Skip to main content

The hegemony of dress


Who should decide what you will wear? India has a Prime Minister whose sartorial elegance is world-famous now. No other Prime Minister of India including the stylish Indira Gandhi – and arguably no other leader of any country in the world – has displayed an ardour for dressing up as Modi has. He has appeared in hundreds of various styles of dresses including something that looked like a sari.


But, ironically, in Modi’s India certain people are denied the freedom to choose their dress. The present controversy about hijab in Karnataka’s colleges is just one example. Why should any political party decide what a community of people will wear especially when that party’s topmost leader keeps changing dresses and colours according to situations?

I am not a supporter of the hijab and the burka. I am of the firm opinion that women should be free to display their identity. Someone who is covered up from top to bottom looks more like a piece of baggage than a human being. Even the hijab, which does not cover the face, is a redundant piece of clothing as far as I am concerned. [My hijab-inspired short story: Shahina lets her hair down] But I will be the last person to impose my likes and dislikes on other people. I can express my opinions. But the choice belongs to them.

The Sikhs can wear turbans and sport long beards. A man who is wearing the garb of a yogi can be the chief minister of a state. The Prime Minister can look like a fancy dress competitor on occasions. But people of one particular community cannot wear the dress of their choice! That’s not fair.

Is it about dress at all? Or is it about hegemony?

Comments

  1. DawnanddewFebruary 9, 2022 at 6:06 PM

    Oppression in any form is condemnable. Freedom is the birth right for everyone.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 9, 2022 at 8:00 PM

      Oppression is the norm in India today. How many media agencies have been shut down, how many writers killed, activists arrested, NGOs blocked...?

      Delete
  2. Yamini MacLeanFebruary 9, 2022 at 8:58 PM

    Hari OM
    Well said, sir... While I would not agree with the decree that drives the wearing of the hijab, I have to say that there is something very feminine about it and that (here in the UK at aeast) the Muslim ladies who choose to wear it do so with panache and fashionable style. That is an aside to your point, however. For any ruling authority to order the exclusion of an item of clothing is authoritarian in the extreme. As for Modi's attire... for some reason I cannot help but think about The Emporer's New Clothes... YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 9, 2022 at 9:10 PM

      I'm actually looking forward to the day when a child will shout those words to Modi about his inner monstrosity.

      Delete
  3. Rajeev MoothedathFebruary 10, 2022 at 3:10 PM

    On this matter though I beg to disagree. At the school level, it is appropriate that each child wears the school uniform and not religion on their sleeves . By opposing this, I think the others are playing into the hands of the ruling party in Karnataka which wants exactly that with the elections in the state due shortly. In fact, the controversy was triggered by the CM who issued a circular recently to the educational institutions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 10, 2022 at 4:11 PM

      I teach in a school where many Muslim girls come wearing the headgear. I find it rather funny and irritating at the same time. But the school, a Christian institution, respects religious sentiments and lets that be. I would wish that the people realise the absurdity of the practice and change it themselves.

      Delete
  4. Jose D. MaliekalFebruary 15, 2022 at 1:26 PM

    Young friend, I do not agree a wee-bit with any bit of what you say. But I will defend with my blood, your right to say that. - Voltaire

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 15, 2022 at 3:57 PM

      Precisely. That's just the point. I don't accept the hijab but i defend the people's right to wear it if it suits them for whatever reason.

      That child who will have to shout out to the naked emperor is inevitable. Time will bring him/her on.

      Delete
  5. Jose D. MaliekalFebruary 15, 2022 at 1:31 PM

    Yaaaa... I am just waiting for the day, when the child in the Body Politic of India will call out. “ The Emperor has no clothes.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
44 comments
Read more

Remedios the Beauty and Innocence

  Remedios the Beauty is a character in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude . Like most members of her family, she too belongs to solitude. But unlike others, she is very innocent too. Physically she is the most beautiful woman ever seen in Macondo, the place where the story of her family unfolds. Is that beauty a reflection of her innocence? Well, Marquez doesn’t suggest that explicitly. But there is an implication to that effect. Innocence does make people look charming. What else is the charm of children? Remedios’s beauty is dangerous, however. She is warned by her great grandmother, who is losing her eyesight, not to appear before men. The girl’s beauty coupled with her innocence will have disastrous effects on men. But Remedios is unaware of “her irreparable fate as a disturbing woman.” She is too innocent to know such things though she is an adult physically. Every time she appears before outsiders she causes a panic of exasperation. To make...
4 comments
Read more

The Covenant of Water

Book Review Title: The Covenant of Water Author: Abraham Verghese Publisher: Grove Press UK, 2023 Pages: 724 “What defines a family isn’t blood but the secrets they share.” This massive book explores the intricacies of human relationships with a plot that spans almost a century. The story begins in 1900 with 12-year-old Mariamma being wedded to a 40-year-old widower in whose family runs a curse: death by drowning. The story ends in 1977 with another Mariamma, the granddaughter of Mariamma the First who becomes Big Ammachi [grandmother]. A lot of things happen in the 700+ pages of the novel which has everything that one may expect from a popular novel: suspense, mystery, love, passion, power, vulnerability, and also some social and religious issues. The only setback, if it can be called that at all, is that too many people die in this novel. But then, when death by drowning is a curse in the family, we have to be prepared for many a burial. The Kerala of the pre-Independ...
14 comments
Read more

The Death of Truth and a lot more

Susmesh Chandroth in his kitchen “Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought,” Poet Shelley told us long ago. I was reading an interview with a prominent Malayalam writer, Susmesh Chandroth, this morning when Shelley returned to my memory. Chandroth says he left Kerala because the state had too much of affluence which is not conducive for the production of good art and literature. He chose to live in Kolkata where there is the agony of existence and hence also its ecstasies. He’s right about Kerala’s affluence. The state has eradicated poverty except in some small tribal pockets. Today almost every family in Kerala has at least one person working abroad and sending dollars home making the state’s economy far better than that of most of its counterparts. You will find palatial houses in Kerala with hardly anyone living in them. People who live in some distant foreign land get mansions constructed back home though they may never intend to come and live here. There are ...
10 comments
Read more

Koorumala Viewpoint

  Koorumala is at once reticent and coquettish. It is an emerging tourist spot in the Ernakulam district of Kerala. At an altitude of 169 metres from MSL, the viewpoint is about 40 km from Kochi. The final stretch of the road, about 2 km, is very narrow. It passes through lush green forest-looking topography. The drive itself is exhilarating. And finally you arrive at a 'Pay & Park' signboard on a rocky terrain. The land belongs to the CSI St Peter's Church. You park your vehicle there and walk up a concrete path which leads to a tiled walkway which in turn will take you the viewpoint. Below are some pictures of the place.  From the parking lot to the viewpoint The tiled walkway A selfie from near the view tower  A view from the tower Another view The tower and the rest mandap at the back Koorumala viewpoint is a recent addition to Kerala's tourist map. It's a 'cool' place for people of nearby areas to spend some leisure in splendid isolation from the hu...
30 comments
Read more