Dressing Indian Women : Clothing and Fashion in the Early Twentieth Century.
Clothes veil the body. They are part of a cultural politics
by which nations are actively produced.[1] They are a
form of social control, a mechanism of inclusion and exclusion, mirroring
social hierarchies and moral boundaries.[2]
British imperial presence in India had introduced not only
new forms of government, language, education and social etiquette, but also a
new set of criteria of civilisation with a new set of clothes to go with it. It
was only in the early Twentienth Century India that the nationalist movement
begun to perceive cloth and clothing as central symbols in the struggle to
define a national identity. Women, as such, emerged as important bearers of
this identity.
While the dress of British women who came to live in India
were conformed to sartorial conventions of a memsahib, draped clothes (Sari, in this case) were of prime
importance in the Indian nationalist discourse. However, many women from elite
families began adopting the stitched blouse and petticoat as essential
accoutrements with the Sari, as a marker of emancipation and progress. These
new variations in the traditional attire and way of draping the Sari were seen
to be free from the somewhat restrictive aspects of regional traditions,
thereby asserting the image of a modern, urban and educated, Indian woman.
It were these women, perceived as fashionable, who were
singled out for attention and critique. They were often caricatured as
irresponsible, destructive of the home, morally suspect and associated with
female liberty, and unbridled sexuality, unsuitable to the Indian Culture.
Thus, through this paper, I seek to analyse the various
facets of the sartorial choices of these modern
Indian women, their contestations and with the western influence and
attempts at a modernised accomodation within the Indian culture, through their
representations in the print media.
Hind ke log gire dekh unhein munh ke
bal.
Nariyan laaj se ghunghat na jo
uthati hain.
Pahan ke in ko saaf nangi nazar aati
hain.
Doob maro tumhein laaj na aati,
Paisa aur izzat ganva aati.[3]
(Foreign saris of muslin and crepe,
Make the Indian men gape.
Women, who never lifted their veil,
Wear these saris and appear naked.
Drown yourself, you shameless goner,
You lose both your money and honour).[4]
This Swadeshi Poem penned in 1931 perfectly signifies how
strongly did the Fashion Choices of the modern, early 20th Century
Indian women came to be scrutinised in this period.
In the early years of the 20th Century, when the
nationalist movement began to gain momentum, the nationalists desperately
attempted to idolise tradition in order to represent India’s cultural and
spiritual richness.[5]
Scholar Partha
Chatterjee in his essay, “The Nation
and its Women” explores a similar idea and argues that the nationalist
discourse of the time was upheld and consolidated through an outer/inner
dichotomy, which was utilised to promote India’s superior, spiritual culture
that resided in the ‘home’ of the
nation. He goes on to explore how these two spheres (the world and the home)
are powerfully gendered where the world
represents the masculine, material, and bureaucratic affairs of business,
trade, and state, the home, is a
sphere that encompasses the spiritual, the untouched, authentic, inner core of
the nation.
By locating this reconstituted world of ‘Indianness’ within
the home, the nationalist discourse
further proclaimed its keepers – the women, as repositories of tradition. The
search for an ideal Indian Costume for women, that would supremely represent
India’s Cultural Superiority, was thus, ongoing. Clothing and Fashion were now
inscribed with new meanings and became a key visual symbol of the freedom
struggle against British rule.
The adaptation of swadeshi by M K Gandhi imparted new
meanings to practices of clothing. Khadi became a critical marker of
swadeshi and national identity, so much so that Susan Bean refers to khadi as the “fabric of Indian independence”. Loyalty to one’s ascribed culture
was to be maintained in styles of dress, but the burden of such loyalty fell
largely on women. Men
were often exempted from sharp mockery due to the supposed necessity of wearing
western dress at the work place.[6]
In the 1920s, responding to Gandhi’s call, a number of
nationalist women entered the public arena, though in a restricted sense, and
lent their support to the khadi campaign, taking vows of swadeshi.[7]
The immensely popular women’s journal Grihalakshmi wrote,
Jeeyen to swadeshi badan par basan
ho,
Maren agar to swadeshi kafan ho.
(While
we live our apparel be of swadeshi, when we die our shroud be of swadeshi.)[8]
Therefore, in this discourse, a lot of the emphasis was on
khadi, austerity, renunciation of expensive and foreign cloth and resistance to
western styles.[9] The Sari, as such, emerged
as a symbol of India’s cultural ethos and feminine beauty. From the early part
of the 20th century, it was employed to create the persona of a ‘proper’ Indian
woman and percieved as truly ‘traditional’ in a rapidly modernizing India, even
though, as an article in The Times of
India, acknowledged, it was worn in different manners in different regions
of India.[10]
.
