A few months ago, Shashi Tharoor wrote an essay which contained a “casual observation” about how less and less women in India were wearing saris. Upon hearing about his thoughts, desi women all over the world gifted Shashi with a new orifice, via email, blog, essay, and voodoo doll. A few women, my curmudgeonly mother included, agreed with Tharoor’s lament; like him, they were saddened by the ascent of the Salwar Kameez.
[I do think that Malayalees who are my Mom’s/Shashi’s age are extra vexed by how the sartorial times, they are a-changin’, since they so strongly identify saris as part of the Mallu identity, but more on that later. Or not.]
Tharoor wrote a follow-up piece recently, which I discovered via the news tab. I’ve excerpted the yummier parts for your digestion.
On how graceful and pretty saris are:
For centuries, if not millennia, the alluring garment, all five or six or nine yards of it, has been the defining drape of Indian womanhood. Cotton or silk, Banarasi or Pochampalli, shimmering Kanjeevaram or multi-coloured bandhani, with the pallav draped front-to-back over the left shoulder or in the Gujarati style back-to-front over the right, the sari has stood the test of time, climate and body shape.
Of all the garments yet invented by man (or, not to be too sexist about it, mankind) the sari did most to flatter the wearer. Unlike every other female dress on the planet, the sari could be worn with elegance by women of any age, size or shape: you could never be too fat, too short or too ungainly to look good in a sari. Indeed, if you were stout, or bowlegged, or thick-waisted, nothing concealed those handicaps of nature better than the sari. Women looked good in a sari who could never have got away with appearing in public in a skirt.
Tharoor is less caustic and more rational than my elderly Aunts are, about how much the North is to blame:
So why has this masterpiece of feminine attire begun fading from our streets? On recent visits home to India I have begun to notice fewer and fewer saris in our public places, and practically none in the workplace. The salwar kameez, the trouser and even the Western dress-suit have begun to supplant it everywhere. And this is not just a northern phenomenon, the result of the increasing dominance of our culture by Punjabi-ised folk who think nothing of giving masculine names to their daughters.
At a recent Press conference I addressed in Trivandrum, there were perhaps a dozen women journalists present. Only one was wearing a sari: the rest, all Keralites without exception, were in salwar-kameezes. And when I was crass enough to ask why none of the “young ladies†present wore saris, the one who did modestly suggested that she was no longer very young.
Actually, it’s the youths! And the feminists!
Youth clearly has something to do with it; very few of today’s under-30 women seem to have the patience for draping a sari, and few of them seem to think it suitable for the speed with which they scurry through their lives. (“Try rushing to catch a bus in a sari,†one young lady pointedly remarked, “and you’ll switch to jeans the next day.â€)
But there’s also something less utilitarian about their rejection of the sari for daily wear. Today’s younger generation of Indian women seem to associate the garment with an earlier era, a more traditional time when women did not compete on equal terms in a man’s world. Putting on pants, or a Western woman’s suit, or even desi leggings in the former of a salwar, strikes them as more modern.
Freeing their legs to move more briskly than the sari permits is, it seems, a form of liberation; it removes a self-imposed handicap, releasing the wearer from all the cultural assumptions associated with the traditional attire.
I’ve noticed this about brown people, too. We are the last ones to keep it old skool in our “costumes” (Blech. I hate that word. As if I’d wear Kanjeevaram on October 31. Meh.):
I think this is actually a great pity. One of the remarkable aspects of Indian modernity has always been its unwillingness to disown the past; from our nationalists and reformers onwards, we have always asserted that Indians can be modern in ancient garb. Political ideas derived from nineteenth and twentieth-century thinkers have been articulated by men in mundus and dhotis that have not essentially changed since they were first worn two or three thousand years ago. (Statuary from the days of the Indus Valley Civilisation more than four thousand years ago show men draped in waistcloths that Mr Karunanidhi would still be happy to don.)
