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It has been rare for the Government of India to officially celebrate a religious festival. But the Narendra Modi government will mark departure from this tradition by marking with some pomp the forthcoming Buddha Poornima on Monday with the prime minister leading the way.
The government also said it is mulling taking out Buddhist relics from museums, consecrate them and place them in sanctified structures or viharas to allow the faithful "darshan" and prayers.
The PM will be the chief guest at the Buddha Poornima celebrations at New Delhi's Talkatora Stadium, jointly organised by the International Buddhist Confederation and Ministry of Culture. Ambassadors of countries where Buddhism is the predominant religion, Buddhist monks and scholars will attend the event, the Home Ministry said today.
Minister of state for Home Kiren Rijiju, a Buddhist, is the chairman of the celebration committee and is supported by Dalit MPs Udit Raj and Ramdas Athavale. The PM will lead the prayers to express solidarity with people affected by the recent earthquake in Nepal, the land of Buddha's birth, and also in India and the Tibetan Autonomous Region.
The presence of Udit Raj and Athavale is significant as they proclaim to carry forward the legacy of Dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar, whose birth anniversary the Sangh Parivar and the Modi government celebrated with much fanfare on April 14. At one of the events, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) number two Suresh Joshi stressed how Ambedkar chose to convert to Buddhist, which has its roots in the religious and cultural tradition of the subcontinent.
The Home Ministry termed it "unfortunate" that the auspicious day, also recognised as the UN Day of Vesak, "didn't receive the official sanction and support in India, the land of the origin of Buddha Dhamma." It said that only twice in independent India the day was officially commemorated - in 1956 to mark the 2500th Buddha Jayanti celebrations under the leadership of the then PM Jawaharlal Nehru and then to mark the 2550th anniversary of Buddha's Mahaparinirvana in 2008.
Buddha Poornima or Vesak marks the birth, enlightenment and mahaparinirvana of Lord Buddha. Buddha was born in Lumbini in Nepal, attained enlightenment in Bodhgaya in Bihar, preached first in Sarnath and attained nirvana in Kushinagar in modern day Uttar Pradesh.
The government said that Prime Minister Modi accords much importance to developing the Buddhist heritage circuit. Rijiju said Buddha is the greatest gift that India has given to the world and it is time that Indians recognised this and celebrated his greatness.
On the issue of taking relics of Buddha out of museums, the Home Ministry said the Gujarat government will soon construct a "grand relic Vihara" for the holy relic discovered in Devni Mori in the early 1960s. The relic is presently housed in the Sayaji Museum, Vadodara.
Rijiju said Buddhism encourages interfaith understanding, conflict avoidance and resolution. Udit Raj said India was the land of Buddha's enlightenment and should use this not just to attract religious tourism but as a foreign policy tool to reach out to Buddhist countries. "The way the Muslims consider Mecca, the way Catholics consider Bethlehem, similarly the Buddhists across the world treat India the same way," Rijiju said.
According to the 2011 census, Buddhists comprised nearly eight million or 0.8 per cent of India's population. On October 14, 1956, Ambedkar along with 500,000 of his followers had converted to Buddhism at a public function.
