  We report the first results obtained from our campaign to characterize the
intranight-optical variability (INOV) properties of {\it Fermi}~detected
blazars, using the observations from the recently commissioned 1.3 m J C
Bhattacharya telescope (JCBT). During the first run, we were able to observe 17
blazars in the Bessel $R$ filter for $\sim$137 hrs. Using $C$ and scaled
$F$-statistics, we quantify the extent of INOV and derive the duty cycle (DC)
which is the fraction of time during which a source exhibits a substantial flux
variability. We find a high DC of 40\% for BL Lac objects and the flat spectrum
radio quasars are relatively less variable (DC $\sim15$\%). However, when
estimated for blazars sub-classes, a high DC of $\sim$59\% is found in low
synchrotron peaked (LSP) blazars, whereas, intermediate and high synchrotron
peaked objects have a low DC of $\sim$11\% and 13\%, respectively. We find
evidences about the association of the high amplitude INOV with the
$\gamma$-ray flaring state. We also notice a high polarization during the
elevated INOV states (for the sources that have polarimetric data available),
thus supporting the jet based origin of the observed variability. We plan to
enlarge the sample and utilize the time availability from the small telescopes,
such as 1.3 m JCBT, to strengthen/verify the results obtained in this work and
those existed in the literature.
