Sign In
Learn bits
History & Culture
Mahesh

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

More Related Current Affairs View All

06 Feb

Supreme Court directive on sacred groves

'The Supreme Court directed the Forest Department of Rajasthan to map on the ground and via satellite every ‘sacred grove’ in detail.' They were to be identified irr

Read More

06 Feb

Story of NavIC

'India’s space agency reported the partial failure of its NVS-02 navigation satellite due to the non-firing of its engines in space.' This was the latest in a series of se

Read More

06 Feb

NAAC bribery case

'The CBI recently arrested ten people, including members and chairperson of a National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) inspection team and office-bearers of Koneru Laks

Read More

India’s First Ai-Driven Magazine Generator

Generate Your Custom Current Affairs Magazine using our AI in just 3 steps