- The Odisha Society of the Americas- NYNJPA (OSA NYNJPA) is a non-profit organization, since 1970, is the premier chapter of the organization named OSA that spans the United States and Canada. OSANYNJPA strives to maintain and propagate the cultural heritage of the great Indian State of Odisha among its members and extend unyielding support towards her economical and social development.
There are three types of membership in OSA.
1) Life Members
2) 5 year Members
3) Annual Members
If you are not a member yet, you are welcome to join OSA. To enroll, please fill out the OSA Membership Form and send it to us or enroll at the Registration Desk when coming to participate in any of its events
History of this Organization
The Very Beginning: In 1969, there were not as many Odias living around New York as we have now. There was only one Indian grocery store in lower Manhattan, run by an Iranian. ABC Store was the only appliance store, selling 220-volt appliances where Indians would flock in great numbers to make their home-bound purchases. Popular Fabrics was the only sari store located near the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Indian movies were yet to come to the public school auditoriums. Hindi film songs were unheard of in the public broadcasting system. There was no place of worship for Indians. The only annual event was the Dusshera festival in Columbia University where most Odias would gather and discover to their delight a few new faces from their own state. This was a time when Odias constituted an absolute minority among the Indians, numbering around 20 in the metropolitan New York area. They stuck to each other as part of a joint family scattered around the tri-state area, eagerly looking forward to the weekends for an opportunity of getting together in someone’s house or apartment; eat and discuss Odisha politics; talk about problems facing the immigrant oriya community, and overall, have fun and a good time. One such venue was the house of Late (Dr.) Krushna Mohan Das, who was living in Cambria Heights where more often such activities were taking place and where the concept of creating an association for Odias was hatched for the first time. This resulted in the formation of an organization called the Orissa Society of New York.
In 1970, Gouri Das, Manamohan Subudhi, Jogeswar Rath, Prasanna Samantray and a few others from the Boston area were actively collecting names of the Odias, living in the United states and Canada, in order to compile a directory of Odias in North America. When the roll call was over, to their amazement, the headcount exceeded far more than what they originally expected. The time has come for gathering all the Odias under one umbrella. On October 17, 1970, in Hosmer auditorium of Hartford Seminary Foundation in Hartford, CT, first convention of the Orissa Society of the Americas (OSA) was launched with Gouri Das as the first President. The bulk of this gathering constituted of Odias living in the New York area. Thereafter, Orissa Society of New York was renamed as the New York chapter of OSA (OSANY) with Krushna Mohan Das as the chapter president.
OSANY, a founding member of Orissa Society of Americas, Recognized as “New York Chapter of OSA” on October 17th, 1970, at the first OSA convention with Late (Dr.) Krushna Mohan Das as the President. Since then OSANY has been playing an active role in tri-state area of New York, with objective of bringing Odias together by maintaining and promoting the unique cultural heritage of this eastern state of India. So far OSANY has successfully hosted 8 conventions, including famous Glassboro convention, Silver Jubilee celebration and held 34th annual convention at New Jersey in 2003. Time to time this organization has also sponsored several famous Odia artists from different fields to perform in North America. Every year, large number of people attends Saraswati Puja, Ganesh Puja and Kumar Utsav. OSANY also celebrates events like holi, picnic and concerts. On these events, our focus is to explore our children’s inherent talents and recognize prodigies along with general entertainment, food and celebrations.
In 1985, as more Odias moved to/started living in New Jersey, a new OSA NJ chapter was created to better support and connect the community there.
This led to two chapters—OSA NY (New York) and OSA NJ (New Jersey) – where each focused on serving the needs of Odias families in their individual states.
In 2005, both the chapter merged to form OSA NYNJ”. This unification has brought the past glory back to this organization once for all. For last few years, members from PA are considered part of this chapter and attend chapter events where possible. A formal name change to include PA is work in process within OSA.