A silence of conspiracy
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
(Asian independent) The Bihar government has decided that the pilgrim city of Gaya would now be called Gaya ji. The announcement in this regard was officially made by the government after a cabinet meeting in Patna. Ironically, the Bihar government so far has not uttered a single sentence about the legitimate demand of the Buddhists world to hand over the historic MahaBodhi Vihar Temple to them. The Buddhists have been silently protesting since February 12th, 2025 at Gaya but sadly this remains unnoticed by the media as well as political parties. Some of the political leaders of various parties raised the issue in Bihar Assembly but fact of the matter is that none of the top-ranking political leaders of parties have spoken anything about it.
On the Buddha Purnima Day, governor Arif Mohammad Khan visited the holy shrine and spoke about the greatness of Buddha but remained silent on the issue. Buddhist activists accused the governor of offering archana to Lord Shiva too, ignoring the sentiments of the Buddhists. Shockingly, while speaking big things about Buddha at an event, the governor did not even notice that the Buddhists were sitting for over two months asking for a change in the BodhGaya Temple Management Committee.
Prior to Buddha Purnima day, there was a continuous dharana at the site and Buddhists particularly from Maharashtra were thronging the place. Bahujan Vikas Aghadi leader Prakash Ambedkar too visited the place and expressed his strong solidarity with the movement. BSP leader Ms Mayawati too expressed her solidarity with the movement though she has not yet travelled to Bodh Gaya. Except for these two leaders, no other leader of any recognised party has spoken about it. RJD which is the main opposition party in Bihar has rarely spoken about it. PDA leader Akhilesh Yadav and his party has not bothered to speak about it. Rahul Gandhi who has travelled to Bihar several times now and raised the issue of Dalits has not spoken a single sentence about the Mahabodhi Temple issue. All these leaders greeted people on Buddha Purnima day but sadly remained conspicuously silent.
There is no reference of this anywhere in the newspapers or electronic media except a few youtubers and Ambedkarite portals writing about the issue regularly but most of the writings and reporting do not really investigate or introspect on the issue. Rather, we get faithful reporting of leaders and cadres mostly from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. There is a clash of political ideologies here too and that is natural. For millions of Dalits in India, road to Buddhism goes via Baba Saheb Ambedkar while for a number of Buddhists in the Himalayan regions like Ladakh, Darjeeling, Himachal or Uttar Pradesh, Buddhism may not have the same political connotation as for the Ambedkarites who look upon it like a liberation theology. That contradiction seems to be emerging here too and blame game too has started.
There was a call for a big gathering on Buddha Purnima Day but it seems except for the dedicated Buddhists from Maharashtra and many from Uttar Pradesh, there was not a big crowd. Till the date, one Akash Lama was leading the ‘nonpolitical movement’ but suddenly he announced the suspension of the Dharana on Buddha Purnima day resulting in accusation of conniving with RSS and the government. It is at this point of time another Bhante Vinaya Acharya who seems to have questioned this suspension of Dharna as well as the inactive movement and wanted to launch a bigger movement to liberate the holiest shrines of the Buddhists, is missing from the night. It seems he has been arrested by the police though there is no information about his whereabouts. It is also strange that Bhant’s arrest or disappearance has not found its way in the Bihar media. Not much is heard from the political class about him. So, nobody actually knows what is happening as there is not a single official line of the Buddhists as well.
A video has gone viral in which a local vendor responds Jai Shri Ram to the shout of Jai Bhim. There is an altercation there as to how come a non-Buddhist or anti Buddhist person allowed to be in the location of Maha Bodhi Vihar. The Buddhists from Maharashtra might find it offensive but the fact is that the Maha Bodhi Vihar movement would have succeeded if this was in Maharashtra or there were enough Buddhists in Bodh Gaya which unfortunately is the bitter truth. Despite all sloganeering of PDA or Bahujans, a majority of Bahujan masses actually suffer from their own caste hierarchies and the only thing unite them is discrimination by the Brahmanical forces but so far they have not yet launched a movement which could eliminate Brahmanism from among themselves. Many of the intellectuals claim that it is a conspiracy to speak about that because only the Brahmins exploit them. A majority of the people, communities and castes live in and around Mahabodhi Vihar belong to Dalit Bahujan communities and yet there is not enough local support which could politically threaten the government. The leaders like Chirag Paswan or Jeetan Ram Manjhi remained absolutely silent. It is clear that the issue has not yet captured the emotion and sentiments of the local Bahujan masses which is a huge failure. Bihar’s social justice politics actually revolve around agrarian OBCs who have not been delinked from the Brahmanical traditions. The cultural affiliation of communities like Dusadh as well as Charmkars too is heavily turned towards the rituals and practices which are often linked to Brahmanism. Unlike Mahars in Maharashtra and Jatavs and Chamars in Uttar Pradesh, Dalits as well as OBCs are culturally inclined to the Brahmanical practices and rituals.
