What the fuss is all about: Lingayats could be a new religious community

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah asked India's federal government on Monday to grant the status of a separate religion to the Lingayats, a socio-religious community constituting a large part of the state's population. He went ahead with the decision despite opposition from the influential Veerashaiva seers and even his own cabinet colleagues.

The Lingayats and the Veerashaivas, another socio-religious sect from the state, have been in a long-standing dispute about their origins, their traditions and their rights in post-independent India. The Lingayat-Veerashaiva issue is likely to have a huge impact in election-bound Karnataka. However, apart from the electoral gains and losses, the true social relevance of these movements and their ideology is hardly discussed in the mainstream media.

Veerashaiva-Lingayat is a religious sect that originated in Karnataka about nine centuries ago. It spread across South India and to the southern areas of the Hindi belt. Being Shaivites (Hindus who believe that Shiva is the Supreme Lord), they were considered a caste within Hinduism. The total population of the Lingayat-Veerashaiva sect is around four crores, says Jamadar IAS, General Secretary of the Jagathika Lingayat Mahasabha, a new forum that came into existence in January 2018. Among the six crores of Kannadigas, it is believed that they constitute around 17%. However, leaked information from the 2015 caste Karnataka census showed the numbers are below 10% (a recent news report claims that they are around 14% as per the caste census.)

Here's a quick background on what the issue is all about.

Note: Hereafter, Lingayat refers to the section of the population that demands separation from what is popularly known as Veerashaiva-Lingayat. Veerashaiva here denotes the sect opposing the separation, but agrees to a separate religion idea under the banner of Veerashaiva-Lingayat. These labels are also being contested by the communities themselves.

Basaveshwara, Basavanna or just Basava was born in AD 1106 and died in 1167 or 1168, says AK Ramanujan in in his book 'Speaking of Shiva'. He was born a Brahmin, but he was not happy with the 'social order' of the Vedic religion (now the Hindu religion).

He left his home when he was young and 'Kudalasangamadeva' become his chosen deity. He wrote vachanas or poems to his God, based on his experiences, which were later followed by his disciples. Ramzan Darga, a Basava scholar and the Director of Basavadi Sharanara Peeth at Gulbarga University, says: "These are not the words of the God, but words to their God. They wrote their thoughts and experience in the peoples' language -- Kannada."

"Basavanna then went to Kalyana where his uncle Baladeva was Bijjala's minister and married his uncle's daughter Gangambik," writes Ramanujan. He then became the treasurer or the finance minister of Bijjala II. He spread his thoughts and attracted many across castes and classes towards his ideology. The number of vachanakaras (poets) increased and Kannada literature flourished. In a provocative step, Basavanna took the initiative of the marriage between "the son of an untouchable Sharana, Haralaiah, to the daughter of a Brahmin Sharana, Madhuvaiah." In the 20th century, Ambedkar wrote, "the real remedy for breaking Caste is inter-marriage." Marrying a Brahmin woman to a lower caste man will further destroy the endogamy set up by the caste, he said.

"Naturally, there was fierce opposition to this rising utopian ginger group... Bijjala sentenced the fathers of the bride and the bridegroom to death." As revenge from angry Basava followers, Bijjala was assassinated. Basavanna left Kalyana. Ramanujan says he left Kalyana as he couldn't bear the violence but HS Shivaprakash in his book titled 'I Keep Vigil of Rudra' notes that Basavanna was 'perhaps expelled' from Kalyana. The Sharanas (his followers) who left Kalyana spread across South India and a few went to present Maharashtra.

"From the 13th to 16th centuries, the Vachana poetry virtually disappeared," notes Shivaprakash.

Later, during the Kingdom of Proudadevaraya, the Sharanas rejoined and gained political power. Since then, they are a decisive force in 'Kannadanadu'. Darga says the Sharanas then were in a 'relaxed' mood and diluted the revolutionary principles of Basava. They gradually joined the larger Hindu platform, according to scholars.

The controversy begins now. The Lingayat scholars say the word Veerashaiva was introduced in 15th century by the upper castes in the community. "The Aradhya Brahmins who joined the movement during that time made trouble and we call them Veerashaivas," says Jamadar. They allegedly began to mix up Vedic religion with the Sharana movement.