Gandhiji demonstrated that one did not have to put on a Western suit to challenge the British empire; when criticised by the British Press for calling upon the King in his simple loincloth, the Mahatma mildly observed, “His Majesty was wearing enough clothes for the two of usâ€. Where a Kemal Ataturk in Turkey banned his menfolk’s traditional fez as a symbol of backwardness and insisted that his compatriots don Western hats, India’s nationalist leaders not only retained their customary headgear, they added the defiantly desi “Gandhi cap†(oddly named, since Gandhiji himself never wore one). Our clothing has always been part of our sense of authenticity.
I REMEMBER being struck, on my first visit to Japan some fifteen years ago, by the ubiquitousness of Western clothing in that Asian country. Every Japanese man and woman in the street, on the subway or in the offices I visited wore suits and skirts and dresses; the kimono and its male equivalent were preserved at home, and brought out only for ceremonial occasions…
What will happen once the generation of women who grew up routinely wearing a sari every day dies out? The warning signs are all around us now. It would be sad indeed if, like the Japanese kimono, the sari becomes a rare and exotic garment in its own land, worn only to temples and weddings.
Find the rest of his essay here. Thoughts?
::
Anyone who makes my heart swell by calling me a term of endearment I haven’t heard in over two decades gets what they want. 🙂 Wish everyone were this easy to please.
Click to enlarge.
I’ve read many of the comments below, which celebrate the beauty of wearing a sari “Gujurati-ishtyle”. While I have done that (with this very sari even!), I must gently demur– wearing one’s pallu the “boring” way ain’t so bad, I promise. 😉
And yes, all my blouses are that conservative. Not a word, brown fashionistas. Not. a. word.
I really wish Tharoor had gone on to something even more irrelevant than writing about American lack of appreciation for cricket, and obituaries for the sari. Like becoming the head of the UN. Maybe he’d spare us his drivel then.
WTF is he talking about? Try being under 5’4 (what a stretch for Indian women, I know…) and tell me that it doesn’t create bulk around your midsection when you tuck it into the petticoat. Never too thick-waisted? Have you ever SEEN an auntie with rolls spilling out everywhere? Yeah very elegant indeed…
Having said all that, like every other female garment ever invented, if you have a hot body, yes, it will drape perfectly and flatter you the way it’s supposed to.
Though i wonder why Tharoor never commented about the slow disappearance of lungis, veshtis and dhoti-kurtas from the desi sartorial scene!
When I read that article, I was also like WTF, it shows off the mid-riff and if you happen to have extra around the waist, it will show it. I personally just don’t think its practical to wear it everyday. I don’t think there is any feminist conspiracy behind the decline of the sari, its just practicality that has stepped in. Like that woman said, try catching a bus in a sari…
Is that called the idli top?
i feel sorry for the sari, but more so for suri.
The cognitive dissonance in this posed photo of his on the website for the essay, is so thick, you could wrap it around yourself and have enough left over to tuck it in.
As opposed to the ubiquitous muffin top plaguing college campuses and malls near you.
Thanks for making me laugh out loud!
People are critical of Tharoor’s piece for many reasons, some probably valid, but at the end of the day, he makes a simple, objective point…the sari is fading away, at least among the middle and upper classes. This is part of a general trend in India of many ‘traditional’ phenomena fading away. In a way, the fading away of the Sikh turban is part of the same trend. Our dying languages (again, for now mostly in the middle and upper classes) are part of the same trend. These things are not happening in isolation, and these things should be noticed and commented upon, even if the outcome is still (perhaps) inevitable.
well, why did the latinized elites eventually switch to trousers from their customary togas? part of it was barbarian conquest and elite emulation, but the toga was not the most practical (it does get cold even in italy) piece of dress. i think saris look nice, but my mom only wears it for “special” occasions now. was different when she was younger. times change. the “business suit” is a puritan derived piece of dress, but its success over the elegant gaudiness of “cavalier” wear probably has to do with its relative simplicity. of course, if tharoor has such a hard on for saris, he should wear them himself 😉
By the way…the sari model….HOT.
Sorry but I disagree with Mr. Tharoor. Firstly a man shouldn’t be telling a woman the values of wearing a sari and then put her down for choosing not to. Unless you have to live your life wearing one it’s ridiculous to have an opinion on it other than it’s pleasing to your eye perhaps.
