Over 2,000 members of the Gujarati community in the capital swayed to the beats of dandiya accompanied by traditional songs to celebrate Navratri on Wednesday.
Dressed in dazzling ghagra choli and dhoti-kurta or pyjama, men and women were matching steps to traditional Gujarati songs at Patel Bhavan near Lalpur from 7pm to 10pm and at Gujarati School on Lalji Hirji Road from 10pm to 12.30pm on the ninth day of the Navratri.
Both the venues wore a festive look as they were decorated with coloured streamers. Durga idols were also there.
On Thursday, Cambridge Institute of Technology (CIT) at Tatisilwai has planned a dandiya night from 3pm to 5pm to mark Navratri. Neev Institute, too, will organise an event on Thursday at Harmu.
However, some community members have raised objection to commercialisation of dandiya by roping in DJs and bringing in western music.
"Nowadays, organisers do not follow tradition. They organise dandiya nights by roping in DJs," said president of Gujarati Samaj Dheeraj Rathod.
He maintained that they had been celebrating Navratri festival for the past 60 years at Gujarati School and they did not even allow youths to deviate from their tradition. "Bhajan teams play traditional Gujarati songs to which we dance and groove," he said.
Echoing Rathod's sentiments, president of Gujarati Patel Samaj Tulsi Patel said that westernised dandiya meant going away from tradition. "We just tell the young generation to not ape modern form of dandiya. We are residing in the state capital for the past 30 years and Gujarati community is identified only because of their culture," he said.
Youngsters also agreed to stick to the basics.
"I believe in the name of "disco dandiya" our traditional dance form is getting affected. We do not like to participate in such programmes," said Ridhi Patel, a Class XII student of G & H High School and resident of Lalji Hrji Road.
However, Nilay Suman, third-year engineering student of CIT, did not find anything wrong in the dance form undergoing a little transformation.
"We attend weeklong workshops in our college and organise dandiya nights. It is just for fun," Nilay said.
