How Bodh Gaya averted an Ayodhya

Bodh Gaya, (Compiled from ‘The Telegraph online’ and sources), 12 July 2021 - The dispute over Ram’s birthplace in Ayodhya between Hindu extremists and Muslims, led to the destruction of the Babri Masjid in December 1992. But a similar problem over ownership of the Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya was amicably resolved in Bihar’s Bodh Gaya without violence or  turmoil  
In his biography of Edwin Arnold’s ‘Light Of Asia’ author Jairam Ramesh traces the history of the struggle -to restore control of the premises to Buddhists- in 1886, which had been in the control of Hindus since the 18th century.  

Sri Lankan monk, Ven. Anagarika Dharmapala, who later founded the Mahabodhi Society, launched the struggle to regain Buddhist control over Bodh Gaya. But it was Arnold who had first raised the issue of the Mahabodhi Temple, starting a campaign in 1886 to restore to Buddhists the ownership of the site
The dispute had several similarities with the Ayodhya issue. Like the Ram idol that was placed inside the mosque, Ven. Dharmapala placed a Buddha statue in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. The Hindu priests got it thrown out causing the Anagarika to file file a case.  

Ven. Dharmapala’s case won support from a galaxy of Indian stalwarts of the time, from Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi to Swami Vivekananda, Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajendra Prasad.  

The Bodh Gaya dispute too took 67 years to resolve but the two sides — Buddhists and Hindus — have been living in peaceful co-existence since an agreement was worked out in a truly democratic spirit.