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ESSAY
As Long as its
Decent, Clean and in Good Taste...
It
didn't go down too well in all quarters. With characteristic Bengali disdain,
Nirad Chaudhuri thought it epitomised the Allahabad brahmin's instinctive
approval for anything Islamic and, hence, "cultured". The Hindustan
Standard of Calcutta wrote an editorial denouncing this forcible imposition
of Mughlai mores. Others merely kept their peace and humoured Nehru. Sardar
Patel stuck to his dhoti while Rajendra Prasad genuflected at the altar
of Nehruvian style for the sake of form, and only on ceremonial occasions.
The foreign service wasn't so lucky. As Nehru's handpicked Praetorian
Guard it did what the great man ordered. Like most things Nehruvian, the
national dress became a government institution. It never found ready acceptance
in civil society. The bundgala suit proved a convenient substitute for
badly knotted ties and was suitable for the Delhi winter. But neither
the Hindi heartland nor the deep south reconciled itself to Nehru's sartorial
badge, the achkan-churidar. Yes, Zakir Hussain, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed and
Giani Zail Singh played ball because of cultural affinity. But of the
subsequent prime ministers, Lal Bahadur Shastri, P.V. Narasimha Rao, H.D.
Deve Gowda and Atal Bihari Vajpayee persevered with the dhoti; Rajiv and
V.P. Singh endured variants of the kurta-pyjama; and I.K. Gujral was more
at ease with the safari suit.
Maybe that's
the reason why it has become all the more necessary to question a convention
that clearly lacks social sanction. In a free, temperamentally anarchic
society, a national dress cannot be imposed by diktat. The lounge suit
has its adherents both among visitors to Saville Row and Punjabi bridegrooms;
the dhoti finds natural favour in the south and the Ganga belt, among
communists and Hindu nationalists alike; the kurta-pyjama popularised
by Rajiv has become a symbol of political yuppiness; and the safari suit-well
it's also there, braving social condescension and Jaswant Singh's noble
attempt to inject it with a Holland & Holland touch.
Together,
they make up India's natural national dress leaving little space for Nehruvian
fashion. Even Rashtrapati Bhavan-that last bastion of unrepentant Nehruvianism-could
not deem otherwise. A good enough reason for allowing market forces and
weather conditions to prevail. As long as the elementary norms of decency,
cleanliness and good taste are fanatically adhered to. Good tailoring
will be a bonus.
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