Clothing matters: dress and identity in India 0226789764, 9780226789767

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UNIVER�TYOFCALIFORNIA.

Clothing Matters DRESS AND IDENTITY IN INDIA

Emma Tarlo

-,

HURST & COMPANY LONDON

D1glt1zepired to, we are no longer expected to define ourselves in too permanent or consi!!ent a way. Change, according to Roland Bartbes and indeed any women's magazine, is built into the fashion system. But in India, where social, religious and regional stratifications are still strongly exprcued and where the fashion indu!!ry is still relatively young, a change of clothes is likely to b e interpreted as an act of desertion or a change of affiliation. Speaking of dress in the Indian vs. British sartorial battle, Chaudhuri argues: Like language and other features of life which distinguish one human group from another, it is part of the national personality, it is one expres• sion among others of a distinctive culture. Therefore no one can change his clothes until there has been, in part or whole, a transfer of cultural allegiance (Chaudhuri 1976: 73). But this leads to a third theoretical problem. While clothes may at times express 'cuhural alleg iance', this depends on the attitude of the wearer to his or her clothes. Just as clothes can challenge social and political norms as much as they uphold them (cf. Hebdige 1979, Be.n 1989, Baker 1985), so they can conceal identities as much as they reveal them (cf. Lurie 1992, Schneider and Weiner 1989). Alison Lurie', witty and observant book Tht ungw,ge of Clothes (1992) reveals much about the complex ways in which people communicate and miscommunicate through dress. She leads the way 18 MariJyn Monroe', 1wim.sui t was selling at Ch ri,tic', for UJ,200 on the vtty d:ay 1h2t I tuippened to be wri1in.g this pamgc (in 1991).

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Clothing Matters to the minefield of communication theory, with its complex debates about problems of intention and interpretation. Many communications analysts have, like Lurie, addressed this problem in relation to clothing in the West (Hoffman 1984, Phelan 1984). It is a ptoblem intimately linked with the problems of classification and identification already discwsed. People may seelt to communicate their identity or beliefs through wearing certain clothes, but they cannot guarantee that their message will be understood in the way they intend. As Hoffman puts it, 'The communicative offer made by means of one's costume is frequently understood, but rarely coin• cides with what the wearer wants to express' (Hoffman 1984: 7). Two scholars have recently discussed the communicative aspect of clothes in India (cf. Ramanujan 1984, Bean 1989), but both fail to address the pro· blems of intention and interpretation. Susan Bean describes Mahatma Gandhi as a semiotician who used ·his appe.arancc to communicate his most import.ant messages in a form comprehensible to all Indians' (Bean 1989: 368), and claims that the communicative power of Gandhi's loincloth 'transcended the limitations of language' itself (ibid.). But much of Gandhi's difficulty lay in the imperfect nature of his communication through clothes. Throughout his political career he was connantly trying to define the meaning of his dress through verbal explanation, but was never able to control the multifarious interpretations which proliferated around him. While clothes, like language, communicate, they are, like language, capable of communicating anything from truth to lies, from the intelligible to the unintelligible (cf. Lurie 1992). Their meaning, like meaning itself, is open to interpretation and debate:

-�

But what is meaning? It flows and drifu; it is hard to grasp. Meaning tacked to one set of clues transforms itself. One person gets one pattern and another a quite different one from the same events; seen a year later they take a different aspect again. The main problem of social life is to pin down meanings so that they stay still for a little time (Douglas and Isherwood 1980: 64).

Deciding what to wear is one of the ways in which people try to 'pin down meanings' and control both presentations and interpretations of the self. But since, as we have seen, the problem of what to wear addresses a whole range of issues about classification, identification and communication, it is a very real and sometimes highly complex problem.

How this book rvolv,d Trained in the anthropological tradition, and equipped with the usual intellectual baggage that encourages one's gaze in certain directions and not

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Introduction: The Problem of What to Wear in others, I had not intended to stu dy, nor ba d I seriously considered, the problem of what to wear before setting out for fieldwork in India in 1988. The intention at the time was to study the social and cultural significance of women's embroidery traditions in a Gu jarati villa ge. With this in mind I selected a large multi -caste village in Sa urashtra, an area renowned for the peoistence of its artistic traditions. It was one o f the few regions where a substantial proportion of peasant women still wore and made embroidery entirely for domestic use, although the craft was clearly in a phase of rapid decline. I was immediately welcomed into the villa g e and shown the contents o f many dowry chests containing embroidered clothes, hangings and animal regalia. For some months I concentrated earnestly and sometimes exasper­ atedly on the subject of embroidery and anything that might conceivably be related to it, But there was one major problem. There was I, showing inor­ din ate interest in embroidery, when the women who actually made it were largely uninspired. Some had given up wearing it altogether, while others, who still did, confessed that they were embarrassed by its backwa rd connota· lions and were keen to be rid of it. There was something slightly farcical about the anthropologist trying to uncover the vital significance of a textile tradition that the villagers them­ selves were keen to put behind them. It was also rather depressing that there was more inform ation about embroidery designs in museums and books than in the village. Yet the attitudes of villa ge women to their textile heritage interested me. I became increa>ingly a wa re of how and why they no longer wanted to wear embroidered clothes. I also became more generally aware of a number of different clothing controversies that were brewing in the villa ge. While the idea that each caste had its own dress was often propounded, what this dress actually consisted of was frequently in dispute. Furthermore, there were other issues that arose repeatedly, such as female modesty and the degree 10 which a caste should modernise its image. In short, I became interested in the whole field of clothing and identity, and in particular the question of bow, within the often limited confines of village life, individuals and groups changed their clothes. The fact that I was female, yo ung and unmarried meant that villa gers developed an extremely protective attitude towards me which was at once invaluable and constraining. In particular, I had considerably more limited access to men than to women. Furthermore, men's dress seemed a much less controversial issue than women's dress, for most young men were wc.aring Wcstern-style trousers and shirts which were accepted in the village by almost every caste. Yet I was awa re that many of the contemporary con­ troversies over women's dres. s were in fact transformations of similar issues

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Clothing Matters that had arisen over men's dress earlier in the twentieth century. And although these women's clothing disputes had no direct link with col­ onialism, they were none the less infused with certain issues which had emerged under British rule, if not before. In order to understand these links, I felt the need to delve deeper into the recent history of clothing disputes in India. I therefore left the village and spent five months in Delhi where I embarked on a different kind of fieldwork. My fieldwork in Delhi took place largely in the Nehru Memorial Museum a.nd Library (I call it fieldwork because it was a form of ethnographic research). My aim was to find firsthand accounts of the experience of the problem of what to wear as it was faced by Indian people in the late colonial period. For this purpose secondhand sources, which usually weeded out such details, were of little assistance. Diaries, autobiographies, newspapers and journals proved more rewarding. In particubr the Colltcted Works of Mahatffl4 Gandhi, volumes 1 90 - (1958-84) proved an invaluable source of information. These impressive tomes contain not only Gandhi's speeches, correspondence and writing, but also newspaper reports and, more impor· tant, letters from the public to him. These gave insights into the problem of what to wear in a way that is rarely provided in history books.,. Having researched this issue, I returned to Saurashtra for a further t w o · month stay which enabled me to examine afresh the relationship between different levels of sartorial change. On leaving there, I spent a further month of fieldwork in a second village, this time in the capital itself. This 'urban village' was in the process of being converted into an 'ethnic' shop­ ping centre, where clothes of the type worn in village Saurashtra were being converted into exclusive designer fashion garments. It was here, in the urban fashion village of Hauz Khas in South Delhi, that the links and dis­ junctions between the clothing dilemmas of colonialism, nationalism and village life finally became apparent. The end-result of these various different methods of enquiry is not perhaps the standard anthropological work, but as a researcher I found a multidisciplinary approach rewarding. As Nit.a Kumar so rightly argues, the 'meanings' of a cultural tradition can be understood 'neither simply from their context, nor merely as intentionality', for they are also 'part of a larger system that goes beyond the actors' will, and indeed, consciousness' (N. Kumar 1988:5). As anthropologists, we must be willing to look beyond the 19 The an.Clo by Cohn (1989) and Bean (1989), which do to some ries n0utbor. For thio,eason I have ,riod merolyto out�ntcntoiohaoic:types ofoLothinginlndUmhtr tb•oto n>tff1heromplexlabyriothof d.fioirioosofdifftrt gumrnts>ndttyln.' Dmptd,lotlw, Prob•blytbe olden•ndrommonntfonnofdrn,iopre-nd b.ld 1ogether by tuck1 and fold,. Men·, clod,n w..,. of,en white, md either plain 0< with simple bonier,. Tb.ry were usually made from cotton. but were som,ic Loincloth(lo�Jot,). but the longer wain,cloth (Jltolt), which could be wrapped and tucked in v.riou, w•y,, wu more common. The upper body w•o tithe,, kn uncoverodordr>pod with>,hawl(c/.,J,,,),d.pending oo tbesuson and ocn,ion. The head was wr•pped by..,,,.. form of turban V"'l'"'} which-rouldbe tied in, number of different regional and opeciali,od w•yo.'By tbe oiDaw them as defiling,• in secular contexts they >aw them as proof of educational advancement and sophistication. This association of tailored garments with advancement and sophistica­ tion was to gain funhcr importance with the arrival of European styles introduced principally by European traders, missionaries and colonial administrators. European dress differed from most forms of Indian dress in the way it was cut, stitched and shaped to the contours of the body.' Gender differences were also strongly demarcated in European dress, with women's skins and dresses giving them a distinctive and exaggeratedly cur ­ vaceous outline in relation to the more linear forms of men's dress. lo comparison to most Indian styles, European dress appeared physically 5 TM' arbitnry tu.tun o( '·rd.igious' diffe-rfflti21ion in dress is pcriuipi bnt dcmonmat«I by the observation that i n the pl.sins Hindus used to futcn thrir outu robn 10 the right and MuJimJ co dw kft, whttni in Nonh India tht pnctice was gmnally ttYttkd (Crooke 1906: 163). This 1ug:gnh that tht f«t o( difftttn tUtio o w u more important than the specificfomt thc:se diff'CffOClel took. Fur1hmnorc. diff'"'ntlnioo worked on a numbn o( bdJ; henoe poor Mu,lim, worc Jltod, like poor Hindu, (Wauon 1866: 21), whereas the: mal e ili1e, both Hindu and Muslim, oftea shucd tM wm ot simiJu stiu:hed styles. 6 Hindui.tm i.s aot 1lone in advoating the US< of draped dothi.ng in ritw.l contexts. The Muslim pilgrim l, forbidden to wear nitchcd clochc:1 and do m t wo pit«t of white doth, k nown u ilar.11t (holy, coruecnted) drn, for grea1 and k»n pilgrim.agn (Enc)'(lo,-.iu of IJI.M 1971, -..,I, 3, IOS2"3). 7 For aa analyi:d of th e: cfut inctivc differencn between Eu.ropeao and 01htt cloth ing 1ndi1ion,, sec: N. Tarn.at, 1994.

