Calling for the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya to be placed wholly under Buddhist administration, Indian junior minister Ramdas Athawale on Tuesday pledged to lead a major protest rally in Mumbai in October demanding a revision of the temple’s managing committee, currently shared between Hindu and Buddhist members.

“The date for the Mahabodhi Mahavihar Mukti Andolan [Mahabodhi Temple Liberation Movement] has been unanimously decided as on 14 October [social reformer] Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar embraced Buddhism in 1956,” Athawale, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment and Republican Party of India chairman, announced during a press conference on 16 September. “The rally will be held from Ranibaug, Byculla, to Azad Maidan [in Mumbai] for the liberation of Mahabodhi Mahavihara.” (Deccan Chronicle)

The Mahabodhi Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was commissioned by the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka in the third century BCE to commemorate the location where Shakyamuni Buddha attained liberation. Despite the site’s central role in Buddhist history and spiritual practice, administration of the temple has been dictated by a 1949 law that originally mandated a nine-member Bodhgaya Temple Management Committee composed of four Hindus and four members of the Buddhist community, with the District Magistrate of Gaya, also a Hindu, serving as the ex-officio chairman.  

Media reports this year indicate that advocates across India and around the world have cast a spotlight on the growing urgency of addressing this issue, with Buddhist communities in Cambodia, Canada, Japan, Laos, Mongolia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the United States voicing solidarity with calls for the temple to be returned to Buddhist control. Hundreds of Buddhist monastics and lay supporters have been demonstrating and calling for change to the Mahabodhi Temple’s management system so that the site can be entrusted entirely to the Buddhist community, without state interference in spiritual affairs.

The ongoing debate surrounding the Mahabodhi Temple Management Act, 1949, underscores a deeper issue of religious representation and governance in India. The temple holds immense significance for Buddhists globally, and its governance structure—originally mandating a Hindu majority and later amended to equal Hindu-Buddhist representation—has long been a point of contention. Many Buddhists argue that the Buddhist community should have full control over the temple’s management, as is the case with other major religious sites in India and abroad.

“The Mahabodhi Temple is the holiest site for Buddhists across the globe. It is where Lord Gautam Buddha attained enlightenment. Such a sacred institution must be wholly managed by Buddhists,” Athawale, a practicing Buddhist, observed. “Religious places of each religion are under the trust of that particular religion: Hindu trustees in Hindu temples; Muslim trustees in Muslim dargahs and mosques; Sikh trustees in Sikh gurudwaras. Then why is the Buddhist monastery not under the control of Buddhists? Mahabodhi Mahavihara belongs to Buddhists and its management should be completely under the control of Buddhists.” (Deccan Chronicle)

Athawale has taken his campaign to India’s highest political levels to advance this cause. According to media reports in India, Athawale has also met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to discuss the issue. 

A number of Buddhist organizations and communities have held demonstrations for the repeal of the Bodh Gaya Temple Act, 1949, a Bihar state law, including in Ladakh in India’s far north, Mumbai in the west, and Mysuru (formerly Mysore) in the south. 

Buddhist monks of various traditions in Bodh Gaya have been vocal in demanding that the Act be revoked and the temple be handed over to full Buddhist control. They argue that Hindu monks, enabled by the greater influence their community wields under Indian law, have been performing an increasing number of rituals at the Bodh Gaya Math, a Hindu monastery inside the Mahabodhi complex, which they assert runs counter to the spirit of Buddhism.

Although the historical Buddha attained enlightenment in what is now modern-day India, the nation is home to a diversity of religious beliefs and practices, with Buddhists representing a small but vocal minority at 0.7 per cent of the population, or 8.4 million people, according to census data for 2011. Dharmic religions collectively—Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism—make up 83 per cent of the total population. Individually, Hindus represent 79.8 percent, Muslims 14.2 per cent; Christians 2.3 per cent, Sikhs 1.7 per cent, animism 0.5 per cent, Jainism 0.4 per cent, and Judaism 0.1 per cent.

See more

Athawale To Lead Rally Demanding Full Buddhist Control Of Mahabodhi Temple (Deccan Chronicle)
Mahabodhi Temple Bodhgaya
The Bodh Gaya Temple Act, 1949 (Bihar Act Of 17 Of 1949) (Mahabodhi Temple Bodhgaya)
Buddhism’s holiest site erupts in protests over Hindu ‘control’ of shrine (Al Jazeera)
In Solidarity: Demand Buddhist Control Over the Mahabodhi Temple (Change.org)

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