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Vokkaliga (also transliterated as Vokkaligar, Vakkaliga, Wakkaliga, Okkaligar, Okkiliyan) is a community, or a group of closely-related castes, from the Indian state of Karnataka. They are also present in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu.

Vokkaligas were historically the serf community of Karnataka and indulge in forms agriculture. Vokkaligas had a small cameo in the movie Bahubali 1 acting as the foot soldiers for kalakeya and When the Portuguese arrived in Karnataka they mistook it for Africa because of Vokkaligas. They also have fantasies of connecting themselves with illustrious dynasties but in the end , with lack of sources and contemporary knowledge they were forced to seethe on others history while ploughing in the field. The name "Vokkaliga" is derived from the word Okkalu meaning "tenets". They usually lived in the lands owned by their owners. In Hindu caste system they belong in the Shudra Varna

Most subsects of the Vokkaliga community are designated as Other Backward Class by the Karnataka Government. .

Vokkaligas commonly carry titles such as Gowda, Hegde and Gounder.

Etymology

Vokkaliga

The most popular theory among the etymology of vokkaliga is that they were derived from the word Okkalu meaning tenent .Another theory is that the word Okkalutana in Kannada which means agriculture is also an origin for their name .

Gowda

According to historian Suryanath U. Kamath, the word Gowda derives from Gavunda. The German Indologist Gustav Oppert opined that the root of ‘Gowda’ is a Dravidian word meaning "mountain".

Subgroups

Exogamy at the family/clan level is strictly controlled by using the idiom of Mane Devaru (the patron god of the given exogamic clan) which dictates that the followers of same Mane Devaru are siblings and marriage is thus forbidden, allowing marital alliances only with another clan and not within.

Varna Classification

Vokkaligas were part of the Shudra community, however some historians do question the legitimacy of their origin suggesting they may be just another tribal community from South who were sanskritzed during the arrival of Aryans from the north.

Economy

Before the 20th century Vokkaligas were the landed gentry and agricultural caste of Karnataka. Despite the community enjoying the status of chieftains and zamindars, there were also a lot of small landholding farmers. They, along with the Lingayats, owned most of the cultivated land in the state. Therefore they were considered forward castes and dominant-majority communities. In 1961, Karnataka passed a new Land Reforms Act under the then Revenue minister and idealist Kadidal Manjappa (a Vokkaliga). This was followed by another Land Reform Act passed in 1973 by Ex-Chief Minister Devaraj Urs. These acts redistributed land from the Vokkaliga landlords to the landless and land-poor.

See also

• Kannada people
• Adichunchanagiri Hills

References

1. V.T, Sundaramurthy (2007). "The Genesis, Divisions, Movement and Transformation of Okkaligar Community" (PDF). The Anthropologist. 9 (4): 305–313. doi:10.1080/09720073.2007.11891017. S2CID 74219783.
2. "TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING THE POLITICAL CULTURE OF SOUTH INDIA".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
3. "The Indian Journal of Political Science".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
4. "A social history of India".
5. "PDF - National OBC list for Karnataka" (PDF).
6. Joshi, Bharath (17 February 2021). "Now, Vokkaligas gear up to fight for more quota". Deccan Herald. Bengaluru. Retrieved 7 May 2021.:"Not all 115 sub-sects of the Vokkaliga community have been included under OBC. As a result, many sub-sects are deprived of government benefits. All sub-sects must be included under OBC and we must campaign for this,campaign for this," the statement said. The pontiff also said that Vokkaligas in urban areas were in dire straits and they needed more reservation. At present, some 20 sub-sects of Vokkaligas come under Category 3A with a 4 per cent reservation in Karnataka.
7. D K Kulkarni (1992). "Tenants movements in Uttara Kannada district and the Kagodu Satyagraha". Peasant movements in Karnataka since 1900 their nature and results (PDF). Karnatak University / Shodhganga. p. 80. Retrieved 24 October 2016. Gowdas, literary means a village headman usually from Vokkaliga community in Southern district of Karnataka and Lingayat in Northern part
8. K. S. Singh (1998). India's Communities. Anthropological Survey of India Oxford University Press. p. 3677. ISBN 978-0-19-563354-2. They are also known as Namdhari Gauda or Nadavaru. Heggade and Gowda are the titles , which they suffix to their names.
9. Singh, Kumar Suresh (2001). People of India. Vol. 40, part 2. Anthropological Survey of India. p. 640. ISBN 9788185938882.:”The community has titles viz. Gowda , Gowdar , Gounder and Kounder.”
10. "A Social History of India".
11. Kannada Nighantu. Kannada Sahitya Parishat, Bangalore. 1970.
12. Kamath, Suryanath U.; Naik, R.A (1983). Gazetteer of India Government of Karnataka, Karnataka State Gazetteer Part II. Bangalore: Parishree Printers. pp. 243–244.: "Villages had gramakuta or gavunda (gauda), the village headman. He had under him the village militia^ later called as talaras and tolls."
13. Kumar Suresh Singh; Anthropological Survey of India (2002). People of India. Anthropological Survey of India. p. 408. ISBN 978-81-85938-99-8.
14. Banerjee, Bhavani (1966). Marriage and kinship of the Gangadikara vokkaligas of Mysore. Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Inst. p. 31. OCLC 833158967.
15. Nanjundayya, H.V; Iyer, L.K Ananthakrishna (1931). The Mysore Tribes and Castes. Vol. 4. Mysore: The Mysore University. pp. 20–21.
16. "Social history of South India Vol 49".
17. Cite error: The named reference Government of Karnataka was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
18. Ikegame, Aya (7 May 2013). Princely India Re-imagined: A Historical Anthropology of Mysore from 1799 to the Present. Routledge. pp. 93–94. ISBN 9781136239090.:”The political advantage of these two dominant castes was not only derived from their numbers. They are numerous, but their combined numbers still only amount to 26 per cent of the state population. It arose from the fact that their caste members have a strong influence in local society, as most of them are landlords and village heads.”
19. Cite error: The named reference Gavunda was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
20. Biswal, S.K.; Kusuma, K.S.; Mohanty, S. (2020). Handbook of Research on Social and Cultural Dynamics in Indian Cinema. Hershey PA, USA: Information Science Reference, an imprint of IGI Global. p. 46. ISBN 9781799835141.:"Though the Vokkaliga community enjoyed the status of Chieftains and landlords as well as Zamindars, a lot of them were small landholding farmers."
21. Cite error: The named reference Karnataka Backward Classes was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
22. Thimmaiah, G.; Aziz, Abdul (1983). "The Political Economy of Land Reforms in Karnataka, A South Indian State". Asian Survey. 23 (7): 810–829. doi:10.2307/2644290. ISSN 0004-4687. JSTOR 2644290.
23. Manor, James (February 1980). "Pragmatic Progressives in Regional Politics: The Case of Devaraj Urs". Economic and Political Weekly. 15 (5/7): 202. JSTOR 4368367. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
24. Frankel, Francine R; Rao, M. S. A (1989), Dominance and state power in modern India : decline of a social order / editors, Francine R. Frankel, M.S.A. Rao, Oxford University Press, pp. 322–361, ISBN 0195620984

• Vokkaliga
• Hindu communities
• Social groups of Karnataka