The Telugu Budga Jangams

Bengaluru: Competing claims between two communities have laid the ground for a caste conflict in Karnataka. The stakes are reservations and entitlements due to the Scheduled Caste (SC) Beda Jangam community in Karnataka. However, two different groups claim to be Beda Jangam. One is a group of wandering performers of Burra Katha; the other is a sect of religious teachers. Members of both communities can be found in the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Maharashtra. Beda Jangam and Budga Jangam appear as number 19 in the list of 101 scheduled castes in Karnataka.
Dalit groups have made efforts to compel the government to clarify that the sect of religious teachers, Veerashaiva Jangams, are not Beda Jangams. They say that the Veerashaiva Jangams are associated with the Lingayat community, and that merely because of the word ‘jangam’ in their name, several members of their community have falsely procured Beda Jangam caste certificates.