File this in the short & interesting category. Mohandas Gandhi’s grandson has recently had to turn down an offer to run Gujarat University because of a dress code violation –
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Rico Suave: The Next Generation |
A grandson of Mohandas Gandhi has turned down a request to head a university established by his grandfather, saying he does not always wear simple cotton clothing as required by the school dress code.Gopal Krishna Gandhi, the governor of West Bengal state, said in a letter to the vice chancellor of Gujarat University that he does not always wear the hand-spun or woven cotton called “khadi” that is mandatory for anyone associated with the institution, the Hindustan Times reported Tuesday…
‘Tis an interesting observation on cultural relativism that while Gandhi’s bare chest and barely-there bottoms would no doubt violate norms at universities across the West, his grandson’s attire is becoming downright fashionable these days…
UPDATE — an interesting error in the original article that some sharp eyed / knowledgeable Mutineers pointed out – Gujarat Vidyapeeth University is the university in question, not Gujarat University.
Gandhi was really able to pull off the “bare chest and barely-there bottoms” look. It doesn’t really work for everyone. I dont’ think it would really work for Mr. Rico Suave.
I thought that look was to boycot british textiles whose production was in effect allowing britain to dominate and subjugate india. Wearing flash clothes now doesnt opress india. I would think, that it would actually be good for india to spend money on stuff like that. I dont really get it.
The khadi shops around India, they make a decent sales, I would think. I would prefer more, if like the US civil war reenactment, Indians should buy Khadi once a year during independence and do a reenactment, just for the kicks.
OT but I remember seeing another Gandhi grandson speak at a commencement ceremony for Seton Hall in NJ a few years ago. All I remember him saying was something about craving Wendy’s. I’m serious…
I cannot believe that the university has a strict dress-code. I think they would do better to swear by the more universal themes among Gandhi’s teachings than be so adamant about the petty details. The khadi movement was in order to promote swadeshi goods in the country, in an attempt to weaken the colonial economy.
Rico here is sporting a dashing bandhgalla Nehru suit, which is definitely sewn in India, while the wool is probably from some little island in the Hebridies — considering that Gov. Gandhi probably likes his clothes, no less would be good for him. So it’s an Indian-manufactured suit from British raw materials. If that isn’t the ultimate in-your-face to the Raj, I don’t know what is.
Sam, anyone in India who can afford it does buy handloomed clothes (khadi) more than once a year. Women almost exclusively wear handloomed cottons in the summer.
I would really like to know what this means! I do not know much about his grandson’s attire other than that shown in the post and mentioned in the linked article (“woolens and handlooms”). It doesn’t look very fashinable to me, not even on University campuses and I spend considerable time in one. As to Gandhi’s attire, it is fashionable neither in the `West’ nor in India. Someone will have to explain to me how this demonstrates cultural relativism as opposed to cultural uniformity. The last sentence is a non-sequitur if ever there was one.
PidU in post #2 made the interesting point that the insistence of the university constitution on Khadi usage amounts to fetishization since it is divorced from the original Gandhian context.
DDiA – agreed. However, I know for a fact that a many uni’s in Gujurat have dress codes. My cousin went to a smaller one in A’bad, don’t know the name, but she was not allowed to wear jeans and t-shirts, she had to wear salwar kameez. Which I think is a fire hazard when working in the lab, but women must always be modest and chaste.
I don’t have a problem with the dress code. I went to a small biz school in NY and we weren’t allowed to wear casual college wear. I respect that. My issue is more with the specific request of ‘fabric’. These days everything is a blend, in fact getting Khadi can be more expensive.
The university would be Gujarat Vidhyapith and not Gujarat University. All faculty, students and anybody else associated with Gujarat Vidhyapith are required to wear clothes made from handspun khadi. The students, faculty and all actually do spin khadi at Vidhyapith – it is part of the curriculum and requirement. The store in Vidhyapith sells the handspun khaddar kurtas and pajamas too.
As for Gujarat University – there is no such strict dresscode per se. Different colleges associated with the University have enforced dresscode (as Jane of Alltrades mentioned).