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remictiV< and w .. oftm ill->dap«d to the lndiao climate. This w.. pa.rti· ""4,-lytrue of thetypnofdress womio officialcircleson public ocuPon, wberep.-ac•icility•..dromfon hadto yieklbeforetherigounoffonnility. None the kn, . o me •ttempo were nude bythe Britioh to ,.I.pt•heir daytimo wudrobn101bc[..diancoota;t whiJ.>ltbc,arn,1imom.:tking ,ure tbat they dlclnotloslltiot1". TheBriti,h dnirt10 difftrtoti>t< ,hem..lves from lodi,n, wHthu, ,he oppo,ittoideof the coio from the lndian dnireto iottgme wi,h ,he BritiUI. Similarly. the Briti,h fear ol "oinking" wa, inexirit1hly linked to theirf.., oftndLln,"rioing' Cmlu.,;,,,,iyd,gr,n;Bn'rilh•rrtmputo,.,,m,I/J;,,nJ,n, Indian drn, posed root merely, clothingdilemma hut aoo l ,n nhical dilemma fortheBritiffl.Onthe oneh•ndthq,felt it theirdutytocivilisebarbaric natives > nd rncu, them from their own primitive,,..,. h ,..., with such notion,ol"impro...,,,.nt"inmind1b>tC> ptainJohn"onecloth..dthe"n.1kcd sav,gc,"of1heju.,nghill,(...,l'refau).Bu1 on1he o,her h,nd1heBriti1h did root wantthe.. nativestohecomo""'civilised.C.ptainJohnm,ne.for example, cloth..d them in M•nche.ter ,..;,, not European styles. If the BritiUlw:mtcd to offer lodi, ,he,ai mrnt of civili,.,ion.it w>1 ci,-iJi,.tiot1 with • n also became imporun, tdjui>eu to the ou1fii of ,he ,mart educated m:m In India', 1own, &nd occtiiorially the villagn Mlhar,ja, and local flite, alsobtgan1oinwn1new combin.ot;.,,,ou,fiu con,i1ting ofbothlndi•n•nd / European garmt11u. The lautr wet< marked out a man', superiority and prog,.,,;....,,.., to the local community (Ag.2.IS). The ,mu, mxhed to ,uch dnthes in, om•U vi!l,g, h.a, been humorously de,cribed in ,he following umct from Vijay•tungo', nuy 'White Man Pmn Through' (Am publi,hed in !93S)· h muSI not he supposed for a moment 1ha, we in our village >re by

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Su�hing for a Solution in the l11e Nineteenth Crntury my ,...,.,. ou, of touch wi,b Qvili..,ion. c;..u;,.,ion iwseo our w•y ql>il• oft.,.. oaly ii doe, DOI Mop and May with ,11. Nn-ertbdno, we giffCi¥iliu1ioa ,....,.goodsauti,,y cxlt t imc i1 P'""""'···· Now ...d ,i,.,,, tho Whi"' Mm him""lf Aiu p,>t our .-iJhr. Somo halfmai.,wayhc,-d tb..bmclofour ,cw;I we i,..,tb..approoch of hurnoiOK)'Clc.n....,pluuningfutmicbbly,adoudold""in iu,..-.il. d apptan 1ho: Wood,.,.., MxltiDe...d siuiftc amide it, figure wi.- b .. and (110t - ltiddm bcnrnh • 'pig·oticker' topff. We arc .U cya oa tho: pl,n,o,nenoa.... WC m,rVI him and tbc Ci•til,..,ion of which I,, i1 .o marvtllou, • ,pn exo,11.nt ,olution for 1hosclndian,whocouldno1 >ffordfu1 l Eu,opean drn1.8u1 one diudv>n· o.!!t�

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nineteenth antu,y, men who wore ,uch hybrid ou,fiu wne of1tn di,mi1scdas"baboos".1hei r d ,.., aod language a consun1 sourccof,id;cu.k in limature and theprn,(fig.2.16)."0tsca,pcaof ,hi,British loathing of the"l»boo'w., 1h11 hemn,g,..scd1he boundaryscpaming the8ri1i,h from the Indian -which•., we haff scen.theBriti,h increHinglywished to mainuin. Feu,ofthe chaosthat might en,.,.from theriscof uneheck«l l»boodom are expressed in fig.2.17. which portray, • revenal ofAnglc,­ lndWI oocie,n,uugg!.d 10,ump out the uscof1he word 'baboo' ,uggc;nthat manydidcare. The dtci,ion to w�>< a mixture of lndi•n •nin Wntnn ,und..ud, O'Vet1 within their own homn. Among such men Indian ckM.hn wen kepi Wgely forcnemonial u,con religlnuoocc;a,ions; thdian appe.uanu. they,uccumbedto a fullEuropean look. But tbe numbtr of menwhoadoptedfu!IEuropean drn,wa, 1urpri1ingly1mall

F.11 E•,,,,....,. dm,. h w" perhaps a combination ofHriti,I, prejudice fit:.Z.lt·p..,,.,,.,..._ 1gain.,[ndimdrn,,r>dan[ndiandnire tobt tahn..,;ou,lyand p,nicipate ... fi..l ,.,_ ,..,_, A in •.,;,.;Ji..tiru,." that motivated some Indian, from the .deat.d fli,e elaun t n v n u u : fi�.��:i: ,! :::: , d=i��::::00�::�:• i:�i:. �i�: A� ,f� r,,- Calcum. The ycu w.. 1866, when othe-t p,ofeuion.tJ "Englar>d-retumed" (o.4,1, C--y ol oooc. Bmgali, wett wearing ,,..,ph,r ar>d cap (Radice ]986: 20 2 3- ). Not onlydid Datta flout thi,conventio n . but he also 'kt it be known that England­ returned S.ng,li, would not bt welaKM at hi, hou,cunless they drnsed ,imiWly'(ibii.:203). This upset - olhi, more orthodox contempoCnt Alway, •n innovator, Jyotirindranath Tagore hod mned up• political mociotion in thr mid-1870o and felt 1hat a ch•nge ofclothrsnoth, who w., only fourtttn n ,he ,ime, Iner recalled the,e ur!orial uperi11>Cnto:

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Searching for a Solution in the late Nineteenth Century My brother Jyotirindra began to busy himself with a national costume for all India, and submitted various de,igns to the association. The dhoti was not deemed business-like; trousers were too foreign; so he bit upon a compromise which considerably detracted from the dhoti while failing to improve the trousers. That is to say, the trousers were decorated with the addition of a false dhoti-fold in front and behind. The fearsome thing that resulted from combining a turban with a topee our most enthusiastic member would not have had the temerity to call ornamental. No person of ordinary courage would have dared it, but my brother wore the com­ plete suit in broad daylight, passing through the house of an afternoon to the carriage waiting outside, indifferent alike to the stare of relation or friend, doorkeeper or coachman. There may be many a brave Indian ready to die for bis country, but there are but few, I am sure, who even for the good of the nation, would face the public streets in such pan­ Indian garb (R. Tagore 1917: 1-43-4). Jyotirindra's invention seems not to have been a great success. Though ideologically sound, it failed dismally to fulfil either Indian or British notions of aesthetic,. Unable to convince even members of his own political a.ssoci.ation to wear these composite garments, he certainly could not per� suade the nation to adopt them. But Jyotirindranath wat ahead of his time in realising the importance of drcts, and was one of the first Indians to suggest that a redefinition of Indian dress could bring about a sense of political unity. He was alto one of the first to link his own personal problem of what to wear to the national problem of Indian identity. His brother Rabindranath later took up the challenge. He found a very different solution to the problem of defining national dress. He felt that members of the Indian elite had isolated themselves by de$erting their own people but at the same time failing to become integrated with the European community: 'The mischief with us is that we have lost what we had, but have not the means of building afresh on the European standard, with the result that our home-life has become joyless' (R. Tagore 1917: 124) He criticised the British for their insularity as much as the Indians for emulating the British, who he felt had remained aloof from Indian culture and, unlike the Moghuls, had contributed little to it. Because of this, there wat no reason to include them in the Indian definition of national dress. Therefore, rather than seeking an !ado-European solution to the problem, he sought what he called a Hindu-Muslim combination which excluded any British component whatever. His aim was not so much to invent a new Hindu-Muslim style but rather to prove that the chapltan, ofren regarded as Muslim dress, was

