From: sp2@cec1.wustl.edu (Sundara Pandian)
Subject: NEWS : Buddhist `yatra' for temple
Organization: Washington University, St. Louis MO
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 04:12:16 GMT

  Source : The Times of India
  Dated  : Sep 23, 1992


                    Buddhist `yatra' for temple
                  -----------------------------

                         By ABDHUL QADIR
                  The Times of India News Service


                                              GAYA, September 22.
   LED by a Japanese monk, who has settled  in  India,  Buddhists
will  launch a *Dhamma mukti yatra* for "liberation" of the Maha-
bodhi temple on September 27 at Bombay.
   A Buddhist *rath* will reach Bodh Gaya  on  October  22  after
travelling  through  Nagpur,  Sarnath and Rajgir,  important Bud-
dhist centres, and Delhi.
   According to the  details  communicated  to  the  Nagpur-based
Akhil  Bharatiya  Mahabodhi  Mahavir Mukti Aandolan Samiti to in-
fluential Buddhists and monks, about a thousand monks  have  con-
firmed their participation.
   The action committee steering the agitation is headed  by  the
Japanese  monk,  Bhante  Arya Nagarjun Surai Sarai, who claims to
have adopted India as his homeland 25 years back.  The  agitation
had earlier come to nought because of a leadership tussle between
Dr P.C.Roy, former president of the Bodhisatva Ambedkar Sangh and
Bhante  Dhamma Viriyo, member of the All India Minorities Commis-
sion. The lack of a local support base also affected its outcome.
   A new leadership is now emerging and Maharashtra is being made
the centre of activity where, unlike Bodh Gaya, Buddhists and Am-
bedkarites have a significant presence.
   A three-day stopover has been planned at Nagpur on October  4-
6. A massive demonstration would be organised at the Boat Club in
New Delhi when the *rath* enters the capital on October 14.
 THE SCHEDULE : On October 16 the *rath*  would  leave  Delhi  to
reach Kanpur the next day and Allahabad and Sarnath on the subse-
quent days. The *yatra* would enter  Patna  on  October  20  from
where  it  would proceed to Rajgir. The journey would conclude at
Bodh Gaya on October 22 with  the  formation  of  a  human  chain
around the temple.
   The Buddhist demand is atleast a century old.  Angarika  Dhar-
mapal,  a  Sri Lankan, landed in Bodh Gaya in 1891 and launched a
movement to wrest tha management of the Mahabodhi temple from the
Bodh Gaya mahant. Protracted ligitation did not yield any result.
   In 1949, the Bihar Government, at the  instance  of  the  then
Prime  Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who was eager to improve rela-
tions with the South East Asian countries, got an Act passed end-
ing the Mahant's monopoly over the management.
   However, the mahant was retained as a permanent member of  the
committee  which  included four Hindus and four Buddhists besides
the Hindu district magistrate of Gaya, who  was  to  be  the  ex-
officio chairman of the committee.
   According to the 1949 Act, in case the District magistrate  of
Gaya was not a Hindu, the state government was to nominate a Hin-
du as the chairman of the management committee. Thus, the commit-
tee was to have a clear Hindu majority.
 DRAFT BILL : Last year in December, the chief minister, Mr Laloo
Prasad  Yadav, reportedly on the advice of Mr Sharad Yadav and Mr
Ram Bilas Paswan, circulated a draft Bill amending the 1949 Act.
   The draft Bill, sent to the management committee for eliciting
its  opinion,  said  that an all-Buddhist committee was to manage
the affairs of the temple. The Gaya district magistrate was to be
retained in the committee irrespective of his religion.

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