Where Have All the Saris Gone?
A hundred years ago everyone in India wore local dress. In the North men still wore kurta pajamas and in the South there were dotis a-pleanty. Now it's all trousers and button down shirts. Traditional clothes began to dissappear when the British arrived on their "civilizing mission", and though not complete, I have a feeling that within a generation almost no one wil wear traditional clothing.
A couple days ago I read an article in the Deccan Chronicle that for "world ethnic day" women at Anna College donned saris in school. Photographers swarmed the place for a rare glimpse of a well-educated young woman in a sari. For the most part women in Chennai wear trendy salwar suits with flowing scarves or, now more frequently, tanktops and blue jeans. People here seem to think that saris, while becoming, are indicative of a traditional way of thinking that is now quite unfashionable. They're linked to arranged marriage, staying home, obeying husbands, and spending one's life brewing tea for unceasing streams of guests. Most women I meet these days want to avoid those things like the plague.
Western clothing means modern womanhood. Tanktops mean freedom.
I am completely supportive of people dressing the way they want to, but it is somewhat sad that most women I meet will only wear saris on their wedding days or formal occasions when they want to prove that they are indeed Indian.
posted by Scott Carney @ 9:27 AM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Saris are going out of fashion also because more women work outside the home now and they don't have a lot of time for domestic tasks. Washing and ironing a sari and all its accessories takes time and sometimes requires two pairs of hands. In contrast, salwar-kameez and western clothes are much easier to load into a washing machine and a lot easier to iron.
I fully agree with your sentiments.
You didn't consider, however, that tanktops worn by women are basically meant to attract men by displaying a woman's "assets". :)
Chastity is a cornerstone of Hinduism. Women should be seen as mothers - "Amma" there in South India - ("Maa" in Bengal, "Mataji" in North India) - not as "cows wandering in the streets" for bulls to enjoy!
Therefore - you'll observe that in Tamil Nadu ALL WOMEN - even small girls - are addressed as "Amma".
If the Hindu concept of family life and motherhood is destroyed by the rampant materialism of the present day, then India will experience what is happening in the USA: 50% of the families are "broken" - totally fragmented, with family members scattered and having minimal relations with each other.
The result is that people will suffer psychologically. They will not be happy.
Hindu culture is full of joyous celebrations and family and religious festivals. The illusion is that it's destruction will lead to "progress". It's too bad that society is being so mislead by these falicies!
Although I have noticed that saris are no longer de rigeur, I don't know that their absence is so conspicuous. I find, rather, that although most men have fully adopted "Western" clothing, women seem to be finding ways to blend tradition with modernity.
I'm an American expat working for a consulting firm in Delhi, and though the men in the office wouldn't be caught dead in a lungi or kurta pyjama, many of my female colleagues don their saris on a regular basis. Wearing the sari always seems to attract attention -- I suppose it's no longer the everyday phenomenon it once was, but to me it seems that women are trying to find ways to keep them contemporary.
I lived for about six months in a small town in Kerala, and saris there were ubiquitous -- only the very young were excepted from wearing saris. I was even cajoled into a shocking pink number once, entirely against my will. Interesting to observe the trends -- rural/urban divide? North/south divide?
It's true, I guess that I was a little heavy handed in the post. Saris are still being worn in a lot of areas, but I think they are dying out in a certain segment of the populaiton. Particularly the young middle to upper class people. The thing is that these trends have a tendency to permeate the society, and I won't be surprised if in a couple decades Saris are used only for formal events in the city, and ordnarialy looked at as the "backward" clothing of rural women.
Basughoshdas - "If the Hindu concept of family life and motherhood is destroyed by the rampant materialism of the present day, then India will experience what is happening in the USA: 50% of the families are "broken" - totally fragmented, with family members scattered and having minimal relations with each other."
Here we go again, pretending that everything is perfect in India and everything is wrong in the west. There is plenty wrong in the indian society too, without the influence of the west. Families were 'unbroken' in the past only because women put up with nonsense for the sake of family honour. Apologies if I come across rude, but just wanted to point out that not all western families are fragmented and nor are all Indian families the perfect families either. And as to all Hindu/Indian women being worshipped as Amma, then that should mean there is no abuse in India right?
I agree with @WA that we cannot generalize about the families in a country as a whole. May be great Indian ancient men had noble thoughts and started the beliefs about the view towards the Women as goddess, amma but I rarely see these views are upheld by the current Indian youth.
Most of the times these are just mentioned over a speech or writing or on board than in practice.
Greets to the webmaster of this wonderful site! Keep up the good work. Thanks.
»
There's also a big leap from sari to tanktop. Many women I knew in Bangalore, where I lived and worked this summer, wore salwar khameezes part of the time and western clothing part of the time. Women who had untraditional viewpoints, female activists and artists, intellectuals... all were people I knew who wore more traditional clothing (sometimes sarees, sometimes salwars). And this was within high-tech Bangalore, even within high-tech companies.
I also wonder about the class distinctions on this. I'd love more information. Lower class women I met in Bangalore's largest slum wore sarees, but I wonder whether it's a more inexpensive way to dress. On the other hand, modest, middle-class housewives of high castes wore sarees as well.
I guess I don't quite parse this the way you did. Though my close friends didn't wear sarees to work, they did often wear a more traditional salwar. Others intermixed salwars with western clothing.
Very few of my friends were in tank tops...
Post a Comment
<< Home