D1glt1zeintention andin1or· prou,ioo and ,her.fore conoickred all bi, cinching cbangcs wi,b ·de,p dem,nation" (CWMG. YOl.21:225) btf= putting them into practice. It was al,;o hi, aw1rc...,, of the powbilityof "mi,intcrprcmion' that led him to prod:Um tberneaningnf hisdrn1in speechnand lcttmtn1hc prn,. fis.J.I �. ...,i ...... lf drm was truly capable of communicating hi, me,,.g,: clearly, then h h ���i :�l ='.'��e�k�°:,'� ,;:::i: c...n..,of- ,ignifying avarictyofdiffnmt thingssimultancouoly. Thi, chapter oxplo, .. the development of Gandhi',very pmicular theory of dothe, and examine, hi, attc impo« oi Bri1iob infl-. Lih: m.any,ducnal wban boyt, be oh.,. wo,e • ,bin .,,d..,..,..in>nacootwi1h his,IJ.o,i,oad f�tl>c,...oitboful,;o,ul,lr Ahmed.bodmill·dooh known.,·Riflrbrmd"(PyaHlal !96S:196). Bucbo wucliapu+goJ,i.o.. loallDty thePotriolic pem,.,ion, oftb. Mu.ti m n>etehant convincedhimtb>t the incidmtwnWOr1b higbligbtlog(iW:90--l).C.nd.hi 1homottwro1e10 ,be pren,••pot,ing the matter. Thu ir,ei,clm, muked • 1 11ming-poin1 inG...dhi',1ni111do to wm7boitnopped...d m 7rnout111iftlwautho ritia wore nulue11ia1 tborir ...,.,,.,;.,i.,,1 Jndwt pri......,... Bue,,nud, 10 tho nnbmu.......1 of 1 b e auchori1ia,GandbiinslotedoattnlQ'ring hitownhair and ......., ,pen, 1wn hounaoppingtbo bair oikllowlncliMinmata.n.. inrideio,w.,tbofuuoi• nwnbttnfocca,,ioasinwhichGondhi cl,o,..10 ,doptvitu.oltigo, of public h11milu1ioo. Througbou t bi,,;,...;n SouthAfrica(199.l-1914), G1ntlhi"1dm1boeam< in,:rusingl7h11mblt,if-«:ecntric.By\9101whad rtplac,.dbi,.,...,. buoine,111 i1c,,iiffmll.or1nd ticwith1,eod7'"m odt'mbersloppy'lounge

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Clothing M,neu ,uil ,nd 'dum,y' ,hon. Thi, in turn ga� way 10 trou..,u,1 Loo.., COUOD shin and ,and,l,(M.G. Polu 19S0:142-3). At times ht WH .,...., ...,n woaring ',ham and ,hi,u mad. from Aunulian flour,.-.,k,'(cited in R,i 1945:50). but ht co,uinued 10 wear Europo•n "Yi,., throughout mon of his my (Nanda \989:74 -S). Hi, adopt"ion of an ir>tyk, in which ht wa,ht, ,:ut hio own hair and experimonted with fo od, ..,., greatly inf!� by Ru,kin', book. U�to Tku-Lut,whichG1ndhi read in 1904. He wa, irnprt>i edby Ru,kin'ocon· dcmnation ofinduuri,lisation and hiopni.. of,ht,imple life. He wrOle hi, own critiqur of Wt>tem civili,ation ,ome fi� yous larcr, called ffj,.J Swart1j(li>dilll..,lf•ruk),in which ht ex prem of causing lndi•"• impoveri,b· mtnt and approved of the ,-,/n/ri moumcnt in Btngal whero Jndian men wero p1rading in public in lndianmh.cr1hanEurop,an dr.,.,(ibil:S7). As c,,ly" \9\ I Gandhi wH recommending 1h01 'e�ry intelligen, p,non' ohould learn weaving(CWMG vol.10: )98-9). but he continued to duu in Europ,,nnlh.crthan lndi•n"ylc,. However, itwa, n01lndia',«onomic dim..,but rather thtohOOling oflndianroa.lminttoby thrSoutbAfrican

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Gandhi and the Rccrution oflndian Dress he odopt11 indmu...rd lobo,,,...-.•Hcuked hi1 1'ollow< ide11 were1obecome «ntralto hi1per«peadwear - a while folding kW vmioo of ,hc Ka,hmiri cap - which lain became known a, ,he 'Gandhi cap'.Gandhi wore it for le,, than two �m(,. . fig.J.6), bu, it btcamc:on,of the keypopular,ymbol, of the naiionaliumuggle. lJ l•io _n_,1,.,.,1,.._......,.,.,G_,l.,.,_....,... .,...,... ........,..Nf"""r M_._.,,,,,,.,;,,,o(,.1,n....lw,wa!·� ...............tw, .... ,,.;..,, ..

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Gandhi and the Recreation of Indian Dress Of cours,,, Gandhi's experimenu with clothcs were not merely concerned with visual effects. They were also intrinsically linked to his ooire to restore the Indian band-weaving and hand-spinning industrie1 (cf. Bean 1989, Cohn 1989: 343). In 1915 he csublished the Sabarmati ashram in Ahmedabad and immediately began to experiment with weaving and later spinning. He wanted Indians to bo ycott foreign goods and to wear kliadi cloth made from yarn they had spun themselves b y hand. He 'grew impatient' to adopt pure kliadi in his own dress (Gandhi 1989: 411) which, up till this point, was hand­ woven from machine-spun yarn. Only with great difficulty did the ashramitcs finally locate some people who still knew the art of hand-spinning, then almost in total decline. From them they purchased hand-spun yam and beg an to weave it, initially into strips of cloth only 30 inches wide. Gandhi threatened one woman that if she could not weave a 45-incb strip within a month, he would make do with a short dhoti. She fulfilled his demand and relieved him from what he claims would have been 'a very difficult situation' (ibid.). He later embraced that 'difficult situation' when, in 1921, he adopted a short kliadi loincloth. What encouraged him to take this final step? Tht lointloth"

