India And The Contemporary World I Chapter 8 Clothing : A Social History

There were different dresses for different sections of society. From 1294 to the time of the French Revolution in 1789, the people of France were expected to strictly follow what were known as ‘sumptuary laws.’
(i) The laws tried to control the behaviour of those considered social inferiors, preventing them from wearing certain clothes, consuming certain foods and beverages and hunting in certain areas.
(i) In medieval France, the items of clothing a person could purchase per year was regulated, on the basis of income and social rank. The material to be used for clothing was also legally prescribed.

(iii) Only royalty could wear expensive materials like ermine and fur or silk, velvet and brocade. Other classes were prevented from clothing themselves with materials that were associated with the aristocracy.

Dress is the part of a culture which convey certain meaning through its style and wearing.
When European traders first began visiting India, they were distinguished from the Indian ‘turban wearers’ as the ‘hat wearers.’ These two headgears not only looked different, they also signified different things. The turban in India was not just for protection from the heat but was a sign of respectability, and could not be removed at will. In the Western tradition, the hat had to be removed before social superiors as a sign of respect. This cultural difference created misunderstanding. The British were often offended if Indians did not take off their turban as a mark of respect when they met colonial officials. Many Indians wore the turban to assert their regional or national identity.

Another paradox related to the wearing of shoes. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, it was customary for British officials to follow Indian etiquette and remove their footwear in the courts of ruling kings or chiefs. Some British officials also wore Indian clothes. But in 1830, Europeans were forbidden from wearing Indian clothes at official functions, so that their cultural identity was not undermined.

It was the fact that women in the 19th century continued wearing Indian dress whereas men switched over to convenient western clothing. This happened only in the upper echelons of society. Some of the reasons for this are the following:

Winston Churchill was an imperialist by nature and believed in the superiority of white men. He called Mahatma seditious because under Gandhi’s leadership the Congress launched Non-cooperation and Civil Disobedience Movement which was aimed at the British rule.

Gandhiji put on western clothes while practising as a lawyer in India and South Africa. Later on, he changed to loin clothes. He did so to identify himself with the peasants of India who were scantily dressed. But Mr Churchill saw it as a sign of inferiority and in order to denigrate called him a half naked fakir. Churchill could not understand Gandhiji’s depth of the love for his countrymen who could not afford full clothes.
Gandhiji’s dress was a sign of simplicity, purity and of poverty of millions of Indian. Even when Gandhiji went to England for attending the Second Round Table Conference in 1931, he refused to compromise and wore it even before King George V at the Buckingham Palace.

It was Gandhiji dream to clothe the whole nation in Khadi. He felt khadi would be a means of erasing difference between religions, classes, etc. But it was not possible for some follow in his foot steps. Some others did not find it necessary. Here are some examples:

A.

A hand spinning instrument

A.

Thread spinning wheel

A.

Hat

A.

World wars

A.

M. K. Gandhi

D.

Lord Curzon

B.

M. K. Gandhi

A.

Moti Lai Nehru

C.

1921

A.

M. Visveswaraya

B.

Phenta

D.

1855

A.

1830

C.

Chapkan

C.

Lord Curzon

D.

Oct. 1921

B.

Mahatma Gandhi

A.

Manockjee Cowasjee

B.

B.R. Ambedkar

Ermine is a type of fur which was used by aristocratic classes in France.

They were the members of Jacobian club. To distinguish themselves from the aristocracy who wore the fashionable knee-breeches, they wore Sans-culottes. Literary it meant 'those without knee-breaches'.

According to these laws, various restrictions were imposed on the people who were socially inferior as preventing them from wearing certain clothes, consuming certain foods and beverages and hunting games in certain areas.

It is a closely fitted and stiff inner bodice, worn by women to give shape and support to their figure.

Mrs Amelia Bloomer, an American, was the first dress reformer to launch loose tunics worn over ankle-length trousers. The trousers were known as ‘bloomers’, ‘rationals’, or ‘knickerbockers’. The Rational Dress Society was started in England in 1881, but did not achieve significant results. It was the First World War that brought about radical changes in women’s clothing.

Cotton cloth printed with designs and flowers.

Most of the workers/leaders of the Congress and freedom-fighters wore hand-spun (Khadi) dhoti, kurta and a Gandhi cap with locally made leather shoes or sandles.
Gandhiji dressed himself like a poor peasant-a dhoti worn upto the knee and a clock dangling at his waist and a locally made leather chappal.

The core philosophy was to use indigenous coarse cloth, shoes and other articles as part of self-respect and also to hit British economic interests.

Gandhiji.

Khadi:
(i) It is a special type of hand-woven cloth.
(ii) The raw material may be cotton, silk or wool.
(iii) The thread is a spun on spin wheel called a charkha.

The Swadeshi movement galvanized into a powerful national movement under the leadership of Lala Lajpat Rai (Punjab), Bipin Chandra Pal (Bengal) and B.G. Tilak (Maharashtra).
On 7th August meeting, the famous boycott resolution was passed where the boycott of Manchester cloth and Liverpool salt was urged. Among the chants of Vande Mataram, huge bonfires of foreign cloth were lit; people voluntarily gave away foreign clothes, shoes, liquor etc. to Congress workers. The Calcutta’s Collector of Customs in September, 1906 noted a 22% fall in the quantity of imported cotton piece goods 44% in cotton twists and yarns.

The changes:

(i) In twentieth, century, many European women stopped wearing luxurious clothes because upper-class women mixed with other classes. Consequently, social barriers were eroded and women began to look similar.
(ii) Clothes got shorter during the First World War (1914-1918) out of practical necessity. By 1917, lots of women in Britain were employed in ammunition factories.
(iii) They wore a working uniform of blouse and trousers.
(iv) Bright colours faded from sight and only sober colours were worn as the war dragged on.
(v) Therefore, clothes became plainer and simpler. Skirts became shorter. Gradually, trousers become a vital part of Western women’s clothing.

After the Chauri Chaura episode, the Non-cooperation movement was abruptly called off and Gandhiji called on the Congress workers to shift focus on the constructive programmes in the villages. It was during this period that the Khadi movement was launched.
(i) Khadi was a special kind of hand woven cotton cloth. The threads were spun on a spinning wheel called a ‘Charkha’. A Charkha Sangh was formed and thousands of charkhas were distributed to the villagers in hundreds of villages all over India.
(ii) The Congress workers were trained in the use of charkha and they in turn, trained villagers, especially women folk.
(iii) Gandhiji’s idea was to get the women to spin yarn and to clothe the people of India with Khadi woven out of it.
(iv) Apart from giving employment to thousands of people; weavers, printers, dyers and tailors who by now had found new sources of employment and income.

When western style clothing came into India in the nineteenth century, Indians reacted in three different ways:

(i) First, many, especially men, began incorporating some elements of western style clothing in their dress as western clothes were a sign of modernity and progress.

The styles of clothing:

(i) Women in Victorian England were groomed from childhood to be docile and dutiful, submissive and obedient. The ideal woman was one who could bear pain and suffering.
(ii) While men were expected to be serious, strong, independent and aggressive, women were seen as frivolous, delicate, passive and docile. Norms of clothing reflected these ideals.
(iii) From childhood, girls were tightly laced up and dressed in stays. The effort was to restrict the growth of their bodies, contain them within small moulds.
(iv) When slightly older, girls had to wear tight fitting corsets. Tightly laced, small-waisted women were admired as attractive, elegant and graceful.
(v) Clothing thus played a part in creating the image of frail, submissive Victorian women.