Lingayat separate religion demand gets Siddaramaiah govt's nod: Is this for Karnataka polls? 10 points

The Congress government in Karnataka has accredited a seven-member committee s advice to accord separate minority faith status to Lingayats. This comes while Rahul Gandhi is taking an technique of gentle Hindutva to counter Narendra Modi. Siddaramaiah is exploring home-grown solutions to ensure a Congress victory inside the kingdom. The BJP is stuck among its Hindu nationalist ideological moorings and the announcement of a non-Hindu identity by way of the Lingayats. The network accounts for 17 percent of the nation s population and is a key assist base of the BJP in particular its strongman BS Yeddyurappa. Unlike in Gujarat wherein the Congress on the whole ran an anti-Modi campaign Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah has invented a new local political idiom to counter the aggressive BJP marketing campaign. The Congress fights the BJP s competitive nationalism with similarly competitive local sub-nationalism epitomised through the country flag the river dispute and so on. Similarly the Congress is difficult BJP s politico-spiritual Hindutva campaign with Lingayat identification politics. The Karnataka authorities based totally its selection to accord minority popularity to the Lingayats http://noisefestival.com/blog/digital-marketing-0 on the suggestions of the Nagamohan committee underneath Section 2D of the kingdom Minorities Commission Act. With the state Cabinet approving the notion it's going to now visit the Centre for very last approval turning it into a test for the Modi authorities. Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah with Lingayat seers. Twitter/@CMofKarnataka Siddaramaiah seems to be countering the BJP in its personal language. Emotive non secular troubles are constantly high at the BJP s poll schedule. Its opponents constantly locate it difficult to counter one of these narrative. However the Congress regional satrap in Karnataka ought to make the saffron brigade run for thoughts and counter strategies. The Congress has been backing the call for for recognising Lingayatism as a distinct religion. Such a call for is absolutely unpalatable for the BJP a celebration which builds itself around Hindu nationalism. Hinduism is an amorphous religion that assimilates in itself myriad colleges and sects. But such a proof cannot convince folks that feel that their creed is a faith on its personal. Lingayatism has had a cut up personality in the route of its evolution as it has imbibed several functions of Hinduism even as inheriting a rich legacy of progressive war in opposition to the caste machine that plagues it. For years now the network has been in particular rallying at the back of the BJP. The birthday celebration s leader ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa even though rip-off-tainted is taken into consideration a powerful Lingayat chief. The Lingayats aren't united on the problem. However ground reviews imply that folks who clamour for a separate non secular identity represent the predominant a part of the community. It seems that assist for the cause is growing. The BJP s Hindi-Hindu picture nevertheless impedes its possibilities south of the Vindhyas. Karnataka turned into the primary state to break the ice. However a series of corruption scandals has made the birthday celebration devour humble pie. The Dravidian movement made neighbouring Tamil Nadu a tough terrain for the BJP. Now the Lingayat movement for a separate religious identification has the capability to disillusioned the BJP s apple cart. The BJP that's determined to come back returned to energy through capitalising on feasible anti-incumbency reveals Lingayatism a hard nut to crack. The Lingayats who want a separate non secular identification quote the preachings in their icon Basava to shield their point of view. Basava the twelfth century philosopher and social reformer repudiated Brahminical Hinduism and its caste machine as additionally Vedic rituals and traditions that form the middle of the Hindu religion. Basava had stated The tales of divine birth are false. The better form of guy is the person who knows himself. Strongly denouncing the caste gadget practiced in Hinduism he had further requested Is there every body in the global who changed into born via the ear? Just just like the outcast and the chandala the Brahmin too was born in a human womb. Nowhere else in India does the BJP face such complex social questions so as to task from Congress. In Gujarat the Congress could make the BJP apprehensive by using attempting a social engineering comprising of Dalits OBCs and Patels. This has genuinely benefited the Congress electorally even though it couldn't reap energy. The BJP faces a much bigger political mission emanating from social issues as Karnataka goes for polls. Thus the Karnataka political idiom seems to be at variance these days with what it was inside the past making the contest lots more keen and acrimonious.