Gandhi first mentioned the idea of wearing loincloths in April 1919, when he looked forward to the time when men would say 'We shall confine our­ s,,lves to pure swadt1hi cloth, even though we may have to remain satisfied with a mere loincloth' (CWMG vol 15: 199), a comment addressed to thos,, who argued that they could not afford to discard their foreign cloth in favour of the more expensive Indian khadi." Gandhi himself still dressed at this time in the comparatively respectable dhoti and did not express any intention to adopt a loincloth himself. During the Khulna famine, however, he was criticised for encouraging people to bum foreign cloth while others were dying from starvation and nakedness. Moved by the accusation, he contemplated sending his shirt and dhoti to relief workers and contenting hims,,lf with a 'mere loincloth'. But he s,,cms to have mistrusted his motives: 'I re1trained my emotion. It was tinged with egotism. I knew the taunt was groundless' (Tht Hindu 15 Oct. 1921, CWMG vol. 21: 225). Gandhi next contemplated the gesture after witnessing the arrest of his Mwlim co-worker Maulana Mahomed Ali in mid-September 1921. He later 14 G..andbi'1 waindoth wu unully rd'c-rrtd to rithtt u a &,,.�ti or .a 1oirK:loth. It w>s ln (act muth longc:r th.an rithc-r term J.uggttts and Q)Uld more accumely be called a short JJtor,·. IS Con wu atways one of the majm probkm, wl1h J,J.ad;. It wu coosidtt.ab ly more exptnsive 10 buy 1han mill-clc>th btt'..auu of 1he time-Mtin.ttfu,ing ,o comp or mi.. hi, d,..,• ...,,n in front of Kin g Geo r g • V ., Buckingham Palace.I n fx1. he woreit for ,he n r t ofhi, life" b«auo e hi, "miHion' waor>evercompletcd. Her>everobuiDcd hi,obj«ti veofclothingthtentir e lndiann>1ioninklwJi1nd re-embliUlingaoelf-,uffici011tomum to his ·no m r al d n r ,·. From a n ouui der", point of view Gandhi', loincloth maybecon,i dered or>eofthe moot ,ucces,ful and ingeniou, mempo,ymbolic:ally to oppoK Br i t ioh rule.Ye t if we uy 10...,alu>1ei1S ,uccn, inGandhi', o wp term,, i1 i, clear 1h>1 it failedto provoke1he re1limionofhi, politic:1l d re:un. It wa, adopted i n \921 a, a dnpente mea,ure becauoe,,..,'4j wa, otill far off an d the lndUn poopk were Hill drnsed in forei g n cloth. It wa, • tern· poury·,isn ofmou rn ins'.inten dedtopro vo\epoopleinto ,pinning,w nted people 1o u ndtt1undi1 andb«a u.. het0tic meaoure. Some fe,r«I that they ,oo might be exp,,c1«I to ,h«l1heirdotbcs.SinceG,ndhi di..:u,�hi,dccision wi1h thrm ,1 kngth, tbey becamr the prople dose,, to undenunding hi, propo«ince he looked like a religiou, osce1:ic. He h.d already h«n l•belledMalia,....,(GmtSoul) someyeanbefore be adopted tbe loincloth and by 1921 be was frequently perceived as a uin, (Amin 1984). But '°""' how his new loincloth garb 1ttmed lib ,b, confirmation of hi, Wnthood (log l�S: 125, Oe-y 1948: Pref"")· People camr f, om miles around to get Gondhi',d,mlian(holy 1igh,) (Bean 1989, Krid,nadas 1928).Tbe loinclot h«! ascetic wasan imagc ,bey could«lardhi's own clothe,,oa me1esymbolof ,.io1hood WJlcloar!y ....,...,,. ,,I.,_,. .... to undermi� m.,., ofwh>t be Ii.ad to uy about them. But the oituation c-n..,. "'a.;, l'i-,.. wn, of «>u1>liont d«.>n· structed Gandhi',,,...._.g,,they oimuhaneou,ly brought the crowd,to him and oCthe ltts advoc11cdacornplete rrjcdion of the previowlyidealiledEuropean look." Examinnion ofGandhi"s ,pced,es and writinll•conceminlldm,reveah 1h11he developcd a peroona.ltheo,yof dotbes. Forhimthey weuanout· wa,d expreHion of the moral integrity of the wearer - an e�pres,ion of truth.Hefimvoicedthesc ideas inSouth Africa.but later came to con· cmi,e them after his re1um to India. They became • con,iotml theme and in lat.,. !i� he u,ually dcocribcd his own dm, in '"""' mm,. But if ooe eumines hi, mempu 10 encourage the Indian nation to adopt �lw,l; and the Gandhi cap. one find, him u1ili1in11 a numbKOfhi,boly1igh, on thopl.,form>1Nagpur,hottcoiled11 ,he hypocri17:'Myn•m•on1hC'i,lips andblxk aps oa thC'i, head,,- what• 1«ribk contrml Whn a lie! I could not fight the b.nk of Swaraj with ,h,. crowd.... I wa, in agony' (il,;J.:S7S). He dnn,nded ,heir fortigocaps,bu, no matt than a hundud were thrown and four of ,h0wa1drawo auton>a1icallyioto thi1 _,,-...,.• -.,'21 national debate. On« drn, had attained ouch elabome symbolic impor· C-nnyolo,oc tan«. the,e wa, oo e,cap, from p,nicipation in the battle of clothes. no matter whether a p,uon ""'ually wi.i,,d to participate in it or 1>01.' A, always. headweu wa, , ttntral ·.,.,.. C.,,,./liropg,,...n,.,,,,;,.,.d Ono of Gandhi', obj«liw. in detigning the Gandhi cap wa,. 11 we h»T ittn, tbat all Indians should ,haro ,he wne fonn ofhe.dw,ar, thll«I 'holf\hodi". i.�. flhric, 1h11 w ere lt.aod·wcwm but with mxhine·'P"n yon, (CWMGvol. 28: 144). In Simla Consrn>m01> no, only bought and wore ,w irni111ion ,. but 1llood �W ,hop, (fl.,,.� 19 N.,.,, 19JI). The All India Spionen Auoci.,ioD ,ricd 10 roatrol these devdopme,1u by incrodwin g iu own sump conli11in g of a ,pinn ing-wheel mo,if, which p•rao1tcd 1hac 1heir U,,J; w.. 'catified'. Rut 'uncertified" U,Ui remained • con,un, p roblem an d chett w•,. .....,, rq,o,u of clealen wndin1 1p«irnen, of 'unified' UwJi 10 Manche"n wi,h thr inc=t of obuinin1 chrap UwJj imi!alion, on w hich they could print ,he ima�

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Clothing �tters of the Mahatma's head to attract custom (S14ttsman 30 July 1921). Tbe inevitable consequence of these developments was that some people wbo actually intended to wur khadi wete clothed in fake khadi without even knowing it. Another sartorial option, popuw- in tbe nineteenth century, wn to weas a combination of Indian and European garments. Photographs of crowds in the 1920. and '30s reveal that this remained a common choice. Gandhi was irritated by the sight of foreign jackets worn ovet lrhadi outfits by children in National Schools. 'They should be saved from this miserable condition', be argued (CWMG vol. 26: 551). Just n in the nineteenth century Indian headwur was often worn with European dress, so the Gandhi cap was often adopted without the wurer lndianising the rest of his clothes. Tbe cap was cheap and easily obtainable and, as we have seen, people were often c0etced into wearing it. But a mere lthadi cap was not enough to satisfy eithet Gandhi or his Muslim co-worker Mohammad Ali. Confronted by a crowd of white caps and assorted clothes at a meeting in Sholapur, the latter proclaimed: 'Personally I don't find anybody clad in khadi.... You must, you have to, bear the burden that full khadi dress entails' (M. Desai 1968: 291). For many who wete not prepared to bear this 'burden' but who none the less wished to appear patriotic, the solution was to maintain two alter· native sartorial images through changing their clothes to suit the situa· tion. Always a popular solution, this enabled people to distinguish their public ftom their private selves. Gandhi's intention, as we have seen, was to abolish the public/ private dichotomy altogether by suggesting a perma· nent sartorial solution corresponding to a person's innet self. In theory this should have ended the necessity of changing clothes, since lrhadi was the Indian expression of a constant unchanging truth. But far from discourag· ing constant changes of dress, Gandhi's preaching had the effect of reinforc· ing the necessity of changing clothes. For with the new Gandhian emphasis on the morality of dress, public appearances were interpreted as realities. This meant that the clothes of the public self were under more rigorous scrutiny than evet before. Whereas in the past people judged one another's loyalties ultimately by the clothes of the private self, they were now encouraged to interpret the dress of the public self as an explicit expression of belief, national allegiance and moral worth. This inevitably tempted people to present acceptable external images regardless of whether or not they corresponded to their personal beliefs. The threshold of the house remained an important border for convetSion. Those who did not fully believe in ltlwdi, and who retained the idea that

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l,KWcheSolu1ion?

Eu,.aa cha, wn mon, ci,,iliocd,CUI oft' ,hrir J,W 00 mtng,...mcn rcmieud ,Mr J,W,wuri ng e�duoivdy 101hr e�ion period, buyin gltl.ad;cJoll,na, ,he J.11 mioute to bol11er tlwir politiul im•i*• Rut wone stiU were those poli1ici•o1 who rofaled to invt11 their mo!'lJi P"'''" dd, covered wi1h 1hccloth.Everyr it, dress i n "midis" or &ocks. If I went in a maxi, I would be the laughing-stock and people would insult my father's name.' Sending a daughter to college entailed breaking two major village taboos, quite apart &om embracing the radical assertion that female education was desirable or necessary. The first taboo was allowing a daughter to travel by bus, a risk few fathers were prepared to take for fear that it would spoil their daughter's reputation and hence that of the family. The second was 20 Tht wotd.s ' upon quality ' have vc-ry positi\'C' connotations in India, and are oftc-n sumpcd pro, ninendy o n new clothing whic-h is worn wnh tbt logo showir,g.

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Clothing Matters There was also much ambiguity over the sig nificance of the content or forms embroidered on ghaghros. Take, for example, the siltul form. Although siltul is a Gujarati word for face, the siltul form did not have the fixed meaning of face and was used more like a n equi..alent of the English word 'cirde'. O n some figurative embroidered wall-hangings the siltul did indeed act as a human or animal face. Yet on ghag hros it often represented a £lower head, a tree or a cotton pod. And when siltul forms appeared in isolation, they were not intended to 'repre>ent' a row of faces. They were seen simply as decorative round forms. Asking the meaning of siltul was, therefore, inappropriate for it was simply a round formation of stitches with a mirror in the centre which could be used to represent a variety of different things. Names of embroidery patterns often refer to what the patterns resemble rather than what they represent (Paine 1990: 17). Similar ambiguity surrounded the names of other design elements. The checkerboard design found in most g haghros was known as adaJiya. Some women would insist that this did not refer to anything while others would say it was a reference to adad, a bbck pulse which they used for cooking." The design itself, however, was an ancient one, found in early Jain manuscripts and paintings. Here each check represented a unit in a cosmological system of counting and dividing. The word for division into two parts is addhadhun, and it is possible that adadiya is a corruption of this and that over the years a system of counting and division has come to be interpreted as pulses owing to the similarity in the two lin· guistic terms. Certainly the local specialist i n Gujarati art and folklore, Khodidasbhai Parmar, regarded the check desi gn on women's ghaghros as representing a divine system of counting (interview). But no woman in Jalia ever came up with such an explanation. This raises the question as to whether women had once copied the design into their embroidery knowing its religious significance, or whether instead they had done so in ignorance or merely invented it for themselves. Perhaps, after all, such cosmological interpretations never existed at a village level or have been lost and transformed over time. Or perhaps it is simply inappropriate to seek verbal explanations of visual phenomena, which may take the very form that they do 'precisely because they cannot be explained away' and are 'not amenable to articulation in words' (Cardew 1978: 18). The fact remains, however, that ghaghros are composed of set formations 18

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Digitize ut11c doign in w2ll-p,in1ing� in tht" S;iun:shtran vill age Raucli. nui nuin tha 1 atLJ,,u m(Jm 'snull sli ct'S o(sw«t, mJJc from bhck .Hlod-gn.in1· (fis chtr ,nd Sh,h 1910: 63).

