Explanation:

Lingayats have been in news for two things - The Karnataka Election & their demand for a minority status

Lingayats are members of a distinct Shaivite religious tradition whose origins can be traced to the 12th century A.D. Oral traditions attribute poet-philosopher-social reformer Basaveshwara or Basavanna (as he is locally known) as the founder of Lingayatism,
Lingayats worship Shiva, one of the Hindu Trimurti, and wear the ‘Ishtlinga’, a symbolic representation of the inner conscience, as a ritual and a mark of their identity.
Basavanna and his followers (called the “Sharanas”) rejected the supreme authority of the Vedas, the Puranas, the Smritis and the Shastras. Instead, they composed several literary works, collectively referred to as Vachanas, which outlay the basic tenets of the Lingayat faith and echoes its dissent from conventional Hinduism. Lingayatism emerged as a mass reactionary movement against Brahmanical Hinduism in medieval Karnataka during the period of the Kalchuri dynasty. They revolted against orthodox Hindu beliefs and practices. The Lingayats shunned superstitions, denounced the need for pilgrimages and holy sites, abhorred worship of idols, and abandoned the fundamental Hindu doctrines of polytheism, reincarnation and karma.
They believe in Union after Shiva and as result do not follow the practice of cremating their dead