Last week s massive rally by means of the Lingayat network in Bidar has sent shock waves through the ranks of both the ruling Congress and the competition Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka. Not exceedingly given the Assembly election is slated for early 2018. Lingayats who are within the Other Backward Classes are taken into consideration the single largest community inside the kingdom with their population expected at anywhere between 11.5% and 19%. Since their vote is widely believed to be decisive in 110 of the 224 Assembly constituencies Lingayats are politically powerful.The Bidar rally become held to press the network s long-status demand to be declared a religious group cut loose the Hindus. A segment of Lingayat leaders maintains that their lifestyle and rituals are unique and in a few ways against Hinduism s. Questions of faith apart the demand is pushed by using the calculation that minority spiritual popularity could entitle the community to diverse blessings that the Constitution bestows on such corporations.Lingayats have historically supported the BJP whose country chief former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa is the network s maximum famous political face. A cut up within the community could consequently show disastrous for the BJP within the election a prospect that has brought on the Congress to add gasoline to the fire by means of sounding assist for the Lingayats needs. However with confusion over how big the section stressful separate spiritual status is some in the Congress experience that backing a fringe demand might backfire.A unique historyLingayats worship Shiva one of the holy trinity within the Hindu pantheon. The network derives its call from the pendant of the shivalinga the symbol of Siva worn by means of its members in a chain round their neck. Given their association with Shiva they are visible as being a part of the Shaivism subculture inside Hindusim and are often taken as being synonymous with the Veerasaivas (sturdy Shaivites). This is where the variations lie. A segment of Lingayat non secular leaders oppose their clubbing with Veerasaivas for 2 reasonsFirst Lingayats keep in mind Basavanna as the founder in their network. The saint who lived in Kalyana in northern Karnataka in the 12th century is a key figure inside the Bhakti movement that swept South India among 8th and 13th centuries AD. However in keeping with Lingayat leaders which includes Saarangadhar Desikendra the chief pontiff of the Sulapahal Mutt Veerasaivas consider the mythical man or woman Sri Renukacharya as the originator of their sect.Second Lingayats nation that their faith is based on equality in view that Basavanna rejected the caste device for restricting spiritual development. He was additionally scathing in his criticism of Vedic rituals describing them as an try to control and manipulate Shiva s creation. Analysing the vacanas (bhakti poems) of Basavanna historian AK Ramanujan in his e book Speaking of Siva said Veerasaiva saints reject now not only the superb traditions of Vedic religion but the little nearby traditions as well . For illustration Ramanujan costs this vacana scorning the emphasis on sacrifices in such traditions: The sacrificial lamb delivered for the festival ate up the inexperienced leaf added for the decorations. Not understanding a factor about the kill it wishes only to fill its belly: born that day to die that day. But inform me: did the killers survive o lord of the assembly rivers? For historians such as Ramanujan Lingayats and Veerasaivas were synonymous. Some others concept the argument to take Lingayats out of Hinduism became no longer strong enough. In his essay On Lingayat Culture historian William McCormack writes that he considers Lingayats to be Hindus because their beliefs are syncretistic and include an assemblage of Hindu elements along with the name of their god Siva who is one of the chief figures of the Hindu pantheon. The Encyclopedia of Religion and Faith which McCormack rates in his essay stated that whilst the historical saints spoke towards caste the social obstacles of caste have proved too robust for the orthodox Lingayat religion . This added them into the cultural mesh of Brahmanism .Political ramificationsThis context enables explain why the Bidar rally attended with the aid of an expected 50 000 humans poses a extreme hazard to the BJP in Karnataka. The BJP is pushed with the aid of Hindutva a homogenising ideology. For the party a set lengthy considered an critical a part of Hinduism attempting to interrupt away is robotically a project to its challenge of Hindu assimilation. Thus assisting the demand for separate religious identity for any institution would be antithetical to it. Yet disregarding the call for as a fringe idea may alienate a giant phase of the network and value the celebration electorally. BJP leaders stated they are walking a tightrope. A senior leader observed that the primary motive for the network s call for became the choice to acquire the benefits that minority non secular agencies are entitled to. For one Article 30 of the Constitution presents the minorities whether religious or linguistic the right to establish and administer their very own instructional establishments. Lingayats who want the network to be declared a separate spiritual sect consider a Constitutional fame on a par with Buddhists who revel in reservation notwithstanding being outdoor the Hindu fold. So the BJP is trying to appease them through supplying different blessings as a substitute. The