Karnataka Caste Survey: Lingayats asked to identify themselves as separate religious group, distinct from Hindus

The apex body of Lingayats has asked the members of Karnataka’s dominant community to identify themselves as Veerashaiva-Lingayat in the upcoming socio-economic survey as the politically influential community pushes for recognition as a separate religion distinct from the Hindus.

The missive comes weeks before the caste enumeration exercise that is set to begin on September 22. The Siddaramaiah regime is taking up a fresh round of survey on directions from the AICC leadership including Rahul Gandhi and has targeted to complete the exercise in three months from the start date.

If Lingayats heed to their apex body’s call, that may project a fewer number of Hindus, chipping away at the BJP’s core vote bank.

The All India Veerashaiva-Lingayat Mahasabha’s call to community members comes in the backdrop of reports that the earlier survey showed their caste making up 11% of Karnataka’s population, much lower than SCs at 18% and Muslims at 13%. The community leaders had all along claimed a proportion of about 17% in the state’s population. Lingayat Ministers from North Karnataka MB Patil and Laxmi Hebbalkar had openly disagreed with the numbers projected asserting that the community’s population was far higher than what the report had indicated.

Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre, who is also the senior vice president of the national body, said the Mahasabha has decided that the community members must identify themselves as Veerashaiva-Lingayat in the religion column, as Lingayat or Veerashaiva in the caste column and by their sub-caste in the third column and help enumerators capture the community’s real size. Since there is no separate mention of Veerashaiva-Lingayat in the religion column, the Mahasabha wants members to indicate it against the ’others’ in the column.

Mahasabha’s state president Shankar Bidadri pressed for official recognition of Veerashaiva-Lingayat as a separate religion.

The state Congress regime has been forced to take up a fresh enumeration of castes after the AICC was flooded with complaints from political and religious leaders of dominant communities that the data gathered during the last survey was flawed.

The AICC leadership has pushed Siddaramaiah to model the census on the lines of socio-economic, education, employment, political and caste (SEEEPC) survey the Congress regime in Telangana conducted.

A few ministers representing the dominant Lingayat and Vokkaliga as well as their respective mutt heads had pointed out flaws in the earlier findings saying the sub-caste wise dissection had suggested a sharp fall in the population of their communities. They had been upset that the enumerators had shown the entire Muslim population as one combined community without a sub-caste wise slicing, a treatment denied to other dominant communities.

It is to be seen how the BJP’s national leadership with view the Veerashaiva Mahasabha’s decision seeking a separate religious identity as former CMs BS Yediyurappa & Basavaraj Bommai and state president BY Vijayendra are Lingayats, and some of the top RSS leaders are Lingayats.