Lingayat Mahasabha to revive call for separate religion tag & political parties aren’t invited
IndiaPolitics

Lingayat Mahasabha to revive call for separate religion tag & political parties aren’t invited

Lingayats were granted separate religion tag in 2018 by Karnataka's then Congress government, but the decision was struck down by the BJP-led central government.

   
A convention of the Jagatika Lingayat Mahasabha in Karnataka’s Bidar Sunday where they decided to revive the 'minority tag' campaign | By special arrangement

A convention of the Jagatika Lingayat Mahasabha in Karnataka’s Bidar Sunday where they decided to revive the 'minority tag' campaign | By special arrangement

Bengaluru: A significant section of the Lingayats is preparing to push for a separate religion tag for the community — among the most prominent in Karnataka — nearly 5 years after it was proposed by the erstwhile Congress-led state government but struck down by the BJP-led central government.

The Jagatika Lingayat Mahasabha is mobilising support for the separate religion tag, but wants to keep its campaign free of any political involvement. 

The move comes just ahead of the assembly elections.

“We are not including any political party or leader nor are we giving any memorandum to the current government that has just over a month in office,” Jamdar S.M., a former civil servant and the principal general secretary of the Jagatika Lingayat Mahasabha, told The Print. 

Six members of the Lingayat Mahasabha filed a petition in the Karnataka High Court nearly 2 years ago, where the case is currently being heard. 

Lingayats, including Veerashaivas — terms that are often used interchangeably, but are described as being different by community members — are believed to account for 17 per cent of Karnataka’s total population. Of the 23 chief ministers in the state so far, 10 have belonged to this group.

The issue of the separate religion tag, however, has become a hot potato, with differences within the community adding to the controversy.

For one, the Veerashaivas want to be included in the separate religion, a demand opposed by the Jagatika Lingayat Mahasabha. 

This is because, Jamdar said, the Lingayats follow the philosophy of Basavanna, the 12th-century social reformer, and the Veerashaivas consider themselves Hindus.

Then there is the matter of reservation-related demands from certain sub-sects like the Panchamasalis. 

The erstwhile Congress government’s decision to accord the minority tag came after the Karnataka State Minorities Commission — based on the report filed by an expert committee headed by Justice Nagmohan Das — recommended considering the grant of religious minority status to the Lingayat and Veershaiva Lingayats. 

However, according to many political observers and leaders, the decision was one of the biggest reasons for the Congress losing power in 2018 as the BJP, then in opposition, projected it as an “election gimmick” and “ploy” to divide the community on emotional issues. 

Jamdar is widely believed to have been the brain behind the Congress-led government’s 2018 move, which was championed, among others, by then state minister M.B. Patil. 


Also Read: Eye on Lingayat vote, BJP likely to make Yediyurappa Karnataka campaign chief


Taking on the central govt’s arguments

The Lingayats are followers of Basavanna, who took it upon himself to stop discrimination based on caste and other “evils” under the Chaturvarna or four-fold caste system of Hinduism. 

Basavanna, who was inspired by the Bhakti Movement, rejected Brahmin rituals and temple worship and envisaged a society that was casteless, free of discrimination, and where men and women were considered equals.   

According to Jamdar, the central government had opposed the minority religion status for Lingayats on 3 main grounds.

First, he said, was the 1871 census of Mysore state. 

Jamdar said the government’s claim that the Lingayats were considered a sect of Hinduism in the census is false. According to him, the census mentioned them as a separate religion. 

“They (government) can open the 1871 census of Mysore state, where in three different pages, they have clearly mentioned that Lingayat is a separate religion, not a caste,” he added.

Second, he said, the government said the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes within the Lingayats will lose all benefits if the parent community is accorded a minority religion status. He claimed this was false as well. 

“The marginalised communities that come under Buddhists and Sikhs have been accorded all privileges, despite the classification,” he said.

And third, he added, that a private body (Veerashaiva Mahasabha) had opposed the separate religion tag only for Lingayats and wanted this to include Veerashaivas, considered one of the 99 sub-sects of the community. 