And I think it’s always been a politically correct and forced notion that a sari makes everyone look good. NOT. Some people really just don’t look good in it or know how to wear it. And why do people consider the sari a national thing? Different regions of India don’t wear saris, it’s perfectly OK to accept that. The feminist conspiracy is irritating at best. My mother for a lack of any other word had no options but to wear a sari thru all of med school and residency and completely respects why I shy away from it.
I personally find it cumbersome, find nothing comfortable about showing flases of my midriff and while I find them occassionally gorgeous find a lot of comfort and femininity in outfits that cover me more with far lesser fabric. The way I see it, I’ll have plenty of opportunities when I get old to wear it, when other outfits I can wear now will be unflattering and inappropriate. Spare me the lecture why I should wear it now.
You’re welcome, bess. Don’t eat the poppy seed idli at your neighboring Udipi restaurant, though.
Amitabh, as I read the essay, I was reminded of you 🙂 Rage, rage against the dying of the light, my friend!
He really is taking the UN loss to heart.
I gotta agree with Zen @ #2. The first time I went to India, I was surprised (and kinda disgusted) by old aunties’ who had the flab around their waists/stomach hanging out of their saris. And whats with the author being so anti-Punjabi/Northern Indian (the masculine name part has nothing to do with this)?
The sari doesn’t have that problem. This could be the new status symbol.
(
Yeah that was totally stupid.
JOAT, I agree. It reminded me of how my father always comments on how Indian women look best in Saris in a room full of women wearing “Punjabi dresses” or pants. Of course he also says other brilliant things like, “Ever notice how air hostesses aren’t as pretty as they used to be?”
amitabh, the model is dipannita sharma.
i have so much to say on this issue, because it is one with which i have, well, issues. but for now, i say to zen – that’s only if the pallu/aanchal is draped to show a large surface area of stomach (rolls). there is a very elegant way of draping, which does not involve pleating the pallu at the shoulder, and this is, possibly the draping style to which tharoor is referring (as shown on the model above). for body flaws, this works best, i think, and often looks a lot better than even those styles which hotter figures can support.
I don’t care whether woman is short or tall, slim or round, black or white or brown or yellow, or orange or green or any color for that matter. Good old Sari will make her look best – if properly worn – period. I agree with Sashi. You know what? Somehow though, I feel that it will survive – say – my be another 5000 years. A man can dream …can’t he?
maybe tharoor should see this
Anyone who tells others how to live their personal life (dress, food etc) is a mullah at heart.
M. Nam
By the way…the sari model….HOT.
d00d, chill on the sexism. we’re trying to keep this a “safe place.”
I’m feeling sorry for the English language.
An interesting aspect is how south Asians have held on to their women’s clothing tradition longer than that of the males (as mentioned in Anna’s blog and other comments). I used to attribute it to the fact that it was exclusively the male population that worked directly for the Brits – hence the early conversion of male attire. I remember umpteen old pictures of grandparents with the male in a 3 piece suit and the female in her grand Kanchipuram.
But I wonder why the same did not happen in Africa. Any takers?
Places like Eastern Europe, Japan, China etc. seem to have had a more gender neutral change to adopt western attire.
Interesting post. And I agree that Tharoor has gone off the deep end, gone bye bye..etc.
sorry to be an asinine pedant, but it should be fewer and fewer women in India were wearing saris
The cognitive dissonance in this posed photo of his on the website for the essay, is so thick, you could wrap it around yourself and have enough left over to tuck it in.
Love this comment! Hasn’t anyone made Tharoor’s own hypocrisy clear to him?! I can understand his lament of the falling away of an often-elegant example of tradition, but he should lay off this topic until he makes a personal effort to start bringing lunghi back.
LOL Well I suppose even the dreaded idli top trumps the ubiquitous Shalwar Khameez/sneakers/cardigan combo.
Dude, if you can’t comment on a model’s looks, then things have gone too far.
But I wonder why the same did not happen in Africa. Any takers?
SariMaker, to what exactly are you referring above? In most parts of West Africa, one gets a sense of the same thing happening — one is likely to see many more women than men in urban areas wearing traditional clothing.
