Karnataka caste census identifies 1,351 castes, sub-castes; pegs Lingayat, Vokkaliga population at 21.3%

The survey found Lingayats and Voggaligas accounted for 21.3 per cent of Karnataka’s population. Earlier, there were claims that these two dominant castes added up close to a third of the state’s population.

Among the surveyed people, 66.35 lakh were Lingayats. Veerashaiva Lingayat, Nolamba Lingayat, Panchamasali Lingayat, Veerashaiva, and Veerashaiva Mallavar are the prominent sub-castes, adding up to close to a fourth of the population of the caste group. The Lingayats are predominantly based in Karnataka’s north and central districts and significantly impact nearly 100 of the 224 seats in the Legislative Assembly.

The Lingayats constitute 11 per cent of the state population and have been represented by two BJP chief ministers in recent years: B S Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai. Also, prominent Lingayat Congress, such as M B Patil and Eshwar Khandre, are part of the Siddaramaiah Cabinet.

The Panchamasali Lingayats are currently advocating for reservation under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category, a movement led by MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, who was recently suspended from the BJP. With a population of approximately 6.33 lakh people, the Panchamasalis account for about one-tenth of the Lingayats.

Vokkaligas, though nearly as populous as the Lingayats, have fewer sub-castes. The survey identified 61.68 lakh members of the Vokkaliga caste, which includes prominent sub-castes such as Gowda and Reddy. They contribute to 10.3 per cent of the state’s population, mainly in the districts of the old Mysore region, such as Mandya, Ramanagar, Kolar, Chikkaballapur, Hassan, Bengaluru Rural and Tumakuru.

Over the past two decades, Janta Dal (Secular), led by former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and his son and Union minister H D Kumaraswamy, has been seen as a ‘Vokkaliga’ party, primarily because a majority of its legislators belong to this community.

Another prominent caste group is Kuruba, from which Chief Minister Siddaramaiah hails. The total population of Kurubas among those surveyed was 43.72 lakh or 7.3 per cent of the population.

With 76.99 lakh people among the surveyed, Muslims formed 12.9 per cent of the population in the state. There are 99 sub-groups or sects among Muslims, including Shia Muslim, Pinjara, Bohra and Irani Muslim. As many as 59.51 lakh from the community identified themselves as just ‘Muslims’.

Unlike Vokkaligas and Lingayats, concentrated in particular areas of the state, Muslims are distributed across the state, influencing relatively fewer seats than the dominant communities.

The survey found that Brahmins comprise 2.6 per cent of the state population. Christians, with a population of 9.04 lakh among the surveyed, contribute to 1.5 per cent of the total people in the state. Jains are a micro-community, forming 0.7 per cent of the state population.

The survey noted that 1.94 lakh people, or 0.22 per cent of the surveyed population, said they did not belong to any castes, while 2.53 lakh, or 0.42 per cent, refused to divulge details about their caste identity. The number of people who said they did not know their caste was 1.94 lakh, or 0.32 per cent.

The survey was commissioned in 2015 during the first term of Siddaramaiah as chief minister. A special Cabinet meeting is scheduled on April 17 to discuss the survey report.