OCCI New Delhi

Brief history of OCCI:
It was in the year 2011 Karnataka Od community officers Sri Shivarudraiahswamy then Income tax officer of Bengaluru and Sri T Chandrasekhar Deputy Director of Korea Trade Centre in Bangalore conceptualised to foundation of All India level organisation of Od Bhovi community basing in New Delhi with an objective to bring the all India scattered Od community in different names , different language segments to one national forum in one common name as Od.
It's historical fact that the community had moved all India and was also ex parted beyond Indian territories to build temples, palaces, forts, roads, irrigation projects and other infrastructure activities as they excelled both in sculpture and infrastructure building. In view of these movements the community scattered throughout India and out side India and lost identity as merged in the local culture and language.
Having regard to the above historical debate between the two it was planned to collect the information of activities of Od people and leadership of community all India with the help of Wikipedia, Facebook and BlogSpot articles and contacts. Sri. Chandrasekhar went on research about community activities all India and also documented the Od history all India and got the contacts of Sri Shankar Lal Od , an Engineer in service of Delhi Government who was in the activities of Od Jagrithi Sangh from New Delhi in vain. Sri. Lal Chand also an Engineer junior to him associated with him in efforts of organisation of Od community in north India. These two developed interaction with Chandrasekhar and established personal relationship. Sri. Chandrashekhar attended marriages and small family programmes in Delhi Od and came to know similarities and common culture between the north and south.
In the mean time Shivarudraiahswamy did research all India to find common Gotras and relationship between Od, Beldar Od, Od Rajput, Vadar, Oad, Vadde, Vadra, Boyar, Boyan and Bhovis and documented in Wikipedia  and Facebook which gave way to understanding between all these community educated class to know that all these castes are one community scattered in various languages and areas due to migration but are the same people having common gotras, common culture and common language of Odra and Odki. All claimed their origin from Odra Desha, a country between todays Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. Odras referred as Kshatriyas in Mahabharata who paid their tributes to Pandavas in Rajasooya Yaga. Its also believed during Kalinga war Asoka made them war prisoners and forced to work on , stone breaking and into rock cutting to road building activities along with other prisoners. This ultimately forced Odras to accept public works activities as their caste profession. As they moved in search of job naturally spread all India but never forgot their roots in Odra Desha and continued to call them selves Od, Ode, Odd, Vadda, Vadra, Vadar, Od Rajput, Odeya Rajar etc.
After confirmation of above historical events from all sides its accepted Od are all one community and decided to float a national forum by name Od Samaj under the Chairmanship of Sri. Shivarudraiahswamy in the year 2012 and leadership of Shimoga district of Karnataka supported his cause to the unity of Od all India and planned for a national level programmes to bring Od all India.
To begin a District level convention was convened in Shimoga under the guidance of Community Guruji Immadi Siddarameswara Swamiji to celebrate birthday of Community JagathGuru Sri Siddarameswarar 840 birthday. In the month of Feb 2013 on 17th a gathering of 10000 people  convention was held under the Presidentship of Sri Shivarudraiahswamy. It was a never before gathering of Od people in Karnataka and remembered as a historical event paving way to similar conventions all over Karnataka. This event gave a direction and courage to community leaders to organise further in their district and which finally gave way to Historical Convention of All India Bhovi Samaj Convention in Bangalore on 2015.
Before the convention a meeting of all Karnataka leadership was called in Bagalkot to commemorate the Community Guruji Sharana Basava ji and under the leadership of Sri. Shivaraj Tangadagi, the then Hon. Minister of Minor Irrigation Government of Karnataka it was planned to above convention to which nearly 3lakh community people graced from all corners of Karnataka. Sri. Shankar Lal Od, Sri. Lal Chand Dahag from Delhi, Sri Narayana Bhai Oad, Surat, Gujarat,  Sri. Bharat Vitkar, Poona and Manohar Mudholkar, Sholapur from Maharashtra, Sri. Anjanraju Bandaru, Sri. Sammaiah , from Hyderabad Sri Swarna Kumar Khammam,  Telangana and many members from neighbouring Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh attended as special invitees in the programme.