Dude, if you can’t comment on a model’s looks, then things have gone too far.
Models are maa-bahen to somebody. Nobody wants their maa-bahen to be objectified.
Don’t be hatin, please … but I, for one, think Indian women look gorgeous in saris. Granted, I’m not a woman and I don’t have to deal with wearing one and all those issues and complaints and what not. But I think they do flatter women, and there’s something about a woman wrapped up in yards of fabric that makes me feel a little crazy. And I’m not talking about models. There are so many beautiful Indian women out there.
Aunties with idli tops and dosa arms are another story, though. They are welcome to move on from the sari.
I bow to your encyclopedic knowledge and quick recall of models.
Rep–ra–zent. I hear it was the discarded title for a recent Justin Timberlake song.
Just a quick question, does anyone else like the lengha/ghagra more than the salwaar kameez or the sari, or both? Even though I think lenghas are more attractive, the definently aren’t for everyday wear.
Kusala – thanks for the clarification. I have not been to Africa and was making an assumption based on the folks I see in the US. When I see an elderly African couple, seemingly on a visit, both the male and female are in either Western attire or African attire – very unlike their Indian counterparts. Hence the question.
With Timbaland at his side, anything’s possible.
“Dude, if you can’t comment on a model’s looks, then things have gone too far.”
SERIOUSLY! I mean, she IS gorgeous, but so is Anna’s sexy smile. Even JOAT’s demure So, now SM monitors pseudo-sexist remarks?
The sari was suitable for the advanced, urban and sedentary Dravido-Lemurian civilization. Salwar kameez was developed for Scythian marauding where a gal had to be on horseback and ready for battle within 1 minute
I’m pretty sure the lungi is Arab in origin and did not become popular as a more convenient alternative to the veshtee until about 100 years ago
I don’t think the male equivalent of the sari is the lungi but rather the dhoti plus angavastram or dhoti plus kurta plus angavastram – of course, when it supplements a kurta, it is no longer strictly an angavastram, but minor point.
Yeah, so let’s not lose them either. I think I might have seen Tharoor at a book signing wearing something similar.
The sari model is hot, she also used to date AB jr.
I am a woman who wears a host of different garments (and wouldn’t want to be sartorially instructed by a man, particularly not a Stephanian with THAT accent). But I actually agree with Shashi T’s main complaint — saris express an astonishing range of handicraft idioms and I find it a shame that those intricate vocabularies in weaving and dyeing and printing, so locally particular and delicately elaborated, seem destined to die out. And to be replaced by what: the mass-produced apparel of globalization, machine-made in some Chinese sweatshop?
There are hundreds of thousands of artisans in India who not only make their livelihoods from creating saris but are devoted to it a craft and an art form: it’s beyond sad that they receive less and less support from the state and the market. What needs to happen is a real renaissance of our handicrafts traditions, with funds going directly to the artisans, no middlemen — these are markets that need to be fostered. (Also, it’s not entirely true that saris aren’t comfortable and functional, though I can see that they’re less than attractive in the United States, being somewhat incongruous with snow boots).
Anyway, it seems incomplete to see this as being simply about consumer choice, rather than recognizing the complicated caste and class politics involved when we’re talking about handicraft traditions.
Aww..how timely! I had brunch with some girlfriends yesterday and one of them had commented about watching “Indian Idol” the other day and being struck by the disconnect she picked up on between the singers beautiful voices and their plain, rather dated western clothing choices. She said that the classical raga singer would have appealed to her ten times more had she worn a classic, tasteful sari instead of the 1980’s-inspired baggy jeans/plaid shirt ensemble she was sportin’.
Personally, I agree with the camp that argues against the overall practicality and comfort of sari’s. Anyone who’s had to wear one for a a wedding will attest to the automatic sigh of relief that comes with unfurling yourself of the confining yards of fabric and unhooking the skin-tight blouse. The best feeling in the world is slipping into a pair of PJs after being confined in a sari all day!