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Some Peuint Dilemmu (Kanbi ind Klwrak)

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Clothing Matters two explanations are not as incompatible as the y first appear. What origi· nates as a sign of protection may in time become one of beauty, since beauty is indicated by the suggestio n that it is worthy of protection. Similarly, although women claimed to choose tattoos for aesthetic and social reasons, their fear of what might happen if the y were not tattooed suggests that the tattoos may indeed hav e once been protective. Cert.aioly the belief persists that desirabl e things should be protected from the evil eye. Hence a Bharwod (shepherd) woman binds her ne w ivory bangles with black threads, destroy· ing their perfection so that 'the ey e will not strike' (Mjar"" lagJt), and many women place a black mark on the foreheads of their babies for the same reason. But these are cases where the prophylactic qualities are acknow­ ledged. It is possible that where protective designs have become incorpo­ rated into larger, more decorative designs, as in th e case of embroidery, they become just another decorative element, and the once protective function dissolves ov er time. What is clear is that local interpretations of the meaning of d esign elements can vary over both time and place (cf. J. Jain 1982). The scorpion motif presents another example of this. InJalia I came across no scorpions embroi­ d ered by hand on wom en's g haghros, but did occasio nally fin d them in the machine-embroidered borders made by tailors. Women did not express any particular attitude to these embroidered scorpions, but regarded them as just one among many images of flowers, rabbits, drums, bicycles and cars. But according 10 Parmar the scorpion motif, which also appears in tattoos, is a sex symbol that was in the past commonly found at the top of the voJlryv of the gluzghro, at the top of the woman's thigh. These scorpions were not, it seems, m ere ly decorative. They were potentially malevolent 10 anyone who should usurp a woman's ghaghro an d, by implication , her husband's bed. Parmar recalls (1969: 57-8) a song which runs: Manibai is having her bath, my btloved The storpion luzs climbtd her gluzg hros, It climbtd up and bit her, btlwed. Here the scorpion in the song bit a woman's husband's lover. According to Parmar, dying women would often say: 'If my ghag hros are worn by my husband's second wife, she will be bitten by the scorpion.' Here the scorpion seems to be at once decorative, protective (of the wife's rights), malevolent (towards the impostor) and phallic. Yet in Jalia wom en have ceased to embroider it altogether and where it does appear, it no longer occupies a unique position against the woman's thigh, but is now incor­ porated along with other animals, plants and obj ects into the machine·

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Digitize> beadworlt is also popular in the village. Here.. tiny glass beads are knitted together (see fig. 7.20)." Usually, they do not form miniature models, but rather are knitted around actual objects. Some of these are auspi· cious object> used in ritual,, ,uch as decorated coconuts, betel nuts, rupee coins, water containers and indl,o,ris (padded rings worn on the head to help balance a load). The>e items are used during the marriage ceremony, then returned to the showcase where they are kept on permanent display along with the plastic beaded items, crochet light-bulbs and other glass beaded objects such a s biros (without ink), glass bottles, empty nail-varnish pots and toothbrushes. A single showcase usually contains a mixture of items from two or three different trous...u collections and therefore holds the ans of different generations simultaneously. The beaded ans are accompanied by an increasing emphasis on different techniques for decorating the house. Toro,u made from plastic straws, imitation flower>, paper roses, plastic beads, crochet, sequins and imitation leaves now adorn doorways. Women also make 'photo frames', consisting of elaborate sequined pictures of peacocks, gods and flowers that have a small blank area in the middle of which a family photograph can be in>erted. Other items include plastic mobiles, sequined or embroidered pictures, and items such as bags decorated with embroidered writing and floral creepers. Designs are learned from borrow· ing and copying the ornaments and decorations of friends and neighbours. lntnprttaliun of c/.,nges in clothing and popular arts

The above survey of changes in embroidery, tattoos and household arts reveals certain consistent trends: first, a steady incorporation of new motifs which appear to take their inspiration from outside the village (electric fan, radio, car, aeroplane, light-bulb, sofa, chairs, watches, clocks and written inscriptions); secondly, a progressive movement away from stylisation towards naturalism; and thirdly, an increasing preference for new decorative media and techniques which are favoured above dt,,hi embroidery (light-bulb 22 The knitti ng togetMf o f unal) glass bdCU is by n o means a M W en.ft in the area, It Ao u.rubed in tbe Jann hal f of th e nin etttn th uatury among t M weahhjnt famiHn o f Saur uhtra (cf. Nuuvui �,o l , 1966). Th� knitted together bca� wall·h.angings, ritual obj«ts aDd onwnniu wing imported Venetiin bc�s. h wu an ,rt pncti.� bo1h by profn.si oaal.s and WOfflffl in thtir own homn. It never Oouri 1hed am ong t he pc>c>rer agricultunl c:as.ces, as be-ads: WffC extremely costly. ln jal ia the apparently new fuhi on for making beadedeocon.uu aod c>mamfflU is in fact a reworking of an olde r m tudition th.at d«l irw:d among the Saunshtran Site earlier in 1hc twentieth ccmury. The be.acted itC'm s m�c today ue much el u complu and iauiieate th.10 culin beadwork.

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Some P-t Dilemma$ (Kan&i and K"'"'")

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Clothing Matters 1heir K/r,,ra/t coun1erparu, Kanbi women no longer call 1hcmselves lt�tiwolis (farmcn), bu1 rather lrirawolis (diamond people). This docs not mean 1ha1 the women 1hcmselves cul diamonds, bu1 ra1hcr that, as the wives of diamond-cuucn, they consider their status to be above that of farmers. And as diamond-cutters' wives it is no longer appropria1c for them 10 dress in farmers' clothes. This concept of appropriate behaviour was a strong influential factor in the qucs1ion of how people should dress. It was readily agreed in the vilbgc that as wealthy people, living in paltlta houses and no longer rclianl on 1hc land, it was appropriate for Kanbi women to dress in saris which were both the product and the proof of their advancement. This did not mean, however, 1hat 1hcy could wear anything they lilced. Asked why 1hcy did not wear the slr,,lwar ltamiz, a group of young Kanbi girls replied that people in 1hc village would laugh and say things like: 'Look! They have become "feshtn-wala" ', or 'They think they arc Vaniyas now!', or 'Why do they dress like educated people when they have not studied more than one book?' For, although the KAnbi were recognised as nu//r,,ro (advanced, progressive), 1hey were still not considered as nu/lr,,ro as the more educated Vaniyas or some wealthy educated Brahmans. Similarly, married women dared not anger their husbands by wearing the 'Bengali' sari. As one girl pu1 it, 'We must keep wi1hin our own cus1oms. We can't just put shame on the roof. If I dressed in the Bengali sari, I would be cutting off my father's nose.' But while 1hc Gujarati sari was considered acceptable and appropriate for Kanbi women, i1 was less accepublc for the Kharalt,. Among them it was interpreted as 1rying to step out of their own caste and tradition. For the Kharalts were still defined as 'farming people' and their women were expected to drns accordingly. Many s1ill lived in houses with mud-plastered walls, albeit large and prosperous ones, and even some of their men were still dressed in dtslri dothn. Furthermore, owing to the exceptionally limited geographical distribution of their caste which barely extended out· side the Larabad district, their marital tics and kinship links were almon entirely local. As a caste, Kharak identity was defined not merely in farming terms bu1 also in local terms. This helps 10 explain the ambivalence of Kharalt a11i1udcs towards the glraghro. While they recognised a certain superiori1y i n the saris of 1hc Kanbis and other wealthy families in the village, they lacked the same in1eosi1y of urban contact s and the education and general level of caste 'improvement' con· sidered appropriate to the sari-wearer. At a time when the Kanbis were begin· ning to reject embroidery (in the 1970s), the Kharaks, contenting themselves with the local idiom, chose to increase their embroidery production and

