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When 24-year-old Vishal Kadam visited the Mahabodhi temple in Bodh Gaya last January, he was keen to see the spot where the Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment.
What caught Kadam’s eye, however, were idols of Hindu gods and goddesses in corners of the temple compound.
“There was very little of the essence of Buddhism,” Kadam said. “There were so many priests performing pooja and claiming they could solve the problems of the pilgrims through rituals,” he said.
It left him disturbed, he said, as Buddhism cautioned believers against such practices.
Buddhism was born in the 6th century BC as an alternative to the emphasis on ritual and caste hierarchy in Hinduism. The Mahabodhi temple is one of the four shrines associated with the Buddha and revered by followers of the religion.
Kadam remembers discussing the presence of Hindu rituals at the temple with his family members in Mumbai.
So, in February, when several Buddhist monks began an indefinite hunger strike in Bodh Gaya, demanding full control of the Mahabodhi temple, Kadam decided to join in.
A lab technician in a private hospital, Kadam took time off work to join rallies in Mumbai’s Chembur and Bandra areas to demand that the Bodh Gaya Temple Act, 1949, be repealed. “We are demanding that what is ours should be handed over to us entirely,” he said
The movement to “free” the Mahabodhi temple has struck a chord in Maharashtra, which has the largest Buddhist population (65.3 lakh) in India. At least 62 rallies supporting the demand for Buddhist control of the temple have been held in the state. Political parties such as Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and Republican Party of India, which have supporters from Dalit Buddhist communities, have also held protests.
Similar rallies are being organised across Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana and Tamil Nadu, leading up to a massive rally in Bodh Gaya on March 18 and 19.
“For the first time, our protest is taking a pan-India shape,” said Bhikaji Kamble, national secretary of the Buddhist Society of India.
The Act
The Bodh Gaya Temple Act, 1949, states that a committee constituted by the Bihar state government will look after the “management and control” of the Mahabodhi temple and its property.
According to the Act’s provisions, the committee should include eight members nominated by the state government – and four of them should be Hindus. The district magistrate will double as the chairman of the committee – provided he is a Hindu.
The protesting monks are questioning the rationale behind the act’s provisions.
“We don’t have Buddhist monks as committee members of the Sai Baba temple or an Islamic trust,” said Chetan Ahire, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi’s Mumbai vice president. “Then why do we have Hindu members in our temple?”
Ahire said the Mahabodhi temple compound has statues of Ram and Laxman. “There is also a Hanuman idol,” he said. “But there is very little writing on Buddhism that we can find there.”
He claimed that many international tourists who visit the temple to learn more about Buddhism are instead misled with mythological stories of Pandavas or Ramayana. “That has no link with the temple or how Buddha attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree,” he said.
Devanand Lokhande, associated with Buddhist Society of India, said that with the encouragement of the Hindu members of the temple, there has been a growing infiltration of Brahmin rituals and Hindu practices in the temple. “Buddha taught us [to guard] against superstitions,” he said. “It is exactly the opposite that is being practiced there.”
Said Prashant Randive, Maharashtra president of the All India Independent Scheduled Castes Association, “The very reasoning behind the Bodh Gaya Temple Act is Brahminical.”
He pointed out that the major political parties were silent about the protests. “The Indian National Congress was in power when negotiations over the temple’s management took place,” Ranadive said. “Currently it is the Bharatiya Janata Party. But both parties have a Brahminical lens and are silent about the issue. The BJP said that it would set right what the Congress had done wrong but when it comes to marginalised communities, it follows the same stance.”
It is only the Dalit and Bahujan political parties such as the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, Republican Party of India and the Aazad Samaj Party that have come out in support of the demand, he said.
An anti-caste movement
In Maharashtra, Buddhism got a boost when Bhimrao Ambedkar began the Dalit Buddhist Movement in 1956. The movement challenged Hinduism and rejected the caste hierarchy and inspired several Dalits, considered untouchables by Brahmins, to convert to Buddhism.
In Sindhudurg district, Sonu Kamble’s parents were amongst those who converted. “My parents were not allowed to enter a temple in our village,” he said. “We are still not allowed.” They eventually left their village to seek a better life in Mumbai.
Kamble, a 66-year-old retired worker with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, last visited the Mahabodhi temple in 2011. “Brahmins ruled the caste system,” he said. “Adopting Buddhism was our way of rejecting the caste system. Now the Brahmins are trying to control our temple too.”
Anant Jadhav, who heads a branch of the Buddhist Society of India in Mumbai, said he joined the protests to “oppose the superstitions imposed by priests in the temple”, he said. “Many pilgrims do not know history and they easily get fooled. And the priests make money.”
Several who attended the protest rallies told Scroll that they are not against any religion. “We just don’t want commercialisation of a place so sacred to us,” said Mahendra Rokhade, a Dalit who also adopted Buddhism.
Priyadarshi Telang, who is general secretary of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, pointed out that the Mahabodhi temple is sacred to Buddhists across the world. “It gets funds from the Indian government and international Buddhist groups in Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand and other countries,” he said. “Why not involve them in its management?”
Telang argued that if the Vatican is managed by Catholics and the Mecca by Muslims, then it is only right to demand that the Mahabodhi temple be managed by Buddhists. “Why should Brahmins be involved?” he asked.
He claimed that several Hindu temples across India have archaeological evidence of Buddhist origins. “If Buddhists began demanding rights to these temples, there would be a big hue and cry,” he said. “But all we are demanding is the management of one temple.”
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