Dhimals perform at the annual mela near Naxalbari. Picture by Diptendu Dutta

Mallabari (Naxalbari), May 29: The fast-disappearing Dhimal tribe is yet to be included in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) list, while their long-lost brothers, the Limbus of the Darjeeling hills and Sikkim, have been granted Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.

Numbering 921, the Dhimals, who inhabit the Terai region under Naxalbari block, claim that they belong to the same Limbu tribe, which has flourished in Nepal and the neighbouring hills and was granted the ST status in December 2002.

?Merely granting the OBC status will not suffice. We want the government to include us in the most primitive tribe list so that we can improve our educational and economic status,? said Garjan Kumar Mallik, the secretary of Dhimal Community Existence Preservation Committee (DCEPC).

Stating that though they have already submitted several memoranda to chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Union tribal affairs minister P.R. Kyndiah in this regard, Mallik regretted that official sources have told him that at the best, Dhimals would be included in the OBC list.

?We are like orphans in the country. The state government has always been indifferent to our cause,? interspersed DCEPC president Bikash Mallik, between singing protest songs at the annual Dhang Dhange Mela here, about 10 km from Naxalbari town.

Around 15,000 members of the community used to stay in the Terai region of India and Nepal two decades ago, but the number has come down drastically over the years.

?We have traditionally lived off the land, but now it has become important for us to integrate with modern society to save our tribe from extinction,? said Garjan Kumar Mallik, who teaches science at the neighbouring Panighata High School and is the only Dhimal graduate.

Interestingly, all the Dhimals use the same ?Mallik? surname even though there are 14 sub-sects within the community.

Like the Limbus, they also belong to the Indo-Mongoloid race and are believed to have lived in the sub-Himalayan region of the Northeast, right up to modern-day Myanmar.

?We share many common words with the Limbus and the Rais, though of late, quite a few Rajbangshi words have seeped into our language,? Malbar Kumar Mallik.

The Rajbangshis are the predominant tribe of the region.

Garjan Kumar Mallik, however, did not seem to be very happy with Rajbangshi words intermingling in their language. ?This is not a healthy trend and we need to save our language, especially as we do not have any script of our own.? But experts said that could happen only if the survival of the Dhimals themselves is ensured first.