‘Declare Lingayat an independent religion’

Two Lingayat community outfits, Basava Samithi and Vishwa Lingayat Mahasabha, have urged the Union government to grant their community the status of independent religion. Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Sanjay Makal, Vlasavathi Khuba, Asha Khuba Manjunath Kale, Chandrashekhar Tallali and other leaders associated with the outfits argued that their community had never been part of Hinduism.

“Lingayat is an independent religion based on its own world view. After Independence, Sikh, Jain, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Hinduism faiths were declared as religions. But, Lingayat was perceived as a caste within Hinduism. The efforts, both legal and social, to get an independent religion for Lingayat have been on since 1940,” Mr. Makal said.

Sharana Sangama

Mr. Makal said that sixth edition of Sharana Sangama, a three-day annual event to be organised by Lingayat community outfits, scheduled to be held at Anubhava Mantapa in Jayanagar, Kalaburagi, on January 1, 2017, would deliberate various aspects of Lingayat and educate the community members. Lingayat community leaders from all the districts, heads of various Lingayat Mutts, Lingayat politicians and large number of community members would participate in the event.

“Special lectures and interactive sessions on Lingayat religion have been planned. The idea is to educate community members on their religion so that they could join the ongoing campaign aimed at securing independent religion status,” he said.

To a question, Mr. Makal said his outfit had taken special drive among community members for recording their religion as Lingayat in Socio-educational Economic Survey conducted by Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission last year.

“Many community people did not mention their religion name as Lingayat as they were afraid of losing reservation allocated for their sub-caste. Mentioning their religion as Lingayat would in no way affect the reservation benefits. We have taken up a prolonged campaign to educate the members so that they would correctly mention their religion in 2021 census,” he said.