Congress bid to break
BJP vote bank
A raging controversy over the origin of Lingayats and
whether they are the same as the Veerashaivas is
sweeping Karnataka. It has also given a political twist
to the debate what with Assembly polls barely a few
months away. Mamtha Sharma gives an insight into
why the Lingayats want a separate religion tag, their
claim of being different from the Veerashaivas as also
the accompanying politics of the Congress to break
BJP 's vote bank.
Siddaramaiah
When a group of
L i n g a y a t
ministers from
the ruling
Congress in
Karnataka met
two months ago to seek a
separate religious identity for the community, little did it know
that the party would be hoist with
its own petard soon.
For, what was originally
conceived as a brilliant idea to
divide BJP's Lingayat vote bank has now become a messy
exercise. More so, as one of the
primary promoters of the idea,
chief minister, Siddaramiah's
water resources minister, M B
Patil, finds himself embroiled in a
controversy with the Siddaganga
mutth in Tumkuru district involving its over 106 year old
pontiff.
M B Patil
Patil had met the pontiff, Sri
Shivakumara Swami , one of the
most respected Lingayat seers ,
seeking endorsement of the Congress group's idea. While it is
difficult to know what the revered
swamiji actually said, the fact is
that Patil came out beaming after
the meeting ; even held a press
conference immediately to
announce that the pontiff had
found nothing wrong in the
demand for a religious status for
the Lingayat dharma and the
accompanying minority position.
Within 24 hours, however, Patil
had to eat crow as the Tumkuru
mutth issued a statement denying
that its swamiji had ever
endorsed his demand. This
development further divided the
Lingayat community with its
Veerashaiva sect coming out
vehemently against the move by
the motley group of Congressmen.
Especially as even within the
Congress, a section of the
Veerashaiva Lingayats do not
favour what some of them termed
as "Patil's adventure."
Besides, the debate involving
the mutth has inadvertently
helped the BJP. The party is only
too eager to play the Hindu card
with the section of the
Veerashaiva Lingayats, who
consider themselves closer to
Hinduism and its practices, even
recognising the Vedas and the
scriptures. The Lingayat---
Veerashaiva combine,
accounting for 17 per cent of the
six crore population in Karnatatka,
are a major vote bank of the BJP.
The dominant community has a
huge influence in about 100 of the
224 Assembly seats ,largely in
north Karnataka. This sect ,incidentally ,has given about nine
chief ministers to the state since
Independence .
The unseemly controversy has
also brought the differences
between the two major sects of
the Lingayat community to the
fore, what with both the
Congress and the BJP trying to
benefit from it even as the debate
raised the curiosity of the
uninitiated.
The Lingayats
Basavanna
Basavanna, the well known
social reformer , founded the
Lingayat dharma with his
emphasis on a casteless society in
the 12 century . A Brahmin by
birth, he spoke against
prevalent practices like keeping
women away during menstruation, promoted widow
remarriage, gender equality and
above all women's empowerment.
Witness, therefore, his radical
teachings which encouraged
women to adopt children even
after their husband's death while
favouring the right to inheritance
for women , all of which got him
unprecedented support as he
subsequently went on to promote
a casteless society.
His logic was simple: all
occupations were holy and one
could not be demeaned for doing what he or she did for a living .
His stand against untouchability
endeared him to the masses as he
raised his voice against temple
visits , claiming that if one had to
pray to God one could do so at
one's home.
Carry your own Shiva emblem
on your left palm . This was this
Shiva devotee's credo as he
spoke against the concept of
rebirth, karma and consequently
punarjanma ; even disputing the
existence of heaven and hell while
starting the Lingayat dharma.
In short, Basavanna rejected
everything about the Hindu
religion and rebelled against it
while preaching in Kannada
instead of Sanskrit.
The Lingayat movement
rebelled against the prevalent
Brahmanical system, rejecting
the Vedic authority, the (varna)
ashrams, multiplicity of gods,
priesthood, animal sacrifice,
karmic bondage, the existence of
inner worlds, duality of god and
soul and the traditions of "ritual
purity-pollution, " to quote S M
Jamdar, former bureaucrat and
Linagayat Mahasabha coordinator
.
This explains Patil group's
demand that Lingayat dharma
should be declared a separate
religion and enjoy the minority
status akin to what the
Jains,Christians and the Muslims
do. In other words, the plea is that
if it were declared a separate
religion, the Lingayats can also
get the benefits of a minority
community.