After the programme Sri. Shivarudraiahswamy one of the convenors of the programme called the meeting of leadership other states in his private office in Gandhinagar Bangalore in consultation with Hon. Guruji. Sri. Shankar Lal Od, Sri. Lal Chand Dahag from Delhi, Sri Narayana Bhai Oad, Surat, Gujarat,  Sri. Bharat Vitkar, Poona and Manohar Mudholkar, Sholapur from Maharashtra, Sri. Anjanraju Bandaru, and Sri. T. Chandrasekhar were present in the meeting and gave their opinions on floating a national level organisation of Od Community.
The said meeting was a successful in the sense all the participating leaders agreed to work together under the guidance of Guruji and Shivarudraiahswamy nominated as First National Convenor and was requested to coordinate further in the matter. Finally organisation was agreed the name suggested by Shivarudraiahswamy - " Od Community Council of India".  The said title was already registered IP by  Shivarudraiahswamy in the year 2012 with its headquarters at Bangalore which was offered in principle to the organisation. However, the leaders felt it a practically difficult by them to take up the responsibility and lacked directions. However being a National Convenor Sri. Shivarudraiahswamy persisted the objective and successfully convened a national meeting of all the leaders in Delhi where members from Uttar Pradesh Sri. Sathyapraksh Od Ghaziabad, Sri. Rajesh Verma Advocate, Sri. Munshiram Od , Sri. Kamal Kishor Od, Sri. Dileep Kumar from Delhi, Sri. Vemula Venkatesh and his Associates, Sri. Sammaiah and Sri Swarna Kumar from Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh took active participation. Sri Shivarudraiahswamy declined the offer of National President post stating only a person from New Delhi or persons near Delhi should become National President to lead organisation as proposed National headquarters would be New Delhi or Ghaziabad. As a result Sri. Shankar Lal was requested to be the Chairman and the post of National President was left undeclared till next meeting of national leaders. After due discussions and in consultation with Guruji and leaders concern both present and absent the following office bearers proposed and nominated unanimously:
1. Sri. Shivarudraiahswamy National General Secretary (Organisation)
2.Sri. Sammaiah, National Working President, South
3.Sri. Bharat Vitkar National Vice President, Maharashtra
4. Sri. Vemula Venkatesh, National Vice President, Andhra Pradesh -1
5. Sri. Uppu Meera, National Vice President Andhra Pradesh -2 (in absentia)
6. Sri. Rajesh Kumar Verma,National Vice President , Delhi NCR
7. Sri. Satya Prakash Od ,National Vice President,  Uttar Pradesh
8. Sri. Narayana Bhai Oad, National Vice President, Gujarat
9. Sri. Anjanaraju Bandaru, National Advisory ( in absentia)
10. Sri. Lalchand, National Secretary ( Headquarters )
11. Sri. Swarna Kumar National Secretary ( Andhra Pradesh)
12. Sri. Laxmaiah National Secretary 2 ( Andhra Pradesh)
13. Sri. Kamal Kishor Od, National Secretary ( Delhi NCR)
14. Sri.Lakshmikantaiah, State Joint Secretary  ( Andhra Pradesh)
15. Sri. Attiri Marayya State Vice President (Andhra Pradesh)
16. Sri. Yesudas Guntur, State Joint Secretary  ( Andhra Pradesh) in absentia
17. Sri. Manohar Mudholkar, National Joint Secretary  ( Maharashtra),
18. Sri. Munshiram Gadhai Treasurer.
19. Sri. UMK Rajagopalan Tandavalar Tamil Nadu
20. Sri. Shivaraj Tangadagi Minister of Karnataka Government and
21. Sri. T. Chandrasekhar Karnataka consented to be the Advisory on National Advisory Board. There were other willing leaders from Rajasthan, Madhyapradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttarpradesh, Punjab and Tamilnadu who  requested sone more time to consent and they all participated in Bhagirath Jayanthi slated in the month of July. Unfortunately no proper  meeting of all these leaders took place as all of them scattered to tour around Delhi. As no meeting took place during this time another meeting was convened where Guruji Consented to be the Hon. Advisory and Sri. Arvind Limbavali Ex-Minister and MLA consented to be Hon. President and Sri. Shankar Lal officially declared to be the National President, Sri. Ravi Makali as National Working President, Sri. Shivarudraiah swamy as National President ( South India).  Sri. Lalchand , Sri.Bharat Vitkar and Sri. Sammaiah declared to be National General Secretaries along with other office bearers with minor modifications to the original team. At present   following is the office bearers of OCCI is officially elected and working since 2016:
National Advisory Board
1. Hon. Guruji as Chief Advisory
2. Sri. Shivaraj Tangadagi Ex-Minister and MLA. Hon. Advisory
3. Sri. T.S.Chandrasekhar, Advisory
National Executive Board
1. Sri. Arvind Limbavali Ex-Minister and MLA. - Hon. National President
2. Sri. Shankar Lal Od, National President New Delhi
3. Sri. Ravi Makali, National Working President , Bangalore
4. Sri. Shivarudraiahswamy ,National President (South) Bangalore
5. Sri. Suresh Od, National President (North) New Delhi
6.National Vice Presidents
1. Sri. Swarna Kumar - Telangana
2. Sri. Pallapu Ramaiah - Andhra Pradesh
3. Sri. Aruchamy - Tamil Nadu
4. Sri. Vasanth Gunjal - Maharashtra
5. Sri. Narayan Bhai Oad- Gujarat
6. Sri. Parasmal Od - Rajasthan
7. Sri. Sathyapraksh Od - Uttar Pradesh
8. Sri

