From: usubrama@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Uma M Subramanian)
Subject: Re: Curious observation.
Keywords: Is it just me ?
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 04:19:22 GMT

In article <Bt741C.87E@news.cso.uiuc.edu> +vijay@rels.uiuc.edu (Vijay R) writes:
>I find this amazing - the balance Indian women have been able to maintain in
>their dress-style. Indian men seldom wear traditional clothes, especially
>not to classes but Indian women have somehow managed to maintain their
>traditional pride as depicted by their wearing saris and churidars even though
>those outfits are not part of the local wardrobe. 
>
>v

I'd like to say a few things about this (fairly accurate) observation. I have
some strong opinions on this matter and I take this opportunity to voice
them. I haven't so far raised these as important concerns for indian women
abroad for two reasons: (a) this is a matter of personal choice and
can't be easily discussed as one that affects all Indian women; (b) this
is not the most important issue to be raised and has the potential for
degenerating into a cosmetic discussion. Now that this point has been
raised, I have a context to vent my maverick reactions. None of my 
reactions are meant as attacks on Vijay -- he merely made an observation
for people to resond to. My reactions go beyond the contents of this
post per se.

1. The task of "mainitaining one's traditional pride" or striking "an
amazing balance in one's dress-style" is a dubious privilege. The fact
that Indian women dