan SM says: “Protesting Buddhists should wait for the court’s judgment on this matter. The protest has been politicized because there are flags and supporters of the Bhim Army in a protest place.” He says that the delegation has encountered Bihar government officials, including officials from the domestic department for their requirements.
History meets identity
One of the provisions of the BT law was that the Bihar government would nominate “Hinduist as chairman of the Committee for a period during which the district judge of gaya is not a hinduist”. For example, in the 1960s, KM Zuberi was appointed as a Muslim officer Ias as a gay DM. The then government appointed Jageshwar Prasad, MLC, as chairman of BTMC for the period of dentist. In 2013, the amendment to the Act changed, which was the position of the religion of the former member.
The reason why the Buddhist place has Hindu members in its management committee has a history. Bodh Gaya has always seen pilgrims from all over the world, including Chinese travelers FA-HIEN and Hiuen Tsang, who visited the area in the 5th and 7th and 7th percentage advertising and, among other things, left bills of pilgrimage sites.
At the beginning of the 13th century, however, Bakhtiyar Khilji, the Turko-Afghan general Ghurid ruler Mohammad of Ghora led the Muslim conquest of East Indian regions of Bengal and Bihar. Buddhism saw a decline, and in 1590 he founded the hindu monk Ghamandi Giri The Bodh Gaya Mutt, Shaivite Monastery. The Shaivits believe that Buddha was the ninth incarnation of the Hindu Lord Vishnu, and therefore they are entitled to the temple. Hindu priests began to drive the temple afterwards. In the complex of more than 11 acres there is the temple of the Hindu deity Jagannath.
In the 19th century, the Buddhist monk Hevitaran Dharmapal, called Anagarika, traveled to India, or one who gave up secular property. In 1895, as the honorary Secretary of Mahabodhi Society in the then Ceylon, he took the then Mahanth to court to not allow him to place the picture of the Buddha in the temple.
The questionable problem was raised at the meeting of Gaya Congress in 1922 and the committee under Dr. Rajendra Prakad was established for a resolution of the conflict between Hindy and Buddhists for checking over the place of the temple.
After independence, the Bihar government brought BT an act that stipulated that all Buddhists and Hindes had the right to worship in the temple. “The act itself is illegal, unconstitutional and attacking freedom of religion,” Akash says.
In the 1890s of the 20th century, the then government under the main Minister of Lalu Yadav suggested gaya Mahavihara Bill to replace BT, allegedly to give the leadership of the Temple to the Buddhist community. The bill banned the immersion of an idol near the temple and Hindu marriages inside, but it has never passed.
In 2015, AIBF was created in Siliguri, West Bengal, and since then with several other Buddhist organizations have demanded the abolition of the BT law. In November 2023, the Buddhist monks organized a gay rally and presented the memorandum to the Central and State Government to ask for it, but when it did not have the desired result, the monks began in 2024 in 2024. Their numbers grow.
Protesters on the spot with a book on Buddhism. | Photo Credit: Moorty RV
“Several lawmakers and deputies who sympathize with our affairs have caused a problem in the State Assembly and Lok Sabha,” says Bhante Karunashil, who came from Haryana to join the protest. “Have you heard that someone religious is governed by members of another faith?” He says angry.
The Buddhist debate on Hindu arrived in Parliament in April this year, during the debates on the draft WAQF Act (amendment), 2025, which tried to include non -Muslims in Board of Directors and also put district collectors in their areas. Ubendra Kushwah, currently Rajya Sabha and formerly elected from Karakat in Bihar, said that while the congress was now against the WAQF law, “they were in power (in 1949 in 1949) when BT was approved”.
“At that time, you didn’t feel that it was a Buddhist temple, so you thought that the control should not be with them. On behalf of my party (Rashtriya Lok Morcha), I recall that we give the temple back to the Buddhists to handle matters,” he said.
The Indian Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) legislature from the Makhdumpurian constituency of the Jehanabad district, which comes from the neighboring gay district, has raised a problem in Bihar’s Assembly 7 March 2025. “But nothing has happened since then,” he says.
Later Satyadeo RAM, MLA from the same side from the district district Daraululi in the Siwan district, says he also raised the problem between 11 and 13.
Money depends
Several members of the Buddhist community claim that the real struggle is over the huge funds of the temple. In fact, in 2000, there was one of the Buddhist monks over finance from abroad. Maharathi, however, says that all gifts are carefully audited because it is governed by the rules of the Act on the 2010 Foreign Regulation. In 2023, the Center slapped a fine of 80 Lakh for the alleged violation of the provisions of FCRA.
Bhadant Anand Mahero, National President of Buddhagaya Mahabodhi Vihar All India Action Committee, a group that defends a temple to be operated by Buddhists who wrote a letter 2023, says:
In 2024, the Minister of Finance of the Union Nirmala Sitharaman announced the development of the Mahabodhi Temple Complex on the Kashi Vishwanath corridor lines. ”
Published – April 13, 2025 20:00
