Citizenship of Buddha: Beyond India and Nepal war of words

There was a war of words between India and Nepal over the origin of the Gautama Buddha.

About

Buddha

• “Buddha” means “one who is awake. Gautama Buddha was a contemporary of Mahavira. Gautama Buddha’s royal name was Siddhartha.
• He was the son of Suddhodhana, the Chief of the Sakya clan of Kapilvastu in the Nepal Tarai area. He was born in 566 B.C. in the village of Lumbini a few miles from Kapilvastu.
• Facts suggest that a young Siddhartha Gautam left his father’s palace before settling at a site where he attained enlightenment. The place is now in present-day India and is known as Bodh Gaya.
• He discovered four noble truths and the Eightfold Path to Nirvana, or ultimate bliss.
• Noble Truths: The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism:
  • Existence is suffering
  • The cause of suffering is craving and attachment
  • Suffering ceases at some point and turns to Nirvana (liberation or total bliss)
  • There is a path to Nirvana which is made up of eight steps, sometimes called the Eightfold Path.
    • The Eightfold Path to Nirvana is to be “right” in all these areas: concentration, views, speech, resolve, action, livelihood, effort, and mindfulness.
• Major Schools: There are two major schools of Buddhism: Mahayana and Theravada or Hinayana. There is a third school, the Vajrayana, but it only has a small following.

India and Nepal

• India and Nepal enjoy shared history, culture, and heritage. And, naturally, they share some irritants that raise their ugly heads once in a while.
• The relationship between the two countries has hit a low lately over territories on the northwestern ridge of Nepal.
• Even though both Kathmandu and New Delhi have expressed their willingness to hold diplomatic dialogue to resolve the issue, talks have failed to materialize. Amid this, a controversy over Gautam Buddha certainly does not help.

India claim legitimacy

• Despite the fact that it is host to a relatively small population of Buddhists, India can claim legitimacy in its promotion of Buddhist diplomacy for a number of reasons.
• First, the Buddhist faith originated in India, therefore granting it singular historical legitimacy.
• Second, India has numerous sites of importance to the Buddhist faith, such as Bodh Gaya, Sarnath, and Nalanda.
• Third, India has nurtured an image of being a protector of the persecuted through the presence of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan parliament-in-exile in Dharamshala.
• Deepening ties with Asian nations on the basis of Buddhism could potentially feed into the government’s larger policy objectives, for example, the ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy, and the ‘Act East’ policy.