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Clothing Matters developed new styles of machine-embroidered borders which incorporated their modernising aspirations within the original structure of the ghaghro itself. While Kanbi families were installing electric fans and radios in their new pakka houses, Kharak women were embroidering images of fans and radios on their ghaghros and employing tailors to embroider images of cars, clocks and bicycles. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Kharalt women exploited the potential of the ghaghro to its greatest degree (cf. Seth 1980). But now even they are beginning to reject it. What was once considered a fashionable new embroidered design has now fallen into the general category of 'old­ fashioned', 'village-like' and 'backward'. For, as the Kharaks know, to most people outside the village and even to many within it there is no particular difference between an 'old' gha ghro and a 'modem' one. All arc essentially hand-made deshi ghaghros which, by their very nature and origins, arc old­ fashioned. Even with sophisticated machine-made borders occupying an increasingly prominent space, nothing can hide the overall 'backwardness' associated with the garment. The new generation, like Liliben and her cousins, arc embarrassed that they are still making ghaghros and including them in their trousseaux. Like other girls in the village, they arc more interested in making beaded sof.a sets and decorative items for a showcase or for photo-frames, which they make alongside their ghaghros. They hope their mothers-in-law will be lenient and let them one day sell their ghaghros and wear saris in their marital homes. They look to the Kanbis' progress as a model for their own future when they too will be free to wear synthetic saris and rid themselves for ever of their ancestral embroidery. It seems that their hope will be fulfilled, for already Kharak girls are including saris with ghaghros in their trousseaux, and already they are not expected to wear ghaghros for the first few years in their marital homes. It is even possible that the very ghaghros that Li.liben and her cousins were embroidering will never be worn by them, for by the time they are 'of age' to wear them the fashion may have advanced one further step away from the dtslti embroidery. But the fact remains that Kharak girls arc still illiterate and show little signs of going to school, and until they begin to replace their knowledge of embroidery with a knowledge of writing, they will perhaps be destined to continue embroidering dtshi ghaghros, even if they never have to wear them. It is often assumed that synthetic fabrics arc replacing hand-woven and hand­ embroidered dress in India simply because they arc cheaper. �tainly price can be an important factor; many of the poorer communities in the villa ge

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Some Peasant Dilemmas (Kanbi and Kharak) have adopted cheap synthetic or printed cotton and no longe r wear loca lly produced cloth, becawe in the struggle to provide cl othing and food for their families they often favour cheapness above other factors. But economic theories cannot adequately explain the complexity and variety of the different choices people make when they decide which type of dress to buy or wear (cf. Bayly 1986, Cousins 1984: 159). In the Kanbi and Klraralt case, it was the wealthier of the two groups who adopted the cheap synthetic sari whereas the less wealthy group spent both more time and more money making ghaghros. In the s a me way that ltlradi was worn by nationalist sympathisers in the 1920s, despite being more expensive than machine-made cloth, so the glraghro is still worn by Klra,alt women today despite being more expensive than the cheaper range of saris. Herc price is not the primary factor affecting people's choice, but aesthetic considerations are not paramount either. Just a.s ltlradi-wearing sometimes took the form of a moral obligation rather than an aesthetic preference, so glraghro-wearing has become, for the Klraralts, a social expectation rather than a personal choice. These examples illustrate how people may be obliged - socially, culturally or politically - to remain in a particular type of dress despite the apparently easy availability of more desirable alternatives. In both these cases the obligation to remain within a certain category of clothin.g gave rise to an outburst o f creativity as different individuals and groups exploited the full potential of the fabric without actua lly abandon· ing the category of clothing type. Thus many ltlradi-wearers chose to embroider, dye and tailor their lthadis in order to beautify them, while the Kharalt introduced new motifs and inserted increasingly large machine-made borders into their glraghros in the attempt to update what had become an outmoded form of dress. Individual motivations no doubt varied from wishing to enjoy the full potential of a given medium to wishing actually to conceal the medium by embellishing it to such an extent that it was scarcely recognisable. Yet one important motivation in both cases was that people wished to escape the burden of the dtslti, with the connotations of backwardness and lack of refinement that it implied. In the sam e way that the Klraralt retention of the embroidered glraghro cannot be explained in economic terms, so the Kanbis' rejection of the ghaglrro was not motivated primarily by economic factors. It was the social kudos attached to wearing the sari rather than its cost or cheapness that attracted the Kanbis. For them, being dressed in saris was a means of participating in a modern world that extended beyond the limited confines of the village. Cousins has shown how low-caste Rajasthani women des· cribe those high-caste women who have adopted saris as 'coming from here,

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Clothing Matters we.irs bushcot and pant every day. But for bis marriage it was different. If you have love for your parents you will do this thing. You will we.ir lttdiywn and chorni like a shepherd just for one day in your life, and then you will be free to dress as you like.' Dilipbhai, unable to resist these persuasions, agreed to his father's request. He said his parents had provided everything for him and allowed him to be educated, which was unusual in his caste. How could he deny them this one thing and upset them in front of the community? S o h e told his father that he would wear full Bharwad dress for his wedding without mak­ ing any fuss. This be did, as tbe photograph album bears witness. But Dilipbbai's album required careful scrutiny. For, tucked behind a p i c ­ ture of Dilipbhai and his wife at the marriage ceremony, there was an txtra photograph that Dilipbhai was only prepared to show me when his mother had left the courtyard. Drawing this s«ond photograph from behind the first, he announced with a smile: 'This is the stcret photograph! Nobody knows it is here except my sisters and my wife. If my mother saw it she would throw me out of the house and never speak with me again. But she would never think of looking under here. She does not know how tbe photos are attached to the page and would never try to move them.' Tht stcrtts of tht stcret photograph The secret photograph showed Dilipbhai and his wife standing in a corn· field, with com up to their waists. They were arm in arm and both were smiling broadly. Dilipbhai looked much the same as ever i n bis fawn· coloured trousers and white synthetic shirt, but his wife was almost com­ pletely unrecognisable from the timid woman I had seen earlier, sheltering beneath her sadlo (half-sari), dressed in the typical waist-doth LJim1) and ltapdu worn by the women of her caste. Not only was she wearing a bright red synthetic sari in the photo, but she had it flung back from her bead to reveal her hair and her bold and smiling face. Dilipbhai explained: 'This is how my wife would look if I had the choice. But I cannot control it. Her parents would refuse to send her to me if she changed her clothes and my parents would have refused to accept her as their daughter-in· law. Even if she came to live with me in Baroda, she would have to wear ltapdu and jimi. For what if my parents came to visit without w arn · ing? They would see her in a sari and we would be thrown out of the caste. I am controlled by my parents. They are controlled by the caste association. Bharwad people are very backward-looking, especially the

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Some Pastoralist (Bharwad) and Harijan Dilemmas women. They say "If you change your clothes, then you change your nature.� My mother especially thinks this.' The 'secret photo' bad been taken by Dilipbhai's friend from Larabad, who bad borrowed a camera for the day and had also provided one of his wife's saris for Sbantaben (Dilipbhai's wife) to wear. The actual taking of the photo was planned a week in advance and on tbe morning of the event Dilipbhai and his friend set off 'to visit a temple' in the hills. Shantaben and her sister-in-law followed soon afterwards. They were supposed to be t.alting bread (rodo) and buttermilk (chas) to some men in the fields. But they made a quick diversion and met up with Dilipbhai and his friend. There in the long grass, Shanuben took off her sadlo and exchanged it for the red sari. Then sbe and ber husband posed for tbe shot. Only one pose was taken, since tbis friend had obtained tbe camera to take photos of bis own family. But Dilipbhai was very pleased with the result. As he said, 'It could be from a movie, don't you think?' The picture might have had less impact had it not been hidden imme­ diately beneath a photograph in which Shantaben was completely concealed beneath her marriage veil (gharcholu). She was doing akhi /,,j seated oppo­ site Dilipbhai, who was dressed in bis ktdiyun, chomi and turban. The two were linked by a cotton thread. Just as Dilipbbai's desired image of a modem couple was suppressed in everyday life, so the illicit photograph was concealed behind the overtly conventional d,shi image. When I spoke with Shantaben about it, she laughed and said that it would be impossible for her to wear a sari in everyday life. She said: 'if you wear a sari then you can n o longer be called a Bharwad. That is the way it is among our caste. Better to die than to change your clothes.' Although the Blrarwad, were the only group in tbe village to show such sartorial conservatism regarding both men and women, there were other shepherd communities in the area, such as the Rabaru, who shared a similar style of dress and a similar reluctance to accept change. Even as far away a s Ahmedabad city, they tended to cling tenaciously to their traditions. In Ahmedabad it is common to see prosperous Rabari men delivering milk on expensive Honda motorbikes but still dressed in ktdiyun, dhoti and turban, despite living in a large industrial city. Like Kathabhai, they met with con· siderable resistance if they tried to cast off such conventional attire. One example of such resistance took place in 1985 when a reluctant Rabari wife threatened to reject her husband on account of his clothes. Tk wk of the relucl4nt Rabari wife This tale was recounted by a professor in a university department m

