Bengaluru: Election season has arrived and the Math (Monasteries) Karnataka sees a stream of high-profile visitors, from ticket-seekers to national leaders. Most castes and sub-castes in Karnataka, including Lingayat, Vokkaliga, Kuruba, Valmiki, Nayak and Madiga, are classified under various sections of the state’s list of backward classes. All these castes and sub-castes have their own spiritual centers called mathas.
On December 31 last year, Union Home Minister Amit Shah was seen As part of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) election campaign for the 2023 assembly elections, with the head of the influential Adichunchanagiri Mutt, Sri Nirmalanandanath Mahaswamiji, which represents the dominant Vokkaliga community.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several other top BJP leaders took to social media Lament Sri Siddheswara Swami of Gyan Yogashram in Vijayapura district passed away.
Why these religious leaders – whose influence is confined to a few districts – are so revered is important to understand the politics of the state. ThePrint explains how these monasteries became centers of power.
Read also: What the Bommai government’s quota upgrade for Lingayats and Vokkaligas means for EWS in Karnataka
What are mutts and how do they spread
With tens of thousands of followers each, mathas are caste-specific spiritual centers that exist across Karnataka, representing various communities.
a member of a community who has served its religious leaders for many years appointed to preside over these monasteries. These priests are known as the custodians of knowledge and traditions, and they become the spiritual mentors of their respective communities.
While there is no official count of the number of mathas in Karnataka, it is believed that most castes and sub-castes, or at least prominent ones, have their own institutions.
For example, Siddaganga Matha in Tumkur, Tontadarya Matha in Gadag, Suttur Matha in Mysuru and Muruga Matha in Chitradurga are among the major spiritual centers of the Lingayat community. Similarly, the Adichunchanagiri Math in Mandya is the spiritual headquarters of the Vokkaligas, while the Kanaka Guru Peetha in Kaginele represents the Kurubas, and the Madarachannaya Gurupeetha in Chitradurga represents the Madigas.
Although monasteries have existed in Karnataka since ancient times, it was only around the year 2000 that smaller sub-sects apart from the influential Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities began building monasteries of their own. Experts believe that Shivamurthy Muruga Sharanaru – the head priest of the Muruga Matha in Chitradurga, is currently in jail. rape charges – Helped smaller sub-sects to establish their own spiritual headquarters.
“The head of the Muruga Matha helped build a small spiritual center for V.Addars, Kuruba, Madiga, Kolhi and Bhovis, among others. But these smaller mathas gained importance over time and are no longer subordinate to the Muruga matha that wanted to be the spiritual headquarters,” said author RK Hudgi, a retired professor at Gulbarga Technical University.
Almost all mathas in Karnataka maintain themselves and grow in strength with the help of community members who are either wealthy or have political clout.
Apart from running educational institutions and orphanages, most of these mathas are also involved in charity in rural parts of Karnataka.
Siddaganga Math alone is over 50,000 students studying in its more than 130 schools and colleges, while the Muruga Matha runs about 150 such institutions and the Tontadarya Matha runs about 90 schools and colleges, offering professional education and a host of other courses.
Most of these educational institutions are located in rural areas where they send children from low-income groups for education and food. In turn, the Mutes rely on these efforts to expand their base. One way of doing this is to have the benefactors of the monastic benevolence present their religious leaders as a spiritual being or incarnation of God.
On why communities felt the need to set up these monasteries, experts say that their main objective was to preserve, protect and promote the heritage and history of a particular caste or sub-caste. But these spiritual centers have evolved over time. They now seek higher reservation for their communities, settle disputes and in some cases even influence the candidate selection process of a political party for specific constituencies.
Works of social anthropologist Aya Ikegame, a professor of Asian studies at the University of Tokyo, provides insight into the scope of these pontiffs’ powers. In his paper, ‘moral superiority? guru in democracy, Ike game talked about his visit to a village in central Karnataka in 2015, where he encountered a Lingayat religious leader who “bench of justice“or the seat of justice, to settle disputes, besides selecting those whom the monastery believed should represent the community in local and state governments – a practice known as ‘theAK,
Furthermore, the complex layers of reservation for backward classes in Karnataka created space for dominant caste groups to mobilize the masses and demand better benefits and representation.
The author of the paper K. Kariswamy said, “Caste-based mutts have become such that they seek benefits only for their own groups without considering any other socially, educationally and politically backward groups.”New Maths, New Battles’,
Political power of monasteries
People from all walks of life, especially those from economically backward classes, send their children to educational institutions run by monasteries as many of them provide free education, food and even accommodation . This allows monasteries to expand their follower base, and creates a sense of identity and pride among members of the community affiliated with the monastery.
The religious leaders who head these monasteries claim this influence to demand more reservations in government jobs, educational institutions and legislatures.
Top political leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several of his predecessors, have been seen visiting these mathas and seeking blessings from the influential religious leaders who run them in the hope of garnering their support on polling day.
In 2018, soon after Union Home Minister Amit Shah (the then BJP president) visited Madra Channaiah Gurupeeta, hundreds of people surrounded the religious leader with files or ‘biodata’, falling at his feet and seeking his blessings. As the religious leader explained, some of these were ‘ticket aspirants’ who sought the pontiff’s support to contest local or state elections.
“Wherever the society goes, I will also go that way. And the way I go, the society also goes. If both are together, then we move in the same direction,” the religious leader told ThePrint when asked how these spiritual centers exercise their political influence.
Photos of Shah touching the religious leader’s feet and seeking his blessings were widely shared on social media by pages managed by Madigas, pointing to the gesture as a sign of pride and prestige for the community.
Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, amid speculation that he may contest as a candidate, the names of several religious leaders did the rounds in political circles, including Madara Channaiah, the Basava idol of the Madara Channaiah Gurupeeth in Chitradurga.
Successive governments in Karnataka have supported these Maths. However, it was only during BS Yediyurappa’s tenure as deputy chief minister in the BJP-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition government that the state started giving budgetary grants to the mutts.
Prominent Kannada writer Barguru Ramachandrappa told ThePrint that prominent Lingayat religious leaders had come out in support of Yeddyurappa after he was removed as chief minister. in 2007, He then supported her in the 2008 election, helping the BJP form its first government in a state in southern India.
“Several Lingayat religious leaders opposed Yeddyurappa’s removal (in 2011 and 2021) and many made public statements expressing their displeasure,” he said. Yediyurappa returned the favor by allocating Rs 20 crore for such mathas in the 2011–12 state budget.
According to Ramachandrappa, there was “no turning back” after Yeddyurappa’s generosity.
A strong bargaining power, Matha opposes government policy like releasing the findings of the Chinappa Reddy Commission report — on backwardness — and have stopped Industrial Projects. In 2011, the head priest of the Tontadariya Math took the side of the farmers and successfully campaigned against the proposed 6 million tonne steel plant in Gadag.
,Examination (indirect) has become direct (direct),” Ramachandrappa explained.
(Editing by Amritansh Arora)