Releasing exhaustive documents and historical records running into hundreds of pages to prove that Lingayat was never part of Hindu religion till 1881, Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil reiterated that C. Rangachari, an official serving for the Wadiyars of Mysore province, conspired to include Lingayats among Hindu Shudra in the 1881 census.
Addressing a press conference on Saturday, which was also attended by retired IAS officer and researcher S.M. Jamdar, Mr. Patil claimed that Lingayat was recognised as a separate religion till 1881 in the Mysore census.
He presented a copy of Mysore census of 1871, which says that Lingayat was recognised as a separate religion with 22 sub-castes and was not part of Hindu religion. He also presented census of the then Madras and Bombay States, which also recognised Lingayat as separate religion.
“What is interesting is that in no records, there was mention of the caste called ‘Veerashaiva’, which the Veerashaivas today claim,” Mr. Patil said.
He, however, said that it was in 1891, for the first time the word Veerashaiva emerged in the official census.
Asserting that the demand for separate Lingayat religion was started in 1942 itself by one S.K. Wodeyar (a person of Jangama sect in Lingayat) of Hyderabad-Karnataka region, Mr. Patil made it clear that the demand is not new as being claimed by some Veerashaiva followers.
Mr. Patil claimed that several prominent leaders, who were one of the founders of prominent educational institutions of the State such as KLE and BLDE, were also part of the agitation for separate Lingayat religion. He said that not only Indian but foreign writers have also written several books on Lingayat religion in the past.
“Considering all the documents, we are hopeful of getting a separate Lingayat religion tag,” he said. Stating that five representations, of them three were related to separate Lingayat religion tag, were before Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Mr. Patil said it was now left to him to take a final call.
“We only urge the Chief Minister to recommend to the Union government to consider our demand on merit basis before February 15, after which the election code of conduct would possibly come into effect,” he said.
