The Siddaramaiah government’s efforts to push for the inclusion of the ‘Kuruba’ (shepherd) community across three districts of Karnataka—Bidar, Kalaburagi and Yadgir—in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list as ‘Gonda’ tribes has been met with stiff opposition from dominant ST communities like Valmiki and Nayaka.
Chief Minister Siddaramnaiah, who belongs to the Kuruba community is in a fix because the move, as expected, has rankled the ST community (53 sub-castes) which enjoys 7 per cent reservation and is unwilling to share the quota with the politically dominant Kuruba community, currently classified as OBC.
The Kuruba community is the third largest in the state after the Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities. It is classified under the 2A category of OBC reservation and shares the 15 per cent quota with 101 other castes.
The ST tag would provide reservation in education and jobs, and also political representation, as there are 15 ST reserved Assembly constituencies and two Parliament seats in the state.
Even as the government was mulling over sending the proposal to the Centre, religious and political leaders of the ST communities registered their protest against the move.
Not the first time
In 2023, ahead of the Assembly elections, the then BJP government had sent a proposal for the inclusion of the Kuruba community in the ST list for the whole of Karnataka. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs had sought the opinion of the Office of the Registrar General of India (ORGI), which had earlier examined another proposal for the inclusion of 'Kuruba' as synonym of 'Gonda' ST in the Bidar, Gulbarga and Yadgir districts alone, in 2017, 2018, and 2023. However, the ORGI had rejected the proposals.
The state government had sent a study report prepared by Karnataka State Tribal Research Institute, Mysuru, based on the study of 102 villages from 50 taluks of 25 districts of Karnataka, covering a Kuruba population of 60,595.
The study had noted that the Kurubas were traditionally in the sheep and goat rearing profession and were spread across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. In Karnataka, they are mainly present in Bagalkot, Belagavi, Mysore, Chamarajanagar, Hassan, Haveri, Dharwad, Kolar, Tumkur, Raichur and Bellary districts of Karnataka.
The report detailed the customs and beliefs of the community, stating that it was patriarchal and prohibited same-clan marriage, worshipped nature (and ancestors), that Kuruba women got their body tattooed by nomadic ‘Korama’ or ‘Shilikyata’ women, and that the Kuruba people possessed ethno-medicinal knowledge and were derived of education owing to their migratory nature.
The ethnonyms of Kuruba community were identified as ‘Bharmad’, ‘Dhangar’, ‘Goraya’, ‘Kurab’, ‘Kuruban’, ‘Kurumba’, ‘Khurub’, ‘Kurumban’, and ‘Halumatha’.
In Karnataka, ‘Kuruba’ is notified as ST only in the Coorg district (as per 1956 Order), but it is notified as OBC along with sub-castes in the rest of the state and other South Indian states.
However, ethnographic literature pointed out that Kurubas were a caste of shepherds, sharing a social relationship with other castes like the Vokkaligas, Brahmins and Lingayats, and employed Brahmin priests for auspicious ceremonies. Besides sheep rearing, they were engaged in agricultural activities—both as land-owners and tenants—though some were small traders and worked for wages.
“Kurubas occupy the same social status as the Vokkaliga or the cultivating caste and are the modern representatives of the ancient Pallavas (The Mysore Tribes and Castes, 1930) and they are also known as Kadambas who had formed the dynasty of Vijayanagara as per the Mysore and Coorg Gazetteer by B.L. Rice. Therefore, it is clear that Kurubas have never led a life of social isolation. Among the surveyed families around 78 per cent were marginal agricultural land holders, 73 per cent were literates, indicating the community is not socially and educationally backward compared to other SC, ST, OBC and general communities in that region,” stated the ORGI, adding it did not support the proposal for inclusion in ST list.
Will inclusion favour the Kuruba community or Siddaramaiah?
For Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who is drawing flak for a “hurried” and “contentious” caste survey that begins on September 22, the current move to include Kuruba in the ST list would open a pandora’s box of political conflicts.
Siddaramaiah, who made it big with Ahinda-centric politics by consolidating the traditional vote bank of the Congress—the Dalit, minorities and the backward classes—is often accused of overshadowing other OBC leaders within the party.
Previously, now-expelled BJP leader K.S. Eshwarappa had planned to challenge Siddaramaiah politically by floating the Rayanna Brigade (named after Kuruba icon Rayanna, an 18th century warrior of Kittur in Belagavi).
However, the movement fizzled out after the BJP high command suspected it would create a parallel centre to the then chief minister and Lingayat strongman B.S. Yediyurappa. The movement that brought Kuruba leaders across party lines had promised to spring new leadership and help carve a new political constituency by breaking the Ahinda coalition.
This time too, the inclusion of Kuruba under the ST list would not only weaken Siddaramaiah’s clout within the community and the party, but also affect the Congress party because the ST community is resentful of the move (as it is unwilling to share the quota unless it is enhanced).
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In 2023, the BJP government enhanced the ST quota from 3 per cent to 7 per cent, but the party lost all its six ST-reserved seats in the election. The Congress won 14 and JDS one. The rout in the polls was attributed to the inclusion of the Talwar and Pariwar communities into ST list, which had rankled the ST community. BJP’s former ministers and ST leaders like B. Sriramulu (Ballari) and Rajugowda (Yadgir) had been defeated.
Siddaramaiah has chosen to remain neutral.
“The state government would only send a recommendation. The Centre will take a call on inclusion of the Kuruba community under the ST list,” he said.
The CM is facing a backlash from within the community too. Former education minister and MLC A.H. Vishwanath alleged Siddaramaiah was dangling the ST tag before the community only to circumvent the power-sharing pact.
“All these days, he did not fight for it. Now, he is only raking it up to blackmail the Congress high command and to avert a leadership change in the state,” said Vishwanath, a friend-turned-foe of the CM from his home-turf Mysuru.
The Valmiki (ST) community, which is disgruntled over two ST ministers B. Nagendra (ST welfare) and K.N. Rajanna (Cooperation) being forced to step down following allegations of corruption and anti-party remarks (on vote-theft) respectively, is now furious over the proposal to include Kuruba community.