For the Brahmin --oppressed
classes of that period ,
Basavanna's revolutionary
thinking came as a blessing .
Saints like Akka Mahadevi and
Allama Prabhu, to name just two,
also played a major role in taking
the movement forward adding to
the vachanas or prose texts on
social reforms in large numbers.
Basavana even had the courage
to get the daughter of a cobbler married to a Brahmin boy much to
the anger of King Bijala of the
Kalachuri dynasty or present day
north Karnataka in whose court
he held a high position. The king,
egged on by the orthodox
Brahmins who were waiting to
get back at Basavanna , was so
angry that he had the parents of
The Veershaivas were
worshippers of Shiva,
akin to the manner of
the Hindus,in sharp
contrast to the
Lingayats who believe in
Basavanna's formless
Shiva . In terms of
religious practice,
Basavanna propagated
only the worship of Ishta
Linga without
encouraging rituals,
ceremonies and
sacrifices.
the bride and groom killed
brutally ,in the process fuelling a
revolt in which Bijala himself was
murdered.
In this struggle, the orthodox
Brahmins gained the upper hand
forcing those practising the
teachings of Basavanna to move
out of the kingdom in a hurry .
Even Basavana left the place . In
the process, several thousand
vachanas also got lost or
misplaced as the followers had to
flee to different parts of south
India and present day
Maharashtra.
The Veerashaivas
Along side ,however ,came the
Veerashaivas, largely from areas
in what is now called Andhra
Pradesh today , who flocked to
join the Basavanna movement , influenced by his teachings.
According to Jamdar , the
Veerashaivas followed
Basavanna's teachings for about
200 years but not before reviving
their own Vedic practices and
beliefs, in the process corrupting
the teachings and thoughts of the
social reformer.
This is not to say that they did
not incorporate some of his
teachings like widow remarriage
and social welfare and
encouragement to charity.
Simultaneously with this
development came the
emergenece of new sects like the
Gowda Lingayat, Banajiga
Lingayat and the Ganiga
Lingayats though the Veerashaiv
Lingayats gained ascendancy.
The Veershaivas were
worshippers of Shiva, akin to the
manner of the Hindus,in sharp
contrast to the Lingayats who
believe in Basavanna's formless
Shiva . In terms of religious
practice, Basavanna propagated
only the worship of Ishta Linga
without encouraging rituals,
ceremonies and sacrifices.
For a long time, however, it was
difficult for people to distinguish
between the two Lingayat sects
with the Veerashaivas getting
prominence, especially as
Basavannas' vachanas had also
got lost and the devotees did not
have much to bank upon.
Suddenly ,however, about 150
years ago ,over 22,000 Vachanas
were discovered which strengthened the claim of the
social reformer's followers that
they were not part of the Hindu
sect and the Veerashaivas were
different from them ; and that
Basavanna indeed was the
founder of "Lingayatism."
Subsequently following
scholarly works by M Kalburgi
and others ,these arguments
gained momentum as they went
about researching on the newly
discovered vachanas, in the
process intensifying the
differences further.
Politics of it all
B S Yeddyurappa
Today, however, a section of
the Congress ministers and MLAs
have revived the old debate ,
urging the state and the Central
government to grant the
Lingayats a separate religion
status . Siddaramiah is even
setting up an expert group to look
into the demand.
According to M B Patil, the
Veershaivas who consider
themselves Hindus within the
Lingayat community, can be
declared a different sect
altogether. Outside the Lingayat
religion , that is , if they so want.
It is not difficult to see that the
revival of the demand has the
blessings of chief minister
Siddaramiah who is going all out
to win the 2018 assembly polls.
The move ,however , does place
BJP's Yeddurappa in a Catch 22
situation. If the party supports the Lingayat movement for a
separate religioun tag , it would
go against all that it holds dear as
a largely Hindu dominated party.
The converse could impact its vote
back too.
Yeddyurappa is not too keen to
go public with his views for now
as the Lingayat-Veerashaiva
combine is his main support
base. In the event there is indeed
a split in this vote bank, it could
spell trouble for the BJP.
For now though the sullied
image of the Congress following the Siddaganga Mutth –Patil
episode ,has allowed the BJP some
breathing time ; even some
advantage, albeit brief.
This is because the Patil
incident may force the Congress
to go slow for now ,particularly
when the Veerashaivas within its
ranks are beginning to protest
against the minority Congress
group's 'adventure."