most important thing to do now's to fulfill as many community leaders as viable and ensure they do not sense alienated the leader introduced. Indeed Yeddyurappa advised birthday party leaders on Saturday to satisfy each important Lingayat network chief in Karnataka and preserve talks. A former minister said Yeddyurappa was also considering the possibility that the protests were orchestrated by means of his opponents inside the BJP since displaying the Lingayats as a divided group will erode his authority inside the birthday party which is sort of absolutely depending on the backing of the community. On Sunday Yeddyurappa declared that there is no difference between Veerasaivas and Lingayats. We are very a great deal Hindus and can't be separated from Hinduism he said. Siddaramaiah is attempting to divide and rule here. He is not the only one miffed with the chief minister. Some of his own birthday party leaders are unhappy with how Siddaramaiah reacted to the Lingayats call for. The chief minister had advised reporters on July 20 that he would ahead the demand for minority religion popularity to the crucial authorities if it became made unanimously via the network. Apparently Siddaramaiah s camp calculated that taking such a stand might appeal to a phase of the Lingayats to the Congress. However a Congress fashionable secretary who requested not to be identified pointed out that there has been no manner to check how huge the Lingayat phase raising the demand changed into. If they're indeed a miniscule phase we are able to earn the wrath of the majority of the Lingayats he stated. A few Congress leaders had been additionally of the view that granting minority reputation to the Lingayats was now not legally possible. In the past courts have held that network rights can't be executed away with thru individual petitions. So if the next day  sections emerge we may also need to ask the Centre to create Hindu Lingayat and non-Hindu Lingayat classes the general secretary stated. This could be absurd.
Who are Lingayats? Lingayats are fans of twelfth-century social reformer Basavanna and his vachana (verses) philosophy. Their ideals practices and faith are different. Veerashaivas worship Lord Shiva the only stated in Hindu mythology. However the Shiva that Basavanna cited in his vachanas (verses) is not the Hindu god Shiva but the ishtalinga (formless God) which people of the network put on around their neck. Who are Veerashaivas? Veerashaivas are a sub-sect of Lingayats and ardent fans of Lord Shiva. They preceded Basavanna the founding father of Lingayatism. Veerashaivism has its roots inside the Vedas and Agamas and Veerashaivas do no longer worship any god other than Shiva; they can be discovered spread throughout Karnataka Kerala Maharashtra Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Who is Basavanna? Basavanna was a 12th-century social reformer. The revolution that Basavanna led got here years after the Buddha. It become Basavanna and his current Sharanas who released a completely strong religious social and spiritual rise up towards Brahminical hegemony. Basavanna had declared that work is worship . He gave ladies equal reputation in his motion through the vachanas (verses). In order to take the social movement closer to the human beings Basavanna and all of the other Sharanas voiced their concerns in easy Kannada vachanas in order that even lay people could realize them. Why do Lingayats need a separate identity? Lingayats were revolting in opposition to oppression and discrimination by way of the Veerashaivas who are politically and economically a dominant institution inside the network. Lingayats allege that Veerashaivas are attempting to spoil the revolutionary faith based through Basavanna with the aid of portraying Lingayatism and Veerashaivism as the same. Moreover they experience the Veerashaivas are not giving their guru his due as he had rejected caste hierarchy and Vedic rituals. How many sects are there amongst Veerashaivas and Lingayats? There are 92 sub-castes amongst Lingayats and Veerashaivas are one in every of them; they currently experience 15% reservation below 2A and 3B.

ALSO READ We want to free ourselves of discrimination: Bhagwat Shun casteism inequality: RSS leader RSS leader on week long go to to West Bengal RSS doesn t play politics: Mohan Bhagwat Godmen divided over Bhagwat s Hindu commentary span.P-content div id = div-gpt line-top:0;font-size:0 The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on Sunday stated that http://dgtlmrktinbng.aircus.com/ the Lingayat s can not accept a separate religion tag.RSS General Secretary Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi whilst addressing a meeting said We don t conform to Lingayats demand for being handled as a separate religion. Sects that have born in India have the equal common base. Meanwhile on Saturday contributors of Jagatika Lingayata Mahasabha (JLM) released an indefinite demonstration urging the State authorities to ship its recommendations to the Centre disturbing an unbiased religion popularity to Lingayatism.Lingayat can be taken into consideration as a non secular minority in Karnataka.Lingayatism become founded by the 12th-century philosopher and statesman Basava and spread by way of his fans known as Sharanas. In the twenty first century some Lingayats have sought legal popularity as a faith distinct from Hinduism and Veerashaivas.(This story has now not been edited by way of Business Standard body of workers and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)