Jamdar said that the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha, headed by veteran Congress leader Shamanur Shivashankarappa, has been fighting to get minority religion status for Veerashaivas and Lingayats, and opposed any move that considers only Lingayats. 

H.M. Renuka Prasanna, the secretary of the Veerashaiva Mahasabha, told ThePrint that “we believe that Veerashaiva and Lingayats are one and our fight for minority religion is from before Independence”. 

“The courts cannot decide on matters of faith and only Parliament by amendment can grant this status,” he said. 

He added that the BJP is all about “Hindutva” and does not care to grant minority religion status, but the Veerashaiva Mahasabha will move forward if a non-BJP government comes to power in Karnataka in the upcoming elections.


Also Read: ‘Sabka Saath’ in BJP cabinets, but plum portfolios still with ‘upper, dominant’ castes


The politics of it all

The Lingayats have firmly stood behind the BJP, particularly B.S. Yediyurappa, a prominent Lingayat leader, especially since the 2008 elections. 

But the community has wavered in its decision in recent times, mostly since Bommai — also a Lingayat — has not been able to assuage the growing anger within the group, especially the Panchamasalis, whose reservation-related demands remain unfulfilled so far. 

The head seer of the Kudala Sangama Matha, Jaya Mrutyunjaya Swami, who is leading the Panchamasali agitation, has threatened to campaign against the BJP if the latter does not reclassify the community under category 2A of the state backward classes list, which outlines a 15 per cent quota for the listed groups. 

The Panchamasalis, led by prominent BJP legislators like Basanagouda Patil (Yatnal), have claimed to be a major force behind the BJP’s defeat in Bommai’s home district of Haveri in the 2021 Hanagal assembly bypolls as he failed to move the group to category 2A. 

Vokkaligas are currently under the 3A category with other communities like Reddys and Naidus, among others, who currently have a reservation of 4 per cent. The community had demanded that this be increased to 12 per cent. 

Similarly, the Veerashaiva Lingayats and the Panchamasalis and several other caste groups, like Marathas and Aryas, among others, get about 5 per cent reservation under 3B. 

In January this year, the Bommai government decided to remove the entire ‘3’ category in the OBC list and carved out two new categories — 2C & 2D — to placate Lingayats and Vokkaligas. The quota under these new categories was to be drawn from spare reservation under the 10 per cent quota for economically weaker sections (EWS).

“There will be no meddling with 2A & 2B. The percentage saved under EWS will be distributed to increase the reservation for these two groups,” J.C. Madhuswamy, Karnataka’s minister for law and parliamentary affairs, said when the cabinet approved the two new categories on 16 January.

The Panchamasalis, however, have rejected the new categorisation.

Speaking to ThePrint, Patil, the Lingayat face of the Congress, said that a minority religion tag would have given the community better reservation and avoided demands by sub-sects like the Panchamasalis, who he claimed are seeking better educational and employment opportunities only for itself and not the entire Lingayat community.

According to M.B Patil, the community has understood the reason for the 2018 decision. 

“There was a question whether we wanted to give justice to all the sub-communities (sub-sects). See what has happened now with the Panchamasali reservation. The sub-sect is asking for reservation, like the reservation for Jains and Sikhs. The entire Lingayat religion would have got minority status and reservation in medical and engineering seats,” the Congress leader said. 

“We would have had representations (reservation) in KPSC and UPSC both. It (intent of minority religion status) was misunderstood at the time, and it was very close to elections… BJP, RSS and others used it against us,” he added.

The Congress has been trying hard to court the Lingayats by highlighting what it terms the BJP’s mistreatment of B.S. Yediyurappa, who was replaced as CM in 2021 amid speculations of a strained relationship with the party’s central leadership. 

“After Yediyurappa’s removal, we have a very good chance now. Yediyurappa was a tall leader, but after him there is a vacuum. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is also Lingayat but does not match Yediyurappa’s stature,” Patil said. 

“So, this time, with proper ticket distribution to Lingayats wherever they have a winnability factor, we can gain the confidence of the community and get more seats.”

(Edited by Richa Mishra)


Also Read: Out on bail after son caught taking bribe, Karnataka BJP MLA gets hero’s welcome in constituency