Lingayat Mahasabha challenges ‘Vachana Darshana’ book, poses questions

Progressive Lingayat groups have posed ten questions to heads of mutts and Lingayats who are ignorant about the book and its purpose.

Lingayats said they would continue with their protests across the state and are expected to protest silently wherever the book is slated for release.

BENGALURU: The release of the book ‘Vachana Darshana’, which has found support among right-wing groups, has been challenged by progressive Lingayat groups. Jagathika Lingayat Mahasabha, challenging the book in a letter to Dharwad Deputy Commissioner, said, “The book ‘Vachana Darshana’ published by Ayodhya Prakashana and being released in many places across Dharwad district, distorts what great social reformer Shri Basavanna taught.’’ They requested that permission granted to the publishers to release the book in Hubballi on Wednesday, besides other places, be withdrawn forthwith.

Progressive Lingayat groups have posed ten questions to heads of mutts and Lingayats who are ignorant about the book and its purpose. At least one mutt head, Moorusavira Mutt pontiff Guru Siddha Rajayogindra Mahaswamigalu, accepted their arguments and said he would not participate in the book release in Hubballi, where he is one of the invitees, said Kumaranna Patil, a Lingayat activist based out of Dharwad. The ten questions posed to Lingayat mutts are: Are you truly following Basavanna’s teachings and his concepts? Had social reformer Basavanna accepted the primacy of Vedas, Upanishads, Agamas and caste system in Lingayat Dharma? Basavanna was a former conformist Hindu and not a social reformer: What is your opinion? Who are the persons behind this book which has distorted Basavanna’s teachings? And why have they distorted his teachings?

Many progressive Lingayat group leaders said, “We see they are planning to release the book in dozens of places in the next few days, and we will protest silently. What social reformer Basavanna said in the 13th century cannot be diluted or distorted to suit anyone’s needs, least of all Hindutva.”

A group of 50 Lingayat protesters had raised slogans on Saturday, saying the book does not present the true picture of Basavanna, and why it cannot be accepted by Lingayats, and were detained by police before being let off. The function was attended by BJP National General Secretary (org) BL Santosh and Shivananda Swamiji of Gadag.

Lingayats said they would continue with their protests across the state and are expected to protest silently wherever the book is slated for release. Meanwhile, actor Chetan, a Lingayat, said, “The storm over the book ‘Vachana Darshana’ is a binary ideological struggle between those trying to co-opt Basavanna into Hindutva fold, and the establishment’s ‘progressive’ thinkers. Only we ‘equalitarians’ are true ideological heirs of Basavanna. May all modern interpretations of Basavanna sprout from all sides.’’