Haflong: Judima festival, an event organised to preserve, promote and nurture ethnic culture, music, dance, craft and folk art of Dimasas in Dima Hasao district of south Assam, has recently triggered a controversy. Judima is a traditional brew of the Dimasas.

The Dima Hasao Social Activists, an organisation of Dimasa civil society, has demanded that the festival be stopped as, according to them, a festival cannot be held in the name of a drink as it will have a bad impact on Dimasa people residing in the Northeast.

The Society earlier also submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner.

The third edition of the festival is scheduled to be held on December 28 and 29 at Haflong.

The first and second editions were held in January and December 2016 in which people of various indigenous communities, residing in the hill district of Assam, participated.

The organisers of the festival said there is no division in Dimasa society over the name of the festival. Judima is used in births, deaths, marriages, annual harvest festivals but is not used on a daily basis.

Judima's alcohol percentage is very low and is mostly composed of carbohydrates. The Dimasa Youth Forum, an organisation of Dimasa youths, has condemned a statement of Danu Hakmaosa, a Dima Hasao social activist, that 95 per cent Dimasas are alcohol addicts.

According to the forum, the festival does not mean a wine festival as the purpose is to promote tourism and put Dima Hasao on the tourism map of the Northeast.

The forum leader, through a press statement, said the statement made by Hakmaosa is a matter of great shame and has been made without basic knowledge and it should not be taken as a fact.

The forum said calling Dimasas alcoholics is as an attack on the integrity of the community and will be firmly opposed.

They said judima is not a drink as implied by the three social activists to the media and is not known to cause any harm to the body.

The forum's statement stated there is a vast difference between addiction and social uses.