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| Traditional Nepali attire for men and women. The men’s outfit is called daura sural. Pictures by Chinlop Fudong Lepcha |
Darjeeling, Sept. 10: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung today tried to clear the confusion over the party’s diktat on a dress code for the hill people, but only managed to pave the way for possible discontent among certain tribal communities.
“There should not be much confusion over the dress code. Members of the Sherpa, Lepcha, Yolmo and Tamang communities should also sport the daura sural, while members of other groups like the Marwaris and Bengalis can wear their own attires,†said Gurung.
The Morcha chief was addressing minority communities at a meeting here.
His party had earlier asked the people of the Darjeeling hills to wear their traditional attires for a month from October 7 as part of a “cultural movement†for Gorkhaland.
The point of contention in Gurung’s clarification lies in the fact that the daura sural is the traditional men’s attire of the Nepali community. Now, even the Lepchas, for example, have been asked to wear it, despite being a distinct community with their own language, script and dress code.
Although the Lepcha community has not yet officially issued any statement, many of its members, who often wear their own traditional attire, appeared shocked at the announcement. “We, too, have our own culture and should wear our own attire,†said a member of the community.
In his speech Gurung admitted that even among the Gorkhas, various sub-communities like the Tamangs who have their own dialect and traditional attire, wanted to wear that instead of the daura sural.
However, he added: “We must be united because after all this is a movement. I am not telling you to raise your hand on someone and shed blood by killing your own brothers. All I want is that people should wear the daura sural as this is part of the movement. We should not be seen as fragments, but as a united lot.â€
The Morcha chief added that these groups (Tamangs, Gurungs and Rais) can wear their own attires during the month long festivities to be organised in Darjeeling during the Puja season.
He also added that 40,000 daura surals would be brought from Nepal and sold to the poor at cheap rates. “Those who cannot afford even that can wear just the upper portion of the dress and the Nepali caps,†he said. | 
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