Growth of a hybrid culture

It all started with this piece of news, "Indians ashamed of Dhoti".
with dhoti not being allowed in a club in "Chennai". Please revisit the sentence if you missed it, "Madras" has now become "Chennai" but the rule for not allowing dhoti is still there. So this was the stimulus but then the mind wondered to a much more living, vibrant and quintessential Indian apparel - Sari. It is one of the most sexiest dresses on the planet and there isn't certainly another one that can also boast of thousands of years of history. Its form has changed but it is still the symbol of femininity of the Indian woman and is in a much healthier shape than the Dhoti. Of late it is loosing ground in some quarters of Indian metro cities.

Ok here is the point of contention , Has the sari lived its life and is not fit for the 'modern' Indian woman? Will saris join Japan's kimono and China's cheongsam as exotic attire for high days and holidays? Will American actress Elizabeth Hurley save the sari at a New York fundraising event?

In the modern world when women are now joining men in bigger numbers sari is loosing out in terms of practicality. The more graceful it is the more tedious is it to carry it off day in and day out. That is why you see more and more working women in salwar. In my opinion some people mistake it to be a Muslim dress but I think it is a Punjabi dress. Look at Muslim women around the world and how many do you find wearing salwar. And now here comes the rub, a small sub-section of working Indian women is also dumping the salwar in favor of western formal dresses. I am still not quite sure what will be effects of this change and how far will this go, but here is a sample of people's opinion on this trend

1. Malvika Singh in the Telegraps says , Growth of a hybrid culture "A strange breed of imitative ‘Western’ culture, rootless and anarchic in our social context, is growing like a weed across this land. For some odd reason, success in contemporary India is symbolized by the traditional being abandoned and replaced by the worst, most pedestrian end of Western culture."
   
2. Sunanda K Daata in International Herald Tribune - Meanwhile: Unraveling the sari, where she says " Anxious to convince friends - perhaps even themselves - that they are modern, young Indians rationalize choice by dismissing saris as uneconomical and impractical.
3. Shashi Tharoor also voices his concern, "Perhaps it's time to appeal to the women of India to save the sari from a sorry fate."
4. Sulangna Dasgupta in "Look we have become modern" ,"The modern woman has an argument-she has to go out and work, unlike the women of earlier days, and wearing a pair of tight jeans and a short top makes her comfortable, whereas cumbersome clothes like sari and salwar cannot be managed and makes working difficult."
   
5. Meghna Joshi raises a very direct question in her well commented article, "when did the sari become equivalent to a burqa?"
6. Ramchandra Guha comments on several related aspects in his article in The Hindu ," The spread of the salwar", "
   A question of culture - The sari is, without argument, the most graceful form of attire invented by homo sapiens. That is why the Begums Jinnah and Bhutto wore it on formal occasions, to be followed in this respect by the less privileged women in their society.
   
   "Salwar Islamic, Sari Hindu?
   
   The victory of the salwar is most conspicuous not in big cities like Bangalore, but in the smaller towns of the hinterland. The reason must be that this is a dress not seen as "Western" or immodest, and yet a dress that allows one to go to school or college, and to participate in the work force. Jeans and tops can be worn in cosmopolitan Bangalore, but in Dodballapur they would be quite unacceptable. The salwar is suitably "decent", yet it allows far more mobility than either the pavade or the sari. One can walk in it, one can bicycle in it, one can even run a 100-metre race in it.
7. Here is a self confessed "metro-bred, Christian-education raised, young" view by Hindol Sengupta ," 'You can't escape the fact that the sari is just not a very comfortable item of clothing, You can't slip it on and off like jeans and a T-shirt. It crumples, it slips downs, its pleats get lost - it requires a lot of maintenance. Modern women don't have time for it.'

I think Indian woman are really fortunate that they have a wide variety dresses that can be worn for work and at home. Salwar and sari are even worn for formal interviews, for those who disagree should look at Indra Nooyi. So they can work in the most modern of professions without loosing touch with tradition. This does not mean that one looks down upon them when they prefer western wear, no not at all. Indian men are not that fortunate, they only have western wear for office. It is my right to request and it is their right to either respect/understand my opinion or to dismiss it as दकियानूसी

While this is a sub-trend in India, in contrast you see sarees becoming popular in the west, where an increasing number of NRIs are giving up their western outfits and have started to opt for Indian sarees. " Saree draped women common in Canada

As end note consider what Rathi Vinay Jha, director general of the Fashion Design Council of India has to say about this in It will never die.''I don't think it [the sari] will disappear like the kimono, because the problem in Japan was the extraordinary cost of a good kimono. You can buy a simple sari for 100 rupees (£1.20),' she said.For Jha, the sari remains an unbeatable outfit. 'The bare midriff keeps you cool; if you've got a good figure it's very alluring, and if you're fat, it hides the flab. You can drape the pallu [the scarf end] over your head as protection against the sun or rain; you can dry your hands on it or wipe your child's tears with it. It will never die.'

Conclusion: A request to the female readers please suggest ways & means to go about it and would like to solicit your views . Your views are most important in this matter. A tree should be strong enough not to get blown away with the gust and flexible enough to sway in the direction of the wind.

To all, may be you never thought about this issue but do leave your comments so that I can incorporate your thoughts also.

Brief overview and history of the sari if any non Indian chances upon my blog

1. The Indian Sari: Fashioning the Female Form
   
2. Saree- The six yard wonder