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Clothing Matters Ahmedabad. In one of bis classes he had a bright young student from the Rabari community, who apparently suffered from bad body odour because he always wore the same dirty trousers and shirt. One day the professor asked the student why he never changed his clothes and received the following reply: 'Sahib, I am a Rabari. We people keep goats and sell milk. I too must do this work even though I am studying. When I come home from col­ lege I deliver milk on my bicycle. But I have a problem. At home I am expected to dress in lttdiyun and dhoti like the rest of my caste. Most of them are still dealing in milk and are very backward-looking. When I came here to college I could not wear lttdiyun and dhoti for people would have laughed and said: 'Look! A shepherd in college!' So I purchased one pair of trousers and this shirt that you see me wearing. But it became very difficult for me at home. My wife despised me in these clothes and refused to allow me to come to her. She said that she had married a Robari man and she could only sleep with a Robari. She said that i f she saw me in trousers and shirt again then she would never again share the same bed. So you see, I don't let her see me in my coll ege dress. I leave the house each morning in a lttdiyun and dhoti. Theo I visit my friend's house where I keep these college-going clothes. I change into trousers and shirt for college and then, in the evening, change back into ikshi [dress] before returning home. Because of this I only have one shirt and one trouser and so I never wash them. And certainly I cannot ask my wife to wash them. She would refuse.' Before discussing some of the reasons for the sartorial conservativism of pastoral groups it is worth recounting two further examples, this time taken from Kavakshibhai Barot's collection of Bhorwod folk tales from the villages of Saurashtra (cf. Barot 1977).' From these it is dear that even when cloth­ ing traditions were questioned and criticised by members of the herding communities, this seldom resulted in the outright rejection of a custom. Rather, the retention of a custom such as a particular style of dress often acted as a barrier to other forms of social change. The first story concerns women's inability to give up the custom of wearing boloya (ivory bangles) and the second the difficult relationship between clothing and education. Together with the clothing incidents from Jalia and Ahmedahad, they hdp to provide some overall view of the attitudes of shepherds to their dress. 4

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Clothing Matters It was through exploiting the exclwive appeal of this 'vilbge life' that boutique-owners were able to sell their clothes at inordinate prices. This is not to say that 'ethnic' fashions were unique to Hauz Klas. On the con­ tnry, the 1980s bad seen an 'ethnic boom' throughout India, with 'ethnic' clothes selling in every major city, whether in street markets, state empo­ riums or exclusive boutiques.• But Hauz Klas was unique in selling 'ethnic' clothes in a 'genuine village setting'. and as such was an ideal environment in which to explore the significance of the 'ethnic fashion revival'.' It also gave an opportunity for analysing the relationship between village fashion and &ite urban fashion, for here the two coexisted in a state of uneasy bar· mony as old villagers and new village tenants observed each other's clothing with amazement, amusement and at times disgwt. Villogt fo,hion The fashions favoured by the inhabitants of Hauz Khas in 1989 expressed their social, economic and aesthetic choices within the framework o f recent cultural and historical changes in the area. Before independence, Muslim women were wearing s/ra/...,,, lt,,mi>:ts, while ]at and Harijon women wore full gathered skirts (khngo,), blouses (angis), veils (odhnis) and large quan­ tities of jewellery. Their dress was not unlike that worn by many Rajasthani peasant and tribal women today. For cla.ily use most women wore cotton, but on special ocasions those who could afford it wore khngo, of rich silk. The greater the quantity o f cloth, the greater the swirl o f the skirt and some skirts contained as much as 30 metres of material. Hindu men dressed largely in white dhotis, turbans and optional shirts while Muslim men generally favoured the kurto, worn with either a pyjama or a lsmgi. The clothes of the villagers of Hauz Khas were in fact very similar to those worn by a variety o f different groups throughout Northwest India. After independence the rapid expansion of the city of Delhi brought Hauz Khas within easy access to urban goods and finally incorporated the village within the urban structure itself. Although the village maintained For a more �ncnl aocount or the different strands that have kd to tbe � 0£ rthDK £u.b ion, and for an un&rsunding of how chi, fas hion openittt at the bt:I 0£ the strttt uadr. 1tt Tarlo, fonhf an �h nic ,hopping v ilbge w.as not of course unique. The vill age of Suraj Kund wu conJtNctcd nea r Del hi In 1987 w ith thc cxpreu purpose 0£ hou Jfog an ann1,1.1I craft fair. UnJ il:t Hauz Kh.i$ , it w as purpose•built and there-fore cont ai n ed no rnldmt Yillagen who might ha ve inierfaed wilh a utho ritic:s' atte:mpu to co n.struct an ick.a]iscd portrait ol l nc.tim vill.Jge li(e.S imi lulythe villageho u.Sd constructed in th< grounds o( t he Crafu Museum (Ddhi} and a t VishaU eth n c rc:suur ant (Ahmcda.bad) do not h.avc a ny villagcn ins� them. Thc:y i thcrdorc fulfil the acuhctic u:�mi ons lllio... ,.,;ti, tho prxtia o/ffll.

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l a 1989 MOil rilbr womm WeK wearing ,h.;.,y ,y,ubotit ,Mt..., "'"""' io bagl)' 11yln with luge.,.,.... Mlllly bl adopi i.ltins,bodices and ml,. anddabor1,brir loalurtorilltndlrioa1.Bu1...d> woma,,-olwbom h.toolyreaody difforoa1i11edthom..h-afrom 'themu.ltir ude',didD01,..,,..11rily wioh10idoa1ifywi1h1brcommoapeo­ plc,.Nor dicl1hq,,..,,..uriJy,J,,-1bo...... nllOftollndi.o uu,'oriontll fliryl.uwl'with1'picturnque'p:,t1om ollif1'.Futtbmnott,thi1rDm1nrici ... tion of the Yi!logc through craft mted und of nlu,i,c, fnhlor,1 Aod ii it n= inm>ded 101 Rffuming to tbe fuhioo.bow at Hawe Kbas. it was Dlllioeabk dw the !DOSI ddl.mtiwdy Walff'lldMhe, in1he.bow wn,moJ.lkdfint,......,;,,g1oi.adier l..di.u:u and from l'il;.IUC-...,.MIUI the Wnt but also a mun, of idea,ificmon wid,.., iocreawtalr cosmo­ . ._ ..... r-,{, ... poii,.., "global ll1fonnin1 ideati1ia nther tb.., 1ryia110 fix an ideati,y drfini,i,,.,]y in time aad ,px,:. A f.,hioaablt Delhi ot..deat ,.., dm, like ..,Amerian ,por,,womaro """ day aod liltc aGujaraii puur1t ibe...,.,,ar,dno oDC willfixher 1o tbesc imagc, ualaoWchootestofuthcnelfto tbcm bywnriag theurnc11ylc c:oam.ndy.Andthea,ooon..-or later.WwiUbe"out offa,hion".f.,hioa i,,he ve11ttation of,he ephemeral (d.Wilson 1987). h also see, hmd in hand with the D01io11 of individualism. We att coamady ,old by

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Dressing for Distinction: A Historical Review magazines th at it is through fashion that we can express 'ourselve s'. Ethnic chic bas a ppropriated all the se notions. By r eattaogiog clements of village dress, women of t he urban eli te , lilcc Livdeen Sharma, can express their individuality and their exclusivity.' Yet ethnic chic as an exclusive f-ashioo f.accs two main problems. First, it alie nates those who wore haod•made Indian clothes before the 'et hn ic revival'. These arc the women, and to a less extent the men, who have consistently advocated the appreciation of Indian handicrafts since the 1950s. They have long worn textiles woven, dyed and embroidered by band. Having selected these on a mixture of ae sthetic an d moral grounds, many now ballc at the new e thnic fashion: Those who have always dressed traditional loolc at this fashion wave su.spiciously- the y don't know whether t o love it or hate it.... As the fashion spreads it becomes vulgar and defies its own e nds. Or as Marland Singh' put it: 'Ultimatdy a god becomes an ashtray' (/,u/;a Today 30 Apr. 1988: 78). This perspective is fdt particularly by t.hose directly involved in both governmental and non-governmental craft organisations. While on the one band they are pleased that a t last the public is showing more interest in indi genous designs, on the other band they arc often dubious about the quality and longevity of this new wave of enthusiasm. Some feel that it is born out of ignorance rather than the a ppreciation of Indian handiwork. They complain that status-conscious people, with little aesthetic sense but keen to keep up with the fashion, e nd up mixing and matching garments and textiles from different parts of India without any underst anding of how the y should b e worn or bow the y should b e combined. Furthermore, many fed that t here is now a vulgar surfeit of ethnic exoticism, with people try · ing to outdo each other with their degrees of ctbnicness.' The very popularity of ethnic chic is debasing its reputation, among not only the arts and crafts lovers but also those who toolc to ethnic chic as Tbe sprad of whioo in lndu from the early 1980s onwards bu hem flcilimed by iDtCTasi.og SOCUI mobility, the npid expansio n of I DCW midcUr--clus catcgoey o(comumm, the dn-dop ­ ment olan indwt:ry dedKated to the production o( (uhioa. and the iM"W but increasing sq,,.n· tion of the roles of dniper and produ«r. Tb ac- faaoo ban been boosted by the sprad of the film industry and television, which market a aw:nbn of imago to pcopk all owcr Jodi,, i ndudiog romantic portraits of Indian villagtts i n regioQ&I nyLn ol dress. Tbc dcwlopmmt of the lodiao fa.Wion i nduttl')' i.s coo large a subject to be covered in thi, book. S Mart.and Singh i.s the s«tttaty of the Indian Nuk)� Trust (o,- An and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). Ht wu aho i.nvolv«d i.a tM Of8lWutian o( tht Pc,,cinl o( India. 6 One f.uhKln dnigotr in Abmcdabad, a woma.a who bu Ion, 2ppttriaud IDdian crafts, ,4