However, the Victorian morality of Christian missionaries
and social reformers that saw upper-body nudity as indecent and seductive
gradually paved way for Indian women to cover their breasts with ‘blouses’
which were earlier simply enwrapped in the sari.
By the first half of the 20th century, the three-piece
ensemble of sari, petticoat and blouse had become the norm for the educated
urban woman representing an increasingly progressive outlook while still
emphasizing the sartorial elements representative of ‘Indianness.’ Some of
these elite women acquired their sartorial inspiration from the English memsahib’s tailored outfit. They
modelled their sari blouses with pleats, ruffles, fancy sleeves, elaborate
necklines and corsets, complemented by accessories such as heeled footwear and
lavish hairdos.[11]
In contrast, swadeshi clothing was geared at khadi,
representing asceticism and utilitarian fashion that ensured controlled
domestic expenses. Away from ornamentation and ostentatious display, swadeshi
attire was based on simplicity. Thus, the sartorial choices of these elite,
educated women, came under special scrutiny and were vigorously written about
in the vernacular newspapers and magazines. A cartoon in the Cartoon Booklet (1938), published from
Allahabad, was directed explicitly at these women.
Titled
“Avoid Wasteful Expenditure”, on the
one hand, it illustrated a simple woman who used indigenous items like
handwoven sari, open-heeled sandals, coconut oil, and twig of neem to clean
teeth. Her monthly expenditure was shown as Rs 7.70. On the other hand, the “Lady’s” or “Memsahib’s” monthly expenditure on sari, blouse, petticoat, wristwatch,
handbag with make-up case, scent, gloves, hairspray and haircut was a whooping
Rs 120.80, signifying a 15-fold increase. The cartoon rhetorically asked: Who is happy?
Another of the caricatures publsihed in the magazine Kamla (1932), published in
Banaras, represented an Indian woman
falling off from the high pedestal of Indian tradition/culture in attempt to
catch fashion :
In Southern India, such worries were reflected in regular
columns on fashion such as the suggestions of Sister Susie in Indian
Ladies Magazine (ILM), a leading magazine circulated mostly in Madras :
“When however, we, Indian women,
begin to study the fashions of
the western world and try to imitate
them in detail, then I think
it will be time for us to hang our
heads in shame. Why should we
imitate what is western? When
Western fashions do not
sometimes suit Western people, how
can they suit us?”[12]
She further implied that there was no need for the saris to
be too tightly twisted or folded around the body. According to her, this way of
wearing sari was ‘Un-Indian and exotic.’
As a matter of fact,
Hindustani Shishtachar, a manual on Indian manners and etiquette, went so
far as to argue that wearing Indian clothes was a national duty, as it was a
sign of pride to show independence even in a state of dependency. And women
were its main exemplifiers.[13]
A similar opinion was reflected in one editorial in the
journal Chand which pointed out that
girls who came out of schools learned only two things, fashion and English culture. Indian dressing was being moulded
according to western concepts, and according to the journal, fashion was akin
to adultery (vyabhichar). These women
were caricatured as immoral, uncaring and spendthrift. In a cartoon published
in Chand, the caption said:
‘Ardh
Sikshita Madam’, devi ji rat ko Mr. Champat Rai ke saath theatre
dekhne
gayi thi, is samay shrimati ji couch par shayan kar rahi hain aur
bechare
pati devta bibi sahibha ki agyaanusar “gulabi Jutiyon” par paolish
kar
rahen hain aur man hi man kah rahe hain jo meri is halat ko dekh kar
hanse
parmatma kare who bhi is halat mein fasein…’
(Half educated madam went to theatre
with Mr.Champat Rai last night and is resting on the couch. The poor husband is
polishing his wife’s pink sandals as per her orders and is cursing his
destiny).
Not only magazines, images of the home in calendar art
also offered women a life of leisure, with ample hours for relaxation. Often
designed to ornament calendars issued by businesses to customers and friends,
such images also circulated independently as posters suitable for framing.
Printed in bright colors at low cost, ‘calendar art’ circulated widely in
mid-twentieth century India, gracing the walls of homes and offices alike,
across the middle classes. As such, this
popular art form brought an idealized vision of the modern home.
