Lingayat support to the BJP surged in 1990, when Congress leader and former premier Rajiv Gandhi abruptly removed a Lingayat leader as Chief Minister
For nearly three decades, the Lingayats, a powerful upper caste group in Karnataka, have voted for the BJP, whose presumptive Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa is the most statured leader of the community. The prosperous Lingayats were believed till recently to form 17% percentage of the state’s population and are governed by a cluster of about 1,000 mathas or religious seminaries, each with its own spiritual head.
Two days ago, it was one of these leaders that presented BJP chief Amit Shah with a letter that is being interpreted as a new couple alert – a pairing of the Lingayats with the Congress, which just a week back said that the Lingayats should be recognized as a religious minority – like the Jains or Sikhs or Buddhists. The BJP says the Congress is trying to skim political support with a move that will divide Hindus.
But Lingayats have long held that they are not to be mixed with Hindus. “Those who believe this decision threatens the Hindu religion are exaggerating. It’s too vast and rooted to be in any danger,” said the Siddalinga Swami of a prominent Lingayat seminary in North Karnataka. “We are not anti-Hindu, but we don’t subscribe to some tenets of Hinduism. This can pose a problem only to those people who speak in favour of an undivided Hindu society, but never act against the ills that plague it. They want to maintain status quo, we are challenging it.”
Unexpectedly, the Lingayats are now the central flash point between the Congress and the BJP. Rahul Gandhi visited a large Lingayat math in February. Amit Shah tweeted that he visited another today.
The Lingayats were formed as a sect in the 12th century by the social reformer Basavanna who rejected the caste system and championed gender equality. Their support to the BJP surged in 1990, when Congress leader and former premier Rajiv Gandhi abruptly removed a Lingayat leader as Chief Minister. When the BJP won Karnataka in 2008, marking its first government in the south, the Lingayats were a large part of its success. The community influences the results of at least 100 of the 224 constituencies in the state.
On May 12, Karnataka will vote for its next government. The incumbent Congress administration, led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, congregates the support of Hindu minorities, backward classes and Dalits, collectively acronym-ed “AHINDA”.
Word play on that was offered earlier this week by Amit Shah when he said the Chief Minister is “not AHINDA but A-Hindu or anti-Hindu.” His speech was made at a rally in Central Karnataka. He urged Lingayat spiritual leaders to keep the community united in support of the BJP.
