History of Mahabodhi temple movement
It is not that this demand is arising for the first time. This dispute started in the 19th century itself. However, there was no BT Act then. But even then in the Mahabodhi temple, people of Buddhism did not have full authority. Akash Lama said, a Buddhist monk named Dharampal, who was a citizen of Sri Lanka, raised the demand for the rights of Buddhists at the Mahabodhi temple for the first time during his visit to India in 1891. At that time the temple had the right of Bodh Gaya Math.
During the national session of Congress in Gaya in 1922, Buddhist monks again raised this issue. Akash Lama says, “Mahatma Gandhi said at that time that the temple will be handed over to the Buddhists after independence. But after independence, the Bodh Gaya Temple Act was implemented in 1949 and the management of the temple was handed over to a nine -member committee, which has a majority of Hindus.”
In 1992 too, the All India Mahabodhi Mahavihara Mukti Andolan Samiti raised the demand to hand over the management of the temple to the Buddhists. The Akhil Bharatiya Month Federation and Buddhist Society of India were also involved in this movement. However, this movement could not last long.
After 85 days of demonstrations in Bodh Gaya in 1995, the then Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav pacified the agitation by including the agitators in the Bodh Gaya Temple Management Committee. Then he told the agitators to fulfill your demands by staying inside the ‘system’. At present, Buddhist monk Pragyail, who was on a fast, joined the BMTC at that time. He held different positions during his tenure in the committee.
Says Pragasheel, “In 1995, the then Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav tried to get the rights to the Buddhists, but the vote bank should not be angry, so he did not think about revenge in the law.”
