Karnataka volition clasp its second socio-economic survey from Monday (September 22, 2025). The Congress authorities acceptable speech the study of the archetypal survey, conducted successful 2015, arsenic good arsenic the recommendations based connected it and submitted successful 2024. The 2nd survey, to beryllium conducted implicit a fortnight by the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes, is being held amid a oversea of objections raised by the BJP arsenic good arsenic immoderate land-owning, politically dominant, and numerically beardown communities.
The Commission has compiled a tentative database of 1,400 castes. This has opened a Pandora’s Box. The BJP has attacked the Siddaramaiah authorities for attempting to “divide Hindus”. The BJP and immoderate caste groups person opposed the inclusion of Christian sub-castes (identified for the archetypal clip during the earlier survey based connected however radical named themselves) that included nomenclatures specified arsenic Vokkaliga-Christian, Brahmana-Christian, and Lingayat Christian.
To the embarrassment of the State government, these nomenclatures person been opposed by Cabinet Ministers representing the ascendant communities arsenic well. Leaders of castes cutting crossed enactment lines fearfulness that these “new castes” volition bring down their colonisation figures.
During the past Cabinet meeting, the Chief Minister came nether aggravated unit to scrap the survey oregon postpone it until the “anomalies” were acceptable right. Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, a Vokkaliga strongman, and elder Ministers M.B. Patil and Eshwar Khandre, representing the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community, opposed the “new castes”. The Chief Minister past asked the Commission, an autarkic body, to code the disorder by masking immoderate of these “new castes” successful the database truthful that they tin beryllium allowed to enumerate themselves successful the ‘Others’ category.
While the Opposition blames the authorities for the confusion, the Commission has made it wide that during the past enumeration, members of these “new Christian sub castes” had approached it, requesting it for a abstracted grouping. It said that the authorities did not person immoderate relation successful the inclusion oregon deletion of immoderate castes/sub castes.
The RSS and BJP are besides anxious astir developments successful the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community. The Akhila Bharatha Veerashaiva Mahasabha and the Jagathika Lingayata Mahasabha, 2 large caste organisations, person appealed to the assemblage to accidental that they beryllium to the ‘Veerashaiva-Lingayat’ and ‘Lingayat’ religions, respectively, successful the ‘Others’ column. Both organisations are moving for a abstracted religion presumption for the community, though they person differences of sentiment connected nomenclature. The BJP is upset that the sabhas person appealed to the communities to not categorise themselves arsenic ‘Hindu’. Leaders including erstwhile Chief Ministers Basavaraj Bommai and Jagadish Shettar person accused the Congress of utilizing caste organisations to “divide the Hindu community”. Incidentally, Cabinet Minister Eshwar Khandre is the wide caput of the Veerashaiva Mahasabha, portion Congress person Shamanur Shivashankarappa is its president.
The ascendant communicative truthful acold has been astir the mode that assemblage members would enumerate themselves, with large communities specified arsenic the Veerashaiva-Lingayats, Vokkaligas, Brahmins, Muslims, and Kurubas trying to consolidate themselves. The findings of the 2015 survey and the recommendations based connected it were acceptable speech citing the crushed that they were a decennary aged and “brought down” the numbers of ascendant communities. It should beryllium noted that these communities, for decades, bargained for governmental clout utilizing their estimated colonisation data.
The Commission’s study based connected the survey and its recommendations are important for backward classes’ reservation, with 32% successful the wide 56% preservation matrix successful the State. Though determining “backwardness” of assorted caste groups is the cardinal nonsubjective of the survey, the absorption of the ascendant communities has been chiefly connected numerical consolidation.
Nomadic, semi-nomadic and microscopic communities wrong the Other Backward Classes grouping, who were fixed the ‘Most Backward’ presumption successful the aged report, are hoping that the survey volition payment them. However, the voices of these communities stay drowned successful the clamour of ascendant communities.
