ABSTRACT
In 2006, Karnataka became the first southern state to be ruled by the Hindu nationalist party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The success of the BJP in Karnataka arose because the party secured considerable support from the Lingayat community (followers of Veerashaivism), the dominant caste in northern Karnataka. Many journalists and scholars believed that the BJP utilized Hindu monasteries (mathas) as their vote banks. However, the other major political parties in the state, such as the Indian National Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) have similar interests in monasteries. The inclination of the Lingayat community to favour the BJP may appear rather puzzling at first sight, since the Lingayat philosophy, developed by Basavanna, a twelfth-century religious reformer, is considered to be strongly opposed to caste hierarchy and Brahminical values. Since the BJP is commonly considered to be a party of high castes and supporters of orthodox Brahminical values in north India, this alliance in the south requires some explanation. From the very beginning of the twentieth century, Lingayats have been making tremendous efforts to ‘up-lift’ their community, particularly through modern education, in order to compete with Brahmins who monopolized high government offices both in the princely state of Mysore and in British-ruled territories. After having secured an improvement in their social and economic capital, they felt the need to acquire concomitant cultural capital as well. In this sense, one may ask if this new alliance between Lingayats and the BJP could be regarded as a political form of ‘Sanskritization’ through which the Lingayats manifest themselves as a community that upholds Hindu spiritual values.