Even in the beginning the Mahabodhi Mahavihara issue was not raised by the local people. Frankly speaking, the person who internationalized it was Srilankan Bhikkhu Anagarika Dharmapala. The Buddhist movement in India got its roots in the masses only after Baba Saheb Ambedkar revived it but sadly after his ‘Mahaparinirvana’, the movement got confined to Maharashtra alone and partly in Western Uttar Pradesh. The movement got revitalised after the ascendancy of BSP in power in Uttar Pradesh when Ms Mayawati became chief minister of the state as she promoted Buddhism, created separate districts like Kushinagar, Mahamayanagar, Panchsheel Nagar etc apart from many other things.
The issue of Mahabodhi Mahavihara has always daunted the Buddhist community world over as to why their holiest shrine is not handed over to them for its management. There is no dispute over the authenticity and historicity of the Mahabodhi Mahavihara but it is disturbing to see the deafening silence of all the major political players. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his foreign tours, speaks about Buddha and Buddhism as India’s cultural heritage but so far he has remained mute on the issue. Bihar government too has not spoken anything of it. The Ambedkarites are also pinning their hopes on the Chief Justice of India Justice B R Gavai but the fact is that the most important influencer in this regard can only be Prime Minister Narendra Modi apart from other Hindu organisations who should peacefully resolve this issue by handing over the Management of the BodhGaya Temple Management Committee to the Buddhists. The Hindu organisations have been seeking a positive response from Muslims in relation to all the religious places that they feel were originally ‘Hindu’ but were ‘demolished’ or appropriated as Mosques. The argument for Ayodhya Ram Temple movement was the same that Muslims should respect the sentiments of Hindus and hand over the temple to Hindus. The Supreme Court order in this regard was more to ‘honor’ the sentiments of Hindus rather than a judgement based on facts and constitutionality. The court used its own power in the good faith so that a political issue which should have been resolved long back, is now settled amicably. It is surprising why the same court can’t ask the Hindus to respect the sentiments of Buddhists and ask the government to make due changes in the BodhGaya Temple Management Committee and hand it over to Buddhists. There is no dispute of its historicity and Buddhist background yet neither the court nor the political leaders have spoken about it. For political parties every matter relate to the general mass support and political profit and loss due to an issue and therefore parties which do not have much stake in Bihar like Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi are speaking loudly while those in Bihar are keeping quiet because of the absence of a popular local movement for this. Neither Lalu Yadav nor Chirag Paswan has uttered anything on this. Rahul Gandhi who has been vocal on the issues of Dalits as well as EBCs, have remained mute on the issue. He recently travelled to Darbhanga, addressed the SC students at the Ambedkar Hostel and later saw the film Phule with various activists, academics, students and politicians at a mall in Patna but did not utter a single word about the Buddhists demanding justice at Bodh Gaya.
This clearly indicate that for the political class, an issue only becomes important when it has the mass support. It seems locally there is no support for the movement in and around Bodh Gaya and a majority of the support that it is getting is from outside. The Buddhist movement initiated by Baba Saheb Ambedkar has not reached diverse Dalit communities in India. Politically, all Bahujan parties do pay tribute to Lord Buddha and speak about its importance, but on the ground, they won’t speak about it and avoid it. Thirdly, even among the Dalits, it is mostly the Mahars and Jatavs who have embraced Buddhism and rest of the communities and leaders have not shown much inclination to it. For the OBCs, it does not concern much at the moment though exceptions are there but they are too small to impact the majority. Finally, there is also the cultural differences between the Buddhists from other regions and the Ambedkarite approach to it who have been aggressively speaking against the ‘brahmanical’ onslaught on it. The non Ambedkarite Buddhists approach is through matured political dialogue with the government as it does not necessarily consider Hindus as adversary but for Ambedkarites Buddhists, aggressive critique of Brahmanism is the main theme of Buddhism. There are other issues of leadership of the movement too. The people are missing Bhadant Nagarjun Surai Sasai who had single handedly raised the issue long back but now the age is not permitting him to do much though he is active in Maharashtra.
Now, this issue can be resolved by two persons. One by the Supreme Court which should take suo moto note of it and give direction to the Bihar government. Secondly, by Narendra Modi, who is persistently using Buddhism as India’s soft power world over. He participates in most of the Buddhist festivals and speaks greatly about Buddhism globally whenever he meets world leaders. Buddha is India’s biggest global influencer and one is sure that the government understands it. The government can call an all-party meeting and resolve the issue. This is not an issue which can’t be resolved. Unlike Ayodhya, the issue is not really that of the origin and historicity of the temple but about its management which rightfully belonged to Buddhists.
Whether there are political movements or not, the government of India must take notice of this issue and provide its helping hand to Bihar government in this regard to resolve the issue. Buddha and Buddhism are India’s biggest soft power and if the government has positive intent, it can resolve this issue peacefully and democratically. It is time for the government to act and show the world how India resolves its crisis with great maturity involving all.