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Dressing for Distinction: A Historical Review encounter and its after-effects. The question arise, whether the educated urban Indian can today look 'Indian' without looking too self-consciously so. For women tbu is not a problem. They have never abandoned Indian styles on a mass scale, and have successfully adapted Indian outfits such as the shalwar hmi>: to the whims of contemporary fashion. But for men the situation is more complex. So much have European styles been incor· porated into their wardrobes that most now coruider them part of Indian dress. But while broadening the category of Indian dress to accept Euro­ pean styles, Ind�n men have simultaneously down-graded indigenous forms of dress so drastiC2lly that it now becomes difficult for a professional man to wear a "'""' f"D"""'• let alone a dhoti, to bis place of work.' To do so would seem too self-consciously Indian, suggesting the image of the hypocritical politician. Pan of the probkm lies perhaps in the formulation of the question, since the very idea of 'looking Indian' seems to have emerged only through the Indian's encounter with the non-Indian. In bu book W, Indians (1982), Khwhwant Singh describes the evolution of bis own personal awareness of 'being Indian'. /1.s a small child be lived in a village in Western Punjab (now Pakistan), and when people asked him who he was, he replied by giving the name of bu subcaste and family. When bis family moved to live in a neighbouring town, he left bis subcaste out of the description and defined himself as a Sikh, mentioning bis caste only to those of bis own religious persuasion. By the time he was twelve, bis family bad moved to Delhi, and when be met people from other linguistic regions of India, Kwbwant Singh described himself to bis new schoolmates as a 'Sikh from Punjab'. Finally, on reaching England, be began to describe himself as Indian. He n,cords: The lint time I became consciow of being Indian was when I went to university in England. This was not very surprising since only Englishmen who bad been to India could recognise me as a Sikh or a Punjabi. For others I was jwt an Indian. Like other foreigners living in England, we Indians tended to herd together. We preferred to live in the same boarding howes; joined Indian clubs and forgathered at Indian religious festivals. By then we also started taking an interest in our freedom move­ ment. To present a united front against the English, we suppressed our 9 Excr:ptioo1 att fouod amona anl1ts-, pbocognpben aod Wl•wing int dlectuals wh o oftec war •w- hrr, nJ-nw or h1'111f with rrowen to work. ft h ooticcal,Jc that tb nc are wu.ally made from flcd;ed or coloured ntbtt than white J,W, pnbaps in a dni.rc 10ddlc:a from the: poutbk a»Oeiuion witb the l-Wklad poliriciaa.

DigitizeP02f>DCc of Indian pub lic fi.g,.ues and oa tM complclDty of tM rclario1>1hip Mw­ lodia 1od ,ht Wen (1tt fia. 10.10). Aod IDdion joumalian haw rcocbtd 1 lewlof..1f-airical wcumcoocerniog tbeir owocuhurcthatis prably c But this makes it DO easier when it '° i.:!.. : ���: = ::��:; Ao �-·=ot fur Vim.al f•brics higb�gbu the problenu: 'No twoprnonocanquit••greeto wbn[odian culturc is. But allagt .. it", unfat bomablyricb." "Vimil has always been rdkcting tM rich...., of[ndw, culnire' By!IIU:ing"ricb,...,'iurd'em,t, lMVimaladveni...,,..,t cnefuUy •void. tryiog 10 defuse wbat !Ddion culture is while n the ume t imeclaiming 1o rdlcctit.Aod it i1 perhaptin1herecogni1ionof tbe oeed formuhifac:et«l interprctationoof lr>diancuhure that tb,problem of what to-arfiod. iurnolutioa.Formony«lucated lndw,,,bt..,, wer liesoo1 in iettling furkW,orfurWnterndrn,,orfur ethoic:cbic,but incombining ill 1hese elemettu;or>d alns.Ott the orberlund ed111icchic,as amodmiroworling ofmd, irional elemenn, appeals to peoplefur iu [Ddiaonn, bu, is aitici,ed for being ao �si"" gbmorisatioaof poverty througbexploitationand ignoranoo.Fewpeople settle for it pemu.ne·ntly, tbougb Li-..leen Sbmna •ppe•u 10 beao excepcioa. Formmt womm, includ.ing1b. bout iquo-owoenofH1u.z Kh11,drn1ing in nhoic: clotbes i, something you do from rime to time, perbap, in the

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Duning for Dininction: A Hisiorical Re,,iew nniafSo rwbta ,.,.. •.,.,,.,1oo1,gumoro,,..,.'"111ft>Cimt:a�. h ia- -tw.c for IWiy war, oiDi%ctl,,_.dnu has•� dL.:t ,nwki,,t;(althoupit aboOCndhi and Kb.di: The Fabric o f lodepcndcnc,' in A. Wcuxr and J . Schneider (eds), u bdow. Bee-Ari, E., B. Moeran and J. Valmrinc (eds), 1990, u...,,.,,,..g]•po•: S«iny o.J 0./n,r, bt A111hrvpologit•f Pmptttiw. Manchester University Press. Bernays, R., 1931, Nolttd Fo/rir, London: Gollanc:z. Beroili Cm,m,miry, Univ.:rsity of Chic:ago Pre)\, -. t98Ja, 'Cloth, Clothn an d Colon ialism', extended un published ve r sio n o( 1989 publ ication below, ck-l ivered u a sy mposiu m at Troutb«.k, New York. -. 1983b. 'R.eprC'Sl:1'ltin g Authority in VKtori an Br itain' in E. Ho bsbJwm and T. R.Jinge r (nl�). The /m'('nt fon ,if TraJi1fon. Camb ridge Univenity Pres s. - , 198?, A,. Anihr,;,p,,k,jisl ""'""� lire · HiJr.,,W11s a,rJ Ohrr Enays, Ot-lhi: Oxford Univer• 1ity Press. -• 1989, 'Clo1h, C lothe1 and Colon ialis m: India i n th e Ni n etrenth Centu ry' in /\. Weiner auJ J. Schn e ider (hiram Manoharbl. -, 1911, Ar, and Su'ddrshi, MJ dras: Ga n�sh. Copland, I .. 1982. The B ritish RIJj anJ tltt JndWn Prinus: Pa rom;,u nlo", M"", 13, pp. 218--33. -, 1980, 'Purdah and Public Space' in A. de Souza (ed.), Wo""" in Con"'"po,.ry India 11,.J &..th Asia, Delhi: Maoohu. -, 1984, 'Dowry in India and iu Consequencn for Women' in R. Hinchon, Womtn artd Pn,J'ff'Y, Womn AJ PTopnty, London: Croom Helm. Sh ore, F.J., 1837, Nom .. /nJian Affoin, v ol. I, London: J. W. ParkCT. Sh ukla, C. (ed.), l94S, Co.J/ti ., W, Kn"" Hi,., Bombay: Vora. - (ed.), 1949, /nridn,u i n ConJl,iji', Lif,, Bomb.y, Vora. Singh, K., 1982, W, /nJi.,u, Ddhi: Orient Papclfflt (fashion catalogue, Bombay) r... r.1, (Ahmedabad) Tltt Tl""' (London) Tuna of J.Jia (Bombay) Wbite,way, Laidlaw lie Co. Ltd., Bombay, catalogue

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D1glt 1zebindran ath, 5S, 58-60, 92 ,11100, IS4, 208, 211-13, 23o-l, 273-4 Tilak, B .G., 11 Thompsoo, C., 4, 160, 164-5 troumau, 168, ISS, 171, 174, 178, 180-2, 184-S, 187, 202-6, 214-16, 218, 230. 234-7, 24S, 247-8 Tyabji, Abbas, 78, 104 Un1oucha!Hli1y, 91-3, l4Q-I, 27S-80 Vog hri, 138, 142, 145-6, 154, 173, 186, 197, 238 v••;,.., 138, 141, 149, 113, 19o-4. 238, 244, 246, 266, 282, 284, ;}33; Jtt olso &,,.{yo veil, 4, 7, 129, 137, 157, IS9, 160-6, 168, 176-7, 182, 188, 193, 311, 286, 316-7; loer, P.. 175-6, 184, 187 We stern dress : adoption of by Indians , 19, 38, 44-S, 46-58, 6 S -9, 102, 128, 1 5 2 3-, 2S1, 256, 261-2, 257-8, 331; 1« olw cardigan conrrovttsy critique of Indians w�aring, 9 -11, 23-4, 4Q-2, 62, 65, 67, 118, 58-61, 251, 256, 2 5 7 -8, 261; '" olso cardigan controversy European depend,nc, on, 36-9, 41 Jndian pt"r«-ptions of, 6-7, 23, 6S-7, 23..5, 29, 42-S; sn also critiql.K' of Indian rejection of, 63, 68, 72, 78, 92, 1 0 1 -2 Wilso n, E., 16-17, 326 Wiser, C.• and W. Wi ser, 7-8

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