ಶಿವಮೊಗ್ಗ ನಗರದ ದಿನಪತ್ರಿಕೆ ಕೆ.ಎ.ಎಸ್ ಆಕಾಂಕ್ಷಿಗಳ ಅಧ್ಯಯನಕ್ಕೆ ಸಹಕಾರಿಯಾಗಿ ನನ್ನ ಅಧ್ಯಯನದ  ಕೆಲವು ಟಿಪ್ಪಣಿಗಳನ್ನು ನಮ್ಮ ಇತಿಹಾಸ ಕಾಲಂ ನಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಕಟಿಸುತ್ತಿದೆ. ಸಂಪಾದಕರಿಗೆ ನನ್ನ ಕೃತಜ್ಞತೆಗಳು  ಸಲ್ಲುತ್ತವೆ.

BEST WISHES ON THE EVE OF GOWRI GANESHA

Best wishes of fans  on the occassion of

 Indipendence day and Ramzan2013

2

3

Elected to be Hon.President of 

Karnataka Rajya Geleyara Balaga

a forum for Friendship in the state of Karnataka

"My father Shri. Thimmappa Gundagatti, Rtd Deputy Development Commissioner, Govt of Karnataka Passed away on 13th July 2013 and his soul departed to rest permanently away from us and this earth to reach his wished heaven at the age of 76, he suppose to celebrate his 77th Birthday on 25th July. Infact I wished and planned to spend some time with him after my retirement and to record his experiences, alas which could not happen and that will be a blank history left for us and a vacuum unfilled ever!

Born on 25-07-1937 in a Village called Dudihalli, near Hirekerur of the then Dharwar District of Bombay Presidency to Sri. Thimmappa Badukappa Gundagatti, a civil contractor, quarry owner and a landlord.

He was the first person to pass SSLC in his family and also a Graduate;

He had flair for sanskrit language and a Master in English and Kannada;

He was a big debater of his school days and college time, a poet and contributed articles to news papers and magazines as student;


Milestones:

- He was the first and only scholar in sanskrit from Bhovi community and rendered commentories on Bhagavadgeetha and Upanishads and believer of Aroodha parampara of Siddharoodha of Hubli and follower of Sri.Guru Muppinaryar of Airani Holematt, Ranebennur, Haveri Dist;

- He was the first non brahmin to secure first rank in sanskrit language in SSLC exam of Bombay SSC Board Exam in the year 1955 and topper to Hirekerur Taluka;

- He was the Second Graduate from Mumbai Karnataka region from our Community, next to Sri.K.S.Bilgi, Ex-Minister of Govt. of Karnataka;

- He is the perhaps the first Kannada Writer, Poet of modern times from our Bhovi Community;

- Though he secured 8th Rank in Mysore PSC Exams, but was deprived from Class I post, despite the fact that Sri. V.Hanumanthappa, IAS.,( a member of PSC belonged to bhovi community) was in the board of selection.{ Sri. V.Hanumanthappa expressed his regrets that if he had given good marks in the interview he would have been alleged of favouritism- now seeing the Scams in KPSC, you can understand the values of those time people at apex)

-Subsequently, he secured Second Rank in Mysore PSC Exams and became the Block Development Officer in the year 1972, before which he was Social Education Organiser and was among the only 6 candidates selected to this posts by the Govt. of India from Karnataka in the Year 1961;

-Though he got promotion on merit superseding First Rank holder Sri.Kenchappa and got promotion to the rank of Asst.Development Commissioner in the Year 1979, and supposed to elevated to the cadre of IAS in the year 1988, which he never got. But soon after his retirement ( year 1995) his juniors Sri.Kenchappa and Sri.Dasharath ( who were promoted to the cadre of Asst.DC in the Year 1983 or 84) were conferred with the IAS cadre remains as a shameful / black remark in the history of his department RDPR;

-He studied B.A in the year  1959 and was awarded with cash prize of Rs.400 from the University ( worth of 20 grams gold or Rs.50,000/- today),B.Com in the year 1960, and M.A(Philosophy -1961)from Karnataka University, and associated with Jnanapeeth Awardees Sri.Girish Karnad and Sri.Chandrashekar Kambar and Kannada Bandaya Icon Sri. Chandrashekar Patil are contemporary alumni of Karnataka University. Shri. SharanaBasappa Appagal of Gulbarga was his classmate while studying M.A.Philosophy. He has also studied B.Ed in the University of Mysore at National College of Education, Shimoga in the year 1967, during which he married to Smt. Jayarathnamma daughter of Sri.Sathali Hanumabhovi, landlord of Vaddara Ramenahalli of Channagiri, the then Shimoga District.

