Karnataka caste survey suggests quota shake-up

Scheduled Castes (SC) comprise more than 18% of Karnataka’s population and Muslims nearly 13%, even as the dominant Vokkaligas and Lingayats make up less than 25%, a caste survey in the state has found, people aware of the matter said on Sunday, outlining the findings of a report that suggested shaking up the province’s reservation matrix and pushing the overall caste-based quotas to 75%.

The survey report, the contents of which will be revealed to cabinet ministers during a special meeting on April 17, also said backward classes make up 70% of the state’s population.

It suggested increasing reservations for Muslims from 4% to 8% and for people from Other Backward Classes (OBCs) from 32% to 51%, said the people cited above.

Several officials confirmed the findings of the survey, a deeply emotive and politically fraught issue in the southern state. It comes nearly a year-and-a-half after Bihar, governed by the Janata Dal (United), revealed the findings of its own survey.

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The exercise, held in 2015, surveyed 59 million people in the state. To be sure, this is fewer than the state’s population as per the 2011 census – 61.09 million. That exercise – the subsequent census has been delayed for years – said SCs number 17.1% of the state’s population and STs 17%. It also found that Muslims were 12.9% of the state’s population.

The report, which spans 46 printed volumes, includes a new classification system, introducing Category 1A for communities like Golla, Uppara, Mogaveera and Koli. It also shifts Kurubas, the community to which Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah belongs, from Category 2A to a newly created Category 1B.

Siddaramaiah, who commissioned the census in 2014 during his previous tenure, reaffirmed his commitment to implement the findings. “Our government supports the caste census. We will implement it without any doubt,” he said, adding, “The caste census is 95% perfect,” and claimed 94% accuracy in urban areas and 98% in rural parts.

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However, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state called the survey “unscientific” and accused the state’s Congress government of trying to leverage caste for political gains.

Among the key communities, the survey enumerated 6.63 million (11.09%) Lingayats and 6.16 million (10.31%) Vokkaligas. According to the report, reservations for categories 3A and 3B, to which the two groups belong, will be 8% and 7% respectively.

SCs are to retain 17% reservations and STs 7%.

The report recommended that reservations for backward groups be increased to 51% from the current 32%. However, this would take the quantum of reservation in government jobs and educational institutions to 75%. To be sure, the 10% reservations for people from economically weaker sections (EWS) would take overall reservations in the state to 85%.

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The proposal to hike reservation benefits may well end up before the courts since it breaches the 50% ceiling fixed by the Supreme Court in the 1992 Indra Sawhney (famously known as Mandal Commission) case.

A November 2022 judgment by the Supreme Court, ratifying the 10% EWS quota, had also weighed in on the 50% ceiling on reservation. The majority verdict at that time held that the 50% ceiling on reservation is “not inviolable or inflexible”, marking a paradigm shift from the thumb rule that has governed reservations in India, preventing states from enforcing quotas that take the proportion above 50%. The 3-2 view noted that the 50% ceiling applied only to the provisions of the Constitution that existed at that time and cannot extend to the 2019 amendment to any subsequent law.

Three states — Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Chhattisgarh — have passed laws exceeding the 50% reservation mark, and those decisions are under challenge in the Supreme Court.

Reports of the findings set off a major political storm.

Defending the report and the broader recommendation to expand reservation limits, Congress MLC B K Hariprasad said the caste census provides empirical justification. “The caste census provides empirical backing for the increase,” said Hariprasad.

Union minister of state for railways and jal shakti, V Somanna, said, “I am pained that CM Siddaramaiah can stoop to this level. If he goes ahead with implementing the caste census report, he will be remembered as a villain in history.”

Lingayat groups rejected the report’s findings.

Shankar Bidari, Karnataka president of the All-India Veerashaiva Lingayat Mahasabha, said, “We will not accept this report under any circumstances. We will appeal to the government and chief minister Siddaramaiah to conduct a fresh caste census in the state.”

He said the census underestimated the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community’s population.

State minister MB Patil, a Congress Lingayat leader, said the report may have undercounted his community’s numbers.

“The population of the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community is not around 70 lakh (7 million), as stated in the report, but is actually more than one crore (10 million),” he said. “I have obtained a copy of the caste census report. I will need to go through it thoroughly before making any comments. Once I have studied the report, I will share my views at the special cabinet meeting scheduled for April 17,” he added.

“We need to clarify the doubts and discuss the matter in the cabinet. To avail reservation benefits, many sub-castes do not officially record themselves as belonging to the Lingayat community. Such facts must be taken into account. The matter will be discussed, and there will be no conflict,” he assured.

Deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar called for patience before the cabinet goes through the report.

“The law minister has opened the report. No MLA or minister has gone through it fully. A detailed discussion will follow,” he said.

The survey also found that Brahmins only made up 1.5 million of the population, or 2.6%. The report also enumerated the rural-urban divide in the state, with 39 million living in rural Karnataka and 20 million in urban areas. A majority of the Muslims were in urban Karnataka.