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CASTE CENSUS: MY CAMPAIGN OVER THE YEARS THAT KODAVAS (COORGS) ARE NOT HINDUS HAS BORNE FRUIT

By P.T. Bopanna

When I announced way back in 2018 that my book ‘Are Kodavas (Coorgs) Hindus?’ was going to be released, several Sangh Parivar organisations had protested and even went to the extent of saying “how dare you?”

Not only the book was released and went into reprint within a month (a record for an English book on Kodagu), I sustained the campaign on my Facebook groups and pages that Kodavas were not Hindus.

The frustrated Sangh Parivar even deployed a famous Kodava writer in English to belittle me and counter my arguments.

The attack against me weakened after I pointed out that Kodavas were not part of the Hindu category till the 1941 census. I further noted that Kodavas do not have caste system and Brahmins do not officiate in their functions.

Now ahead of the caste census from September 22, several Kodava organisations have urged the Kodavas to record their religion and caste as “Kodava”.

The Akhila Kodava Samaja President Paradanda Subramani Kaverappa has urged the Kodava community members to record their religion and caste as “Kodava”. He has asked the community members to clearly mention this when the enumerators visit their homes.

Kaverappa requested the state government to make appropriate changes in the design of the census application/software, keeping in mind the demand of the Kodava community.

The President of the Federation of Kodava Samajas, Kallichanda Vishnu Cariappa, stated: “This will be considered an official document in the future. Due to some confusion and omissions so far, injustice has been done to the Kodava tribal community. To correct this, it should be mentioned as ‘Kodava’ in the caste and religion columns.”

The government of Karnataka has bracketed Kodavas under the ‘Other Backward Classes’ (OBC), which falls under the Shudra/low category under the Hindu caste system.

Since the Kodava community is unique, the government has followed the policy of ‘bind it serially’ in the Hindu OBC list, since they find Kodavas ‘a little different’ – eating pork, but are not Christians, and are not Muslims, and therefore they are Hindus!

Source: Are Kodavas (Coorgs) Hindus? by P.T. Bopanna. Rolling Stone Publications.

Paperback copies of the book available on Flipkart:

https://www.flipkart.com/kodavas-coorgs-hindus/p/itmc8b2b88846414