All men are expected to wear the traditional Daura suruwal while the women are to wear the Guneui Cholo from 7th October till 7th November. This is to be perceived as the people’s “support of a seperate state of Gorkhaland.”

For a place where western clothing is the order of the day and fashion conscious youth try to copy the latest haute couture from Hollywood and Bollywood, the diktat has sent panic bells ringing. There has been a mad rush to get the dresses stitched by the very few tailors who have ever stitched such traditional dresses. Most of the tailors who are Biharis have neither seen the Daura Suruwal nor the Guneui Cholo. Frantic calls have been made to relatives and friends in Nepal to send loads of the traditional dresses. Social organizations brought in additional tailors from Nepal who are till now working round the clock to reach the deadline of October 7th. Prices have shot up and those who have jumped into the business of importing clothes from Nepal have made a small fortune for themselves.

Although there is a sense of urgency, a festive mood prevails and most of the people are actually looking forward to wearing their traditional dresses. There have been news that selling of the traditional dresses have also gone up in neighbouring Sikkim and other Northeastern states where Nepalis/Gorkhas predominate.

According to the GJM, the tripartite meeting of representatives of the Centre, West Bengal State, and political parties of Darjeeling led by GJM held last month has kindled hopes of finding a positive solution for the demand for Gorkhaland. Another round of meetings will be held in November in which the party has been asked to produce more papers and documents that would support their demand for Gorkhaland. It needs to be mentioned here that the demand is a century old one.

One of the political parties of the Hills, the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League which was part of the Hills team in the tripartite talks have alleged that the GJM have kept the general people in the dark about the meeting in New Delhi and that shady deals that could be counter productive to the formation of a separate state have been made. Mr. Madan Tamang, leader of the ABGL has just stopped short of calling Bimal Gurung a traitor the cause of Gorkhaland. Any kind of divergence of opinion among major political parties of Darjeeling is going to have a negative impact on the peoples’ mind as well as those at the Centre. Political parties should lay aside their differences and keep their focus on Gorkhaland.

At a public meeting held recently, the GJM has declared that it would bar all political parties from holding public meetings in the Darjeeling Hills. This came a day after the ABGL held a public meeting and alleged that the GJM were misleading the people of Darjeeling with the false promise of Gorkhaland and that they could face the same fate as that met by Subhas Ghising who ruled for over 22 years.

This has raised concerns and fears that the GJM was following the “rules of dictatorship” that had been the mainstay of the GNLF. Moreover some minority groups among the Nepalis have alleged that they were being forced to wear the traditional Nepali dress despite the fact that they have their own culture and dress.

For all the excitement about the traditional dress code which has been imposed to play the role of a “Cultural binder” the idea could well back fire and prove to be a “divider.” It is hoped that Mr. Bimal Gurung and his party have taken into consideration all the pros and cons of the dress code for this Dashein and that the Dashein truly turns out to be a festival to bring people together.

Sharda Chetri