There is hardly anyone on the Peepal tree site on the shores of the Niranjana river now dry, where Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha, after it is believed to have reached Samma-Sambodhi (perfect lighting). The tree is located in the Mahabodhi temple complex in Bodh Gaya, about 115 km south of Patna, the capital of Bihar. Inside the temple too, visitors are scarce. The crowd is to a couple or mileage, seen from a distance as a ocher and garnet color palette. The details emerge closely: or about 300 male monks sitting in protest, intacted with some blank women, in front of a statue of Golden Buddha.
The Buddhist monks, under the banner of the Buddhist forum of All India (AIBF), have been protesting in the city of the Temple since February 12, 2025, demanding the repeal of the law of the Bodh Gaya Temple (BT), which went and acted to Hinden and Hinden, the management and the resolving and Hindlee and Hinde Hinde -hinde -Hindehindehindehindehindehindehindehindehindehinde -hindehindehinde -Hinde -Hinde -Hinde -hinde -hinde -hinde -hinde -hinde -hinde -hinde -hinde -hinde -mans.
“We want total control of the temple management committee. Why should there be members of other religions to manage the management of our temple?” Akash Lama says, the monk leading the protest. He says that demand is not new, but now, the Buddhist community is determined to continuously protest on the street until their demands are met.
The monks demand the repeal of the law of the Bodh Gaya Temple, 1949. Photo credit: Moorthy RV
Currently, the Temple-A UNESCO World Heritage Center since 2002, built by Emperor Ashoka in the third century BC-BC-is administered by the management committee of the Bodh Gaya Temple (BTMC), consisting of four Buddhists and the president of Four-A-Bet.
The protest began near the temple, but the local administration evicted people from there, calling it a “prohibited area.” On March 1, he moved to Domuhan, next to a road, in government lands. Here, under an impermeable canopy, they eat and sleep. There is a kitchen to feed the protesters, most Maharashtra, and naked mattresses that are stacked when they are not in use.
Jostling for Space are colorful Buddhist flags; Bhim Army posters, a socio -political organization founded 10 years ago; and banners of Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar, who directed the drafting of the Constitution of India. Dr. Ambedkar, a Dalit, became Buddhism to get out of the Hindu caste system. “All who follow Ambedkarji are Buddhists,” says Akash. Those who surround it nodded.
Temple control
In a letter to the magistrate of the Gaya district in March 2025, the AIBF described the current constitution of the BTMC “a complete deception”, dominated by people “with unstable interests.” He said: “The so -called four Buddhist members are also selected for this personal interest,” taking “the Buddhist tradition, tradition and culture.”
The four current Buddhist members of the temple management committee have distanced themselves from the protest, saying that key people have “personal ambitions.” There are only two Hindu members on the BTMC website.
The Mahabodhi temple, which is regulated by the law of the Bodh Gaya Temple, 1949. | Photo credit: Moorthy RV
In 2012, the Buddhist monks had presented a judicial order request before the Supreme Court to repeal the law of 1949. In their luxurious office in Bodh Gaya, Mahashweta Maharathi, the member secretary of the BTMC, says: “I cannot comment on this protest since it is unconstitutional. The issue is subjudice.” She says that the current committee was formed on July 17, 2023, with a three -year mandate.
Gaya Thiyagarajan SM district magistrate says: “Protestant Buddhists should wait for the court verdict on the subject. The protest has referred to as there are flags and supporters of the Bhim army at the protest site.” He says that the delegation with Bihar government officials, including those of the Department of Origin, for their demands.
History meets identity
One of the provisions of Law BT was that the Bihar Government would nominate “a Hindu as president of the Breath Breath Committee that Gaya’s district magistrate is not Hindu.” In the 1960s, for example, a Muslim IAS officer, Km Zuberi was appointed Gaya DM. The then government had appointed Jageshwar Prasad, a MLC, as president of the BTMC for the Zuberis tenure period. An amendment to the law changed this in 2013, causing the position of the former religion-neutral member.
The reason why a Buddhist site has Hindu members in its management committee has a history. The Bodh Gaya complex has always seen pilgrims from all over the world of the visit, including Chinese travelers FA-Hien and Hien Tsang, who visited the area in the fifth place of the 7th Centeuries, the left-wing accounts, among the otespots.
However, at the beginning of the thirteenth century, Bakhtiyar Khilji, a Turkish-Fgano general of the ruler Ghurid Mohammad de Ghor, directed the Muslim conquests of the Eastern Indian regions of Bengala and Bihar. Buddhism saw a decrease, and in 1590, a Hindu monk, Ghamandi Giri, established Bodh Gaya Mutt, a Shaivite monastery. The Shaivites believe that Buddha was the ninth incarnation of Mr. Hindu Vishnu, therefore, they have a claim on the temple. The Hindu priests asked to handle the temple there. In the 11 Acres complex, there is a temple of the Hindu Jagannath deity.
In the nineteenth century, a Hevitarian Buddhist Dharmapala, called Anagarika, or one that renounces worldly possessions, traveled to India. In 1895, as honorary general secretary of the Mabodhi society in the then Ceilán, he took the then Mahanth to the Court without allowing him to place an image of Buddha in the temple.
The contentious issue was raised in the Gaya session of the Congress in 1922 and a committee under Dr. Rajendra Prasad was constituted for the resolution of the conflict between Hindus and Buddhists for control over the temple site.
After independence, the Bihar government brought Law BT, which stipulated that all Buddhists and Hindus had the right to worship in the temple. “The same act is illegal, unconstitutional and an assault on the freedom of religion,” says Akash.
In the 1990s, the then government under Prime Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav had written the Bodh Gaya Mahavihara bill to replace Law BT, allegedly to deliver the management of the temple to the Buddhist community. The bill had banned the immersion of idols near the temple and the Hindu Marias inside, but was never approved.
In 2015, AIBF was formed in Siliguri, Western Bengal, and since they, along with several other Buddhist organizations have been demanding the repeal of Law BT. In November 2023, the Buddhist monks had celebrated a demonstration in Gaya and presented a memorandum to the central and state governments to ask for this, but when it did not have the desired result, the monks again celebrated a demonstration in Patna in 2024. They began the protest of Sit-In Indefinite on February 12, 2025. They have been two months now and their numbers are growing.
A protester on the site with a book about Buddhism. | Photo credit: Moorthy RV
“Several legislators and parliamentarians who sympathize with our cause have raised the problem in the state assembly and the Lok Sabha,” says Bhante Karunashil, who has come from Haryana to join the protest. “Have you heard of a religious site is regulated by members or other faith?” He says, angry.
The Buddhist-Hindu debate arrived at Parliament in April of this year, giving the debates on the WAQF (amendment) bill, 2025, which sought to include non-Muslims in meetings that govern WAQF property, and also put the district collection. Upendra Kushwaha, currently deputy of Rajya Sabha and formally chosen from Karakat, in Bihar, said that while Congress opposed the WAQF bill now, “they were in power (in Bihar in 1949) when Law BT was approved.”
“At that time, you did not feel that it is a Buddhist temple, so you, although the control should not be with them. Being my group (rashtriya Lok Morcha), I know that we return the temple to the Buddhists so that it sees.
The legislator of the Communist Party of the Jehanabad District of the Jehanabad District, who comes from the neighboring district of Gaya, raised the issue in the Bihar Assembly on March 7, 2025. He says he presented Nish and also presented Nish and also presented Nish and also Samrat Choudhary in the support of Buddhists. “But since then, nothing has happened,” he says.
Later, Satyadeo Ram, a MLA of the same part of Daruli’s constitution of the Siwan district, says he had also raised the problem between March 11 and 13 at the state assembly, but it has not yet been an action.
Money matters
Several members of the Buddhist community say that the real fight is about temple funds. In fact, in 2000, they had invited among the Buddhist monks about the finance of the foreigner. Maharathi, however, says that all donations are carefully audited because the rules of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Law, 2010. On the BTMC website, the link to its annual report is not functional. In 2023, the center had slapped a fine of ₹ 80 Lakh for allegedly violating FCRA’s provisions.
Bhadant Anand Mahaushero, national president of the action committee of Buddhagaya Maabodhi Vihar All India, a group that advocates the temple to be directed by the Buddhists, who had the letter of 2023, says: “What is this for the federations of the federations of the federations of the federations of the federations of federations?”
In 2024, the Minister of Finance of the Union, Nirmala Sitharaman, had announced development plans for the Temple Complex Mahabodhi in the lines of the Kashi Fishwanath corridor. “
Published – April 13, 2025 08:00 pm ist