That being said though, I have yet to find a dress, suit, or outfit that makes me feel as brazenly strong and sexy as a sari does. It’s the way in which it drapes on you, the way it swishes when you walk, how you can tuck it just right and accentuate your personal curves, and how you can take the chedo and wrap it around you shawl-like in a cocoon. Couple that with a pair of sexy heels and I dare you not to walk and stut a little taller. And it’s amazing how the colors of a sari can make you feel different as well–vibrant pastels make me feel youthful and light, dramatic reds and blues set a more elegant, romantic tone, and absolutely nothing compares to the smooth sexiness a simple black sari with just a hint of jarri conveys. sighs
So what’s my verdict on the sari? I don’t think it will ever go out of style when it comes to formal events, but I agree that it’s absolutely not practical for everyday use. And personally I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing–wearing a sari on special occassions just makes it that much more special. =)
Rahul, Re: cognitive disonance. If you brave your way through the essay, you will find this. “POINT conceded, but I should hasten to add that this is not a result of my own preference, but of the norms of international officialdom. Early in my UN career I turned up at work in an elegant cream kurta, only to have my Danish boss ask disparagingly, “who do you think you are — a surgeon?â€
Tharoor’s argument, and the essay itself, are ridiculous. Not only for his rude anti-Punjabi bias (I can’t say anti-northern since the sari is widely worn in Bengal, also), but because he puts the entire onus of what he defines as “traditional” attire on women. Desi men opted for suits and ties a long time ago; don’t be surprised if the desi woman on the go who is also rising quickly through the ranks opts for something a bit more utilitarian. He assumes that his boss would be more permissive of a dept. secretary wearing a sari vs. his man-kurta — how does he know? Have we had a dept. secretary who was female and opted for such clothing? He makes much ado about nothing and manages to offend nearly the world over with each column he writes.
Sameera, the lengha is totally unsuitable for everyday wear, particularly in those hot summer months. The khagra is even more hot and unbearable — it’s definitely a winter outfit. I think they’re both cute, but there are also so many different salwar-kameez styles that you can get by looking cute (and with enough freedom of movement) most of the time.
Considering Mr Gandhi has been mentioned twice in the excerpts, I wonder why the man who refused to use too much cloth to cover himself while so many of his countrymen did not have clothes never made a campaign for a societal change from Saris to something less cloth excessive (aka 9 yards and beyond) like the Salwaar Kameez.
As for Mr Tharoors concerns of the Sari fading away, crazier more inconvenient fashions have made reappearances and so even if we write tomes about the inconvenience of wearing a sari (which those who wear regularly will vehemently disagree with), it is too strongly entrenched in Indian culture to disappear. This is just a low period of it’s popularity and it will be back with a bang given a decade or few.
So true. Even among my cousins (i.e. the younger generation of Punjabis), the sari is a mainstay for formal attire. My great aunts still wear the sari nearly every day. No one in Punjab is complaining about the “South-ification” or “Bangla’ification” of our formal wear attire. PFFFT to Shashi Tharoor!
I won’t go too far into my reply…But YES! You can be too fat for a sari. Not all women look good in a sari. The slimmer you are the better. Now, the sari does help and flatter more women compared with other types of clothes. It really is great. I love seeing women wearing them and think they are absolutely stunning in a sari. Much better than some dress. Far how practical it is to wear one on a daily basis, I do not know. But I don’t think women don’t want to wear one because of some “old era†look. I just think when you have a million things to get done before leaving for work in the morning; it’s much easier to slip on a pair of jeans. And YES it is hard to run in a sari. Well those are my 2 cents. I think I have bored you enough..Enjoy your day!
The salwar kameez looks so suffocating on women. The whole thin legging portion looks awkward. Not to mention that little towel like thing they drape over their necks. Saris look elegant. If you are after praticality, just go for regular western wear. Salwar Kameez just looks like an ugly compromise.
Also, my advice to Indian women – look like the model in the picture and no one will give a shit what you wear or don’t wear.
Me thinks, he is now grooming himself for an Indian Presidency at some point. Just like Ms. Rai–when she is too old and too rich and too bored to sell diamonds and dreams–will aim for the Prime Ministership.
Unlike Abhi of SM, I will never be out of work as long as I stick to being a conspiracy theorist.