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24/07/24 11:50 AM IST

Panchamasali Lingayats demands quota

In News
  • Panchamasali Lingayats, a sub-caste of Karnataka’s dominant Lingayat community, have been demanding inclusion in Category 2A of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) for more than three years.
Lingayat
  • The Lingayats (officially classified as Hindu sub-caste ‘Veerashaiva Lingayats’) are followers of Basavanna, a 12th century philosopher-saint who started a radical anti-caste movement which rejected orthodox ritualistic Hindu practices in favour of a more personal, affective relationship with God, specifically Lord Shiva.
  • Today, the Lingayat community is an amalgamation of many sub-castes, who, put together, can affect electoral outcomes in 90-100 of Karnataka’s 224 seats.
  • Of these sub-castes, the agriculturalist Panchamasalis are the largest, making up nearly 70 per cent of the Lingayat population.
  • They claim to number around 85 lakh — about 14% of Karnataka’s population of roughly six crore.
Categories of OBCs in Karnataka
  • OBCs comprise many different castes and sub-castes who are at different levels of marginalisation depending on whether they own land, their occupation, etc.
  • To prevent any one dominant OBC group from cornering all quota benefits, most states have come up with further sub-categorisation of OBCs, which takes into account different castes’ relative marginalisation, and their populations.
  • In Karnataka, the 32 per cent total reservation for OBCs in government jobs and college admissions is distributed among five categories. 
Source- Indian Express

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