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‘Religious Minority’ status for Lingayat
March 23 , 2018
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- The state cabinet of Karnataka has decided to recognise Lingayat as a ‘religious minority’ and include the Veerashaivas who follow Basavanna as a group within the community, approving recommendations of the HN Nagamohan Das Committee.
- Now the proposal will be sent to the Union Government for the final approval.
- Lingayat, a distinct Shaivite religious tradition, are followers of the 12th-century poet-philosopher-social reformer Basaveshwara who rebelled against established Hindu tradition by defying the caste system and Vedic rituals.
- The people of the community are strict monotheists, they worship only one God, namely, Linga (Shiva) in the form of ishtalinga.
- They consider themselves different from Veerashaivas, also a Shaivite religious tradition, who adhere to the Vedas and support the caste system.
- While the Veerashaivas think the community was an ancient religion established by Shiva and Basavanna was one of its saints.
- Though the community (Lingayat) constitutes 17% of the total population in Karnataka, they are dominant in close to 100 of the 224 assembly seats, mostly in North Karnataka.
- There have been nine chief ministers from the community.
- Though the movement for a separate religious tag for the Lingayat was started as far back as 1942, it was resurrected in 2017 by Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah
- In December 2017, a seven-member expert committee - HN Nagamohan Das Committee - was formed by the Karnataka government to study five separate demands, three of which were for a separate minority religion status for Lingayat.
- While one representation demanded minority status for both Veerashaiva and Lingayat considering them the same, another demanded it only for the Lingayat as it considers Veershaivas to be Hindus.
- The committee submitted its report on March 2, 2018 recommending ‘Religious Minority’ status for the Lingayat community.
- It concluded that there is enough evidence to differentiate Lingayat religion from Hindu religion and also added that Veerashaivas - another sect looking to get religious minority status, too can be part of the larger umbrella of ‘Lingayat religion’.
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