Cleaning Up Bodhgaya: Conflicts over Development and the Worlding of Buddhism

Abstract

Abstract In 2007 the Indian government deployed police and soldiers in Bodhgaya to oversee the demolition of a number of long‐standing businesses and homes. These actions were pursued as part of the “Master Plan,” a sweeping, fifty‐year government‐led development plan for Bodhgaya, place of Buddha's enlightenment in the north Indian state of Bihar, designed to manage Bodhgaya's increasing global significance as a pilgrimage and tourism destination while negotiating an array of competing interests. In this article I argue that understanding the Master Plan requires an attention to how such place‐making takes shape with and against the Indian state, neoliberal policies, the ongoing emergence of a contemporary global Buddhist sacred geography, and the diverse, multifaceted desires of Bodhgaya residents. [India, Buddhism, governance, pilgrimage, development, policy, tourism]

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