-He was associated with Sri.B.D.Jatti, President / Vice President of India, Sri.V.K.Gokak,another Jnanapeeth Awardee, Sri. H.L.Nagegowda of Janapadaloka, Patila Puttappa of Prapancha, Simpilinganna of Chadachan, Madhurachanna , Mahadeva Banakar, Basavaraja Kattimani and many other writers, novelists of Kannada. Sri.S.L.Bhyrappa, Novelist was his tutor while studying M.A.Philosophy;

-He was very sincere officer and a bold officer free from any kind of fear and he was very open minded and also in his attitude and expressions and had left his own impressions in the history of Karnataka Public Service as many of his senior I.A.S Officers and the subordinates worked under him use to remember him after his retirement from the services of Govt of Karnataka in the year 1995.

-Sri. Devaraj Urs, Chief Minister of Karnataka had special commendations to him for his achievements as Block Development Officer.

-After coming to the core of Sri.V.Hanumanthappa, he persuaded Sri.V.Hanumanthappa to organise our community and he became the mentor and convenor of Karnataka Bhovi Welfare Association in the year 1970. Sri.V.Hanumanthappa was very much reserved in his views to organise himself on the lines of caste, instead he wanted to enfold with the activities of Basava Samithi, headed by Sri.B.D.Jatti. However, Sri.T.T.Gundagatti organised Vaddar Welfare Committee from Ranebennur and motivated Sri.Govinda Vodeyaraj, MLA from Kamalapura, Gulbarga, Sri.Gurappa Sudi from Wadi-Shahabad, Sri.V.Nagappa, MLA from Bellary, and with the help of these icons of Bhovi community he requested Sri.K.S.Bilgi, Advocate( first ever from bhovi Community) to head the committe and this committee persuaded Sri.Munichinnappa, MLA from Bangalore, Sri.Peeranna MLA from Heggadadevana Kote,Mysore, and Sri.Manjari Hanumanthappa Leader from Chitradurga to organise Vaddars of North Karnataka and Bhovis of South Karnataka under one banner. Only after persuasions and a okay from Sri.B.D.Jatti Sri.V.Hanumanthappa agreed to head Karnataka Bhovi Wadder Association from Bangalore. Later Sri.G.Y.Krishnan and Sri.G.Basavanyappa joined the hands in this effort. Sri.D.K.Naiker helped this committee to get a land for the activities of Karnataka Bhovi Waddar Association. Sri.Devaraja Urs, the then Chief Minister advised to change the name of association as Karnataka Bhovi Welfare association and also awarded land near Millers tank bund.

-After organising the vadders and bhovis under one banner later he took the task of bringing the vadders to the fold of Scheduled Castes as Vadders were grouped Backward Tribes in the part of North Karnataka.This was a laborious and hilarious task, as then a Minister Sri.Basavalingappa, was against to include Bhovis in Scheduled caste, forget wadders. In this regard he camped in Delhi for three months (year 1978) to give evidence and required documents and he also had personal meetings with the then Prime Minister Sri.Morarji Desai . Having regard to the importance of the issue and at the behest of Sri. D.K.Naikar, Sri.Ebrahim Sanadhi and Sri.H.K.Patil, later Sri.G.Y.Krishnan and Sri.V.Hanumanthappa took the baton and finally they succeeded in their effort. In this regard Sri.L.G.Havanur influenced his good offices also. It is unfortunate to record here that after laying a solid foundation to the organisation KBWA intelligently brushed him aside.

-Though a public servant he had keen interest in Politics and Associated with Sri. Morarji Desai,Sri.Devaraja Urs, Ramakrishna Hegde, J.H.Patel and others. He was associated with all most all leading politicians , MLAs of North Karnataka and he has been instrumental in identification of suitable new and deserving candidates to Assembly and parliamentary constituencies. Sri. Ebrahim Sanadi, MP from Dharwar was his classmate. Sri.D.K.Naikar, Sri.Dinakara Desai, Sri.H.K.Patil, Sri.G.Y.Krishnan were in this think tank association. Therefore, he was an instrumental in formation of Janatha Kranthi Ranga Govt in the Year 1983, and Sri.G.Basavanyappa First time from Bhovi Community became a Cabinet Minister, thus later many MLAs from our community could become ministers and the community came to limelight in the Politics of Karnataka. He believed without proper and adequate representation in the arena of Politics and Public Administration no community can come up and exhibit its identity.

-It is a real loss to humanity and particularly to Bhovi Community"

The Flex Banners Posted by my followers in Shimoga on the eve of Sri.Gurusidhdharameshwara 840th Birthday Celebrations in Shimoga district . I was made chairman on the occasion and convened the biggest ever convention of our bhovi community in the city of Shimoga and nearly 10000 people were organised on the occasion from sorrounding 300 villeges of Shimoga