In image after image, women appear talking on the phone
(Fig. 3), socializing over tea (Fig. 4), listening to the radio (Fig. 5),
gazing at their own reflection in the mirror (Fig.6), putting on makeup
(Fig.7), or simply sitting still (Fig.8). For all the nationalist focus on the
home in the nineteenth century, it is remarkable how little political charge
the home carries in these images. These
are thoroughly westernized spaces, in which often the only indication of an
Indian setting is the female body, with its iconic sari, gold jewelry, and
black hair.[14]
These fashionable
women, were often mocked, and percieved as “bad housewives”. One article went
so far to state that women’s insatiable craving for foreign goods symbolised
the “wiles of women” or her tiriya
charitra (literally, women’s character), as they endlessly pushed their
husbands to purchase such ostentatious items.[15]
However, at the same time, magazines like Mahila, published in Calcutta, welcomed
the changes in women’s dressing. According to its authors, the new fashion of
wearing jacket or blouses without sleeves was much better in covering body then
the old custom of wearing sari without blouse or inner clothing.[16]
Thus, we see how Swadeshi created a new language of
distinction. The opulent “bad” housewife, the westernised Indian memsahib was contrasted to the
dependable, sensible and perfect “swadeshi” woman that the nation required.[17]
These efforts at cultivating a new nationalist woman marked an intricate link
between nationalism, gender formation and clothing.[18]
Disappointing as it is, not much as changed over the course
of one century. The modern, educated Indian women are still scorned and mocked
for choosing ripped jeans over traditional Indian attires, and their sartorial
choices continue to be scrutinised vigorously. Clothing restrictions, especially for women and girls, are
routinely reported.[19] It
will not be wrong to say, thus, that the Indian Women still do find themselves
managing between their contestations and cohesiveness with the concepts of
modernity and tradition, every step of the way.
But E.H Carr’s
words,
“To enable man to understand the society of the past and to
increase his mastery over the society of the present is the dual function of
history”[20]
continues to instill in us, the students of History, the
hope for a better future.
References
[1] Ross, Robert (2008): Clothing: A Global History (Cambridge: Polity)
[2] Davis, Fred (1992): Fashion, Culture and
Identity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press
[4] Vaishya 1931: 12
[5] Kawlra, Aartu. (2014). Sari and the Narrative
of Nation. Global Textile Encounters.
[6] Prasad, Anupama (2016). Clothing and Fashion : Presenting the
Indian Female Body in Early 20th Century. Journal of Studies in History and
Culture.
[7]Gupta, Charu. (2012). 'Fashioning' Swadeshi:
Clothing Women in Colonial North India. Economic and Political Weekly.
[8]Grihalakshmi , Allahabad, 1921, quoted in Rao
and Devi (1984).
[9]Tarlo, Emma (1996) Clothing Matters: Dress and
Identity in India, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press),pp.16-21.
[10]Sally, ‘Beauty of the Sari: Has Stood the Test
of Time’, The Times of India, 22 October 1935, p.13.
[11]Kawlra, Aarti (2014). Sari and the Narrative of
Nation. Global Textile Encounters.
[12]Sister Susie, ‘Our Fashion Suggestions’, ILM,
volume 2, No 8, March 1929 , pp. 434-435.
[13]Guru, Kamtaprasad (1927): Hindusthani
Shishtachar (A Criticism of Indian Manners and Etiquette)(Allahabad: Ramnarayan
Lal).
[14]McGowan,
Abigail ‘Modernity at Home: Leisure, Autonomy and the New Woman in India’,
Tasveer Ghar
[15]Vajpeyi, Onkarnath (1914): Kanya Sadachar
(GoodBehaviour of Girls), Prayag.
[16]Shri Mohan Lal Nehru, ‘fashionable’, Kamla, July
1940, pp. 9-11.
[17]Vinod (1922): Mahatma Gandhi ki Swadeshi Holi
(Swadeshi Holi of Mahatma Gandhi) (Luc-know: Hindi Pustak Bhandar)
[18]Gupta, Charu. (2012). 'Fashioning' Swadeshi:
Clothing Women in Colonial North India. Economic and Political Weekly.
[19]Pandey, Geeta (2021). Why India is talking about
ripped jeans and knees. BBC News.
[20]E. H. Carr (1961). What is history? New York:
Vintage.
Author:
Shambhavi Jha
2nd Year, History Hons. KMC
Shambhavi Jha is a 2nd year student of History Hons. of Kirori Mal College. This work of hers has won the best paper award in a paper presentation competition held by Miranda House College, University of Delhi on 30th February, 2021 and has received Special Mention in the paper presentation competition organised by Kirori Mal College on 13th April, 2021, as a part of its annual fest ATEET.
Comments
Post a Comment