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CM tells seers state will not divide Veerashaiva-Lingayats
खबर में क्यों?
Who decides if Lingayats are a separate religion? The Article 25-30 minority question KPSC keeps circling
Chief Minister D.K.
Why it matters: Karnataka-specific
What you need to know
2 मिनट
Chief Minister D.K.
Shivakumar told seers that the government will not divide the Veerashaiva-Lingayats.
The question of a separate religion status for the community has long featured in Karnataka politics.
Discord between Ministers and MLAs in districts has also been noted as a challenge for the ruling party.
स्रोत: Topper IAS editorial (PIB / The Hindu / Indian Express)
मुख्य तथ्य
Remember these
- Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar told seers the government will not divide the Veerashaiva-Lingayats.
- The demand for separate religion status for Lingayats has long featured in Karnataka politics.
- The Lingayat tradition is linked to the 12th-century reformer Basavanna and his Anubhava Mantapa.
- Article 25 guarantees freedom of religion; Article 29-30 protect minority cultural and educational rights.
- Recognition of a minority religion at the national level rests with the Union government, not the state.
प्रीलिम्स · मेन्स
How the exam will ask it
प्रीलिम्स
- Article 25 guarantees freedom of conscience and the right to freely profess, practise and propagate religion, subject to public order, morality and health.
- Article 30(1) gives religious and linguistic minorities the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
- Basavanna, the 12th-century social reformer associated with the Lingayat movement, opposed caste hierarchy and ritualism and promoted the Vachana literature in Kannada.
- Minority status of a community for national purposes is notified under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, by the Union government.
मेन्स
GS-1 (Indian society, regionalism, communalism) and GS-2 (federalism, minority rights). The Lingayat religion-status demand raises the issue of who may define a religious minority: the state recommends, but the Centre notifies under the NCM Act, 1992 and Articles 25-30 frame the rights at stake. The implications are reservation and institutional benefits versus the risk of fragmenting a community and fuelling identity politics; the way forward is a transparent, evidence-based process with community consensus, respecting the constitutional division of powers.
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