Archive · 18 Sep 2025
Lingayat Community Faces Confusion in Caste Census
Imagine a big survey is happening to count everyone's castes in Karnataka.
For the Lingayat community, it's a bit tricky because some leaders want them to write "Veerashaiva-Lingayat" and some are saying "Hindu".
The leaders can't quite agree.
At a meeting, some said to write "Hindu" to avoid political problems, since they don't have a separate religion status yet.
Then the Panchamasali leaders decided to write "Hindu" for their religion and "Panchamasali" for their caste.
A big meeting in Hubballi is planned to discuss and hopefully make a final decision for everyone to follow.
Confusion arose within the Lingayat community regarding how to identify in the caste census.
The Lingayat Mahasabha advised writing "Veerashaiva-Lingayat" in the 'Other' column under 'religion'.
Panchamasali Lingayat leaders debated whether to write "Hindu" or "Lingayat" in the religion column.
Panchamasali leaders decided to write "Hindu" in religion and "Panchamasali" in the caste column.
A convention of Veerashaiva Lingayats is planned to provide unified instructions.
- Who
- Lingayat community members and leaders
- What
- Confusion and differing instructions on how to identify in the caste census.
- When
- As of September 2024, with the census starting on September 22.
- Where
- Bengaluru, Hubballi, and across Karnataka.
- Why
- Due to conflicting advice on religious and caste identity in the census forms.
- Event
- Caste Census
- Community
- Lingayat
- Location
- Bengaluru, Hubballi
- Date of Census Start
- September 22
- Key Issue
- Religious Identity in Census Forms
- Main Decision
- Panchamasali write "Hindu" for religion