The community established hundreds of mutts. Virakta Mutts are formed by the disciples and Guru Mutts by the 'upper-castes', said poet Chandrashekar Patil. He said that Guru Matas belong to Veerashaiva and Lingayats do not follow the Pancha Peeta (five Guru Peeta), the spiritual heads of the community.

The 'dead' Vachana poetry was revived after the efforts of PG Halakatti, NG Mahadevappa, DR Bendre, MM Kalburgi and others in the 20th century. Halakatti had visited many places across Karnataka and collected almost 220,000 palm leaves of Vachana poetry and translated them, claims Jamadar. According to the Lingayats, the community that inherited Hinduism then 'realised' that they are not part of it.

Lingayats consider that the Sanskrit religious text -- the Siddhanta Sikhamani -- to be opposite to what Basava envisioned.

All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha office bearers (current president of the Mahasabha is Shamanur Shivashankarappa, a Congress MLA) while talking to DH expressed concerns about splitting the community. "We don't say - don't follow Siddhanta Sikhamani or Basavanna. Do whatever you want. But don't split the community," says N Thippanna, Senior Vice-President, All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha. "Our Mahasabha is 103 years old. All these years, it has been functioning with the belief that Veerashaiva and Lingayat are one and same."

"Siddhanta Sikhamani is Sanskrit slokas, which the Pancha Peeta Swamijis sing while performing slokas," said BS Sachitananda Murthy, Vice-President, AIVM, adding that they are not an issue.

However, this is exactly the point of conflict.

Thippanna said that they were never part of 'Hindu dharma' and that they do not follow Hindu rituals and religious texts, including the Bhagavat Gita.

"Even the daughter of Jamadar does Ganapati Homa in her house," alleged Murthy.

Since the early 1970s, the Mahasabha representing the community has been meeting census authorities and asking them not to consider the community within the Hindu religion. "Every 10 years, we send our representations," says Renuka Prasanna, Secretary, AIVM.

Ambedkar, in the Hindu Code Bill, 1950, presented in the parliament wrote:

"This Code applies-

(a) to all * * * * persons who are Hindus by religion in any of its forms or developments, including Virashaivas or Lingayatas and members of the Brahmo, the Prarthana or the Arya Samaj;

(b) to any person who is a Buddhist, Jaina or Sikh by religion.."

(DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR - WRITINGS AND SPEECHES)

There is no clarity on whether Ambedkar considered 'Virashaivas or Lingayatas' as an inherent part of the Hindu religion as there is no other writing available on the Lingayats that has historical importance in the anti-caste movement. Darga feels that it may be because there was no literature on Basava in English at that time.

According to official records, "Veerashaiva is a subcaste among Lingayats," says Jamadar.

In 2013, "there were five union ministers from Karnataka," says Thippana. "We requested all of them including the Minority Affairs Minister Rahman Khan. They gave a good report endorsing our position. The home minister said he would take it to the cabinet. A constitution amendment was called for. At that point, [union] elections were announced."

Social importance of Vachanas

"The Virashiava movement was a social upheaval by and for the poor, the low castes and the outcasts against the rich and the privileged; it was rising of the unlettered against the literate pundit, flesh and blood against stone," notes AK Ramanujan. (He used the term Virashaiva throughout his book. It stands for the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community)

Ramjan Darga called the Basava movement the first working-class movement in the world. "When European countries produced no literature, the working class people here produced world-class literature," said Darga.

Vachanas are considered a great literary tradition in Kannada. According to Shivaprakash, it "revolutionised both the idiom and content of Kannada literature." He says the "poetry stopped singing praises of kings and emperors" and the heroes in the poems were not military but spiritual heroes. But it was about the "expression of the felt intimations rather than the propagation of a well thought out religious doctrine."

The Vachana movement was progressive and revolutionary, say scholars. Denial of caste is the most important among this. "You can see the 31 points of Human Rights declarations of UN in Vachana poetry," said Jamadar. They don't believe "religion is something one is born into," says Ramanujan. According to Darga, "their Shiva is not the Hindu God Shiva. It's entirely different."

"Furthermore, bhakti religions like Virashiavism are Indian analogues to European protestant movements," said Ramanujan.They denied the Hindu social order and most of the leaders of the movement were from backward classes. Ironically, more than 90 subcastes of Lingayat exist now.

Women played a key role in the movement. "The Sharana movement produced 33 women Vachana poets, most of them from the lower strata of the society. Akkamahadevi, the most famous poet of this period is still the best woman poet of the language," wrote Shivaprakash.

The rituals of pleasing their deity are practised by all genders in the same way. Women are not barred from conducting puja during the menstrual cycle. Widow marriage is allowed for the last 900 years, says Jamadar. He adds that property rights and adoption rights are equal in their society.

Some poems of Basavanna express bisexual characters:

"Look here, dear fellow,
I wear these men's clothes
only for you.
Sometimes I am man,
Sometimes I am woman
O Lord of the meeting rivers
I'll make war for you but
I'll be your devotees' bride"

- BASAVANNA 703. (Translation: AK Ramanujan)

The current controversy

A few months ago, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaihah renamed the Karnataka Womens' University, Vijayapura, after Akkamahadevi, a renowned Vachanakara. Gulbarga University was renamed after Basaveshwara himself. In a felicitation programme organised by the Veerashaiva Mahasabha, they informed Siddaramaiah that the plea for a separate religion is still pending with the government. He agreed to do the needful.

BS Yeddyurappa, the BJP chief ministerial candidate and a Lingayat, stepped into the controversy saying that Lingayats are part of Hinduism. But thereafter, the party has remained tight-lipped about the issue. His government in 2011 had proposed a new university in the name of Basaveshwara.

Siddaramaiah later said that his government would recreate the Anubhava Mantap (the hall of experience) at Basava Kalyan in Bidar district, which was the base of the Sharana Movement. "Anubhava Mantapa set up by Basavanna provided a platform for men and women from all sections of society to come together and exchange their perceptions and visions about matters social and spiritual," wrote Shivaprakash. It has huge importance in the Basava movement.

Though the Congress virtually extended the support, Lingayats did not see any hope of getting recognised as a separate religion in the near future.

Political implications

"The entire northern and central Karnataka are dominated by Lingayats. Southern Karnataka also at one time had a sizeable number of Lingayats but for historical reasons, it withered. We have some 11,000 mutts, which provide food and also run schools. After Brahmins, the largest number of highly educated professionals in the fields of medicine, engineering, law or chartered accountancy are Lingayats," said Jamadar, emphasising the power of the community.

Veerashaiva-Lingayats, who supported the Congress until 1990 since the formation of the state in 1956, voted the BJP (led by Lingayat leader BS Yeddyurappa) to power in 2008. Karnataka has seen seven chief ministers from the community so far.

Siddaramaihah, a Kuruba, the fifth backward caste CM of Karnataka has been trying to champion the Ahinda (Alpa Sankhyatara, Hindulida, Dalit (minorities, backward castes and Dalits) formula. In a nod to take it further, he flagged off the Socio-Educational and Economic Census in 2013. Some parts were leaked to the media but the most important aspects are yet to be revealed.

Ambedkarite movements across the country have been demanding the release of the full 2011 caste census, which is supposed to 'expose' the 'economic and social irregularities' among the 'backward' and 'forward' castes. Siddaramaihah then organised a national conference on the thoughts of Ambedkar. The leaked data, according to news reports, show that prominent sects like Lingayats and Vokkaligas, who have been holding major positions in the state, are numerically far behind Dalits. With the census data, Siddaramaihah aims to challenge the current distribution of resources and share of power through new reservation policies, which are a new path in Indian politics. The release of the census data will bring the Congress the wrath of Veerashaiva-Lingayats and Vokkaligas. However, Siddaramaihah may be targeting the Lingayat votes by supporting the separate religion status. In this way, he may be hoping to break the Veerashaiva-Lingayat base that brought the BJP to power in 2008. Siddaramaiah also announced that he will look into the possibility of extending the reservation of SC-STs to 70% following the Tamil Nadu model.

Jamadar claims that more than 90% of their people have joined the current movement for separation. Thippanna has denied Jamadar's claims. "Who counted this," he asked.