Mass Buddhist protests in India: fighting for the shrine in Bodh Gaya

In the city of Bodh Gaya in the Indian state of Bihar, mass protests by Buddhists are ongoing, demanding that full control of the Mahabodhi Temple be transferred to their community. Demonstrations have spread to various regions of the country, from Ladakh in the north to Mumbai and Mysore, and more and more people are coming to Bodh Gaya to join the main protest. This is reported by local media, writes UNN.

Details

Several Buddhist organizations held rallies, from Ladakh, which borders China in the north, to the cities of Mumbai in the west and Mysore in the south. According to Akash Lama, General Secretary of the All India Buddhist Forum (AIBF), people are now increasingly heading to Bodh Gaya to join the main protest.

According to the country's latest census in 2011, there are an estimated 8.4 million Buddhist citizens in India.

For the past 76 years, the temple has been run by a committee of eight people - four Hindus and four Buddhists - in accordance with the Bodh Gaya Temple Act of 1949, a law of the state of Bihar.

But protesters, including monks in saffron robes with loudspeakers and banners in their hands, are demanding the repeal of this act and the full transfer of the temple to Buddhists. They argue that in recent years, Hindu monks, who are allowed by the influence that the community has under the law, have increasingly performed rituals that challenge the spirit of Buddhism, and that other, more subtle forms of protest have failed.

The Hindu monastery of Bodh Gaya Math, which performs rituals inside the complex, insists that it has played a central role in maintaining order in the sanctuary for centuries and that the law is on its side.

Protesters point out that the Buddha was an opponent of Vedic rituals. 

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