Fighting for Minority Religious Tag by Lingayats
Constitution of India does not define the word ‘Minority’, but, has used the word minority or minorities considering two attributes – Religion or Language of a person. Article 29 protects the interests of the minorities by making a provision that any citizen / section of citizens having a distinct language, script or culture have the right to conserve the same, and Article 30 protects the right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions whether based on religion or language. The above two provisions together may be taken as the constitutional charter for religious and linguistic minorities at all levels. Currently, 6 religious communities, (Muslims, Sikhs, Zoroastrianism, Buddhists, Jains and Christians) are notified as religious minorities under National Commission for Minorities Act 1992. Now Karnataka Government had mooted the idea of including Lingayat as the 7 th religious minority community which is being looked as a vote bank poli