The university in question is actually “Gujarat Vidyapeeth” and not “Gujarat University”. They are two distinct and unconnected entities, the Gujarat Vidyapeeth being founded in 1920 and Gujarat University in 1949 in different parts of Ahmedabad. Apparently, some translator got vidyapeeth and vishwavidyalaya mixed up. The Vidyapeeth indeed does stand out with the dress code and an unconventional curricula, but the Gujarat University is like any other university in India. I hope you do point out the error in your post.
Links: Gujarat University Gujarat Vidyapeeth
Cotton?? Psssh…please. That was sooooo 1830s to 1995. I need some nice polyester blend that will make me stink in the mid-day sun, just to show them whose boss.
P.S. My grandpa didn’t stand for simplicity. He was a fashion visionary and I’m just keeping it real, like him. Check out these glasses son. Now excuse me, I have a supermodel gig in Paris I need to attend.
I wear my sequined khadi komanam, Ray-ban “cooling glasses”, combat boots and nothing else. This is the look for young hip S. Indian Gandhians these days and is acceptable dress at the MGR Institute of Mycology
I think dress code is a good idea.. clothing issues shouldn’t get in the way of the learning..
Isn’t that just what happened…because of the dress code?
It seems Vinod has some sort of agenda with respect to Gandhi. Hmmm, I wonder it is. Earlier a post to the effect that Gandhi was no maha atma as he appeased the Nazis and now, out of no where, this.
One might say that a failure to critically examine Gandhi’s legacy and sartorial sense also suggests an agenda
One might say that a failure to critically examine Gandhi’s legacy and sartorial sense also suggests an agenda
Commenting on Gandhi’s grandson’s choice of clothes is critically examining Gandhi’s legacy and sartorial sense?
I read a book on ghandi once.. It was a big book too.. It had a lot about his mistakes and how we was often of unpredictable nature..
One of my cousins tells me that splitting India and Pakistan was ghandi’s biggest mistake..
But some other desi dude I used to drink with tells me that it was Nehru’s mistake and he wanted a nobel peace prize..
Sadaiyappan (19 and 20):
“Ghandi” is what I call the girl I’m dating. It means “dirty” in Hindi.
Gandhi was a leader in the Indian Independence movement. And he was deeply anti-Partition.
Or is this some kind of joke that I’m just too obtuse to get?
This is a critical examination of a legacy? Also, no blog site can truly do that; unless someone researches all the information takes the time to prove what they want then posts their findings — and it still wouldn’t be a blog site. Just someone posting their book on the internet.
No one has mentioned the actual material. I’ve worn hemp and khadi, and khadi is much stronger and more durable than hemp. Just something I noticed. back to Gandhi… the man was an enigma and full of contradictions. Read his autobiography. There has been a drive to revive Gandhi’s legacy in the last couple of years in India. But I guess the question remains “what is his legacy?” There are many in India who do not hold him in the same regard as almost every Euro-Christian does (Gandhi always though Western civilization would be a good idea
Here’s a critical assessment of Gandhian non-violence that, I think, remains fair to his immense contribution to the anticolonial struggle.
Khadi, the fabric (usually cotton, sometimes silk, that has been handspun and handwoven) holds a very strong emotional appeal for people in India – tied in with the iconic status it acquired during the struggle for Independence is also the knowledge that the spinners and weavers who create the cloth are most likely poor people living in villages , people who benefit when we (i speak for some/many urban middle-class people) buy and wear Khadi. That said , the insistence of the Vidyapeeth on the use of Khadi fabric to the exclusion of all other fabrics – which are just as Indian , just as likely to pay the wages of a poor person – is maddeningly archaic .
As a card-carrying lover of conspiracy theories , I cannot really see the point of bringing Gandhi’s preferred dress (or , as Vinod seems to feel – undress) into this post – how is it related to what his grandson chooses to wear/not wear ? And how is it related to the dress-code imposed by the Vidyapeeth ? The strictures , medieval as they seem , apply to the fabric being used , not the garment itself . I am with Quant-trotsky here – the last sentence makes no sense at all , and seems to be just a gratuitous bit of Gandhi-bashing . Wake up and smell the agenda .
AP just reported another gandhi grandson passed: Ramchandra Gandhi.
I think the dress code is not a bad idea,but it must not get into the learning stream.whereas to teach and discuss about his preachings and his way of life we can dedicate a separate hour once a week or thrice a month where we can insist the interested to follow the dresscode of MAHATHMA with a dhoti on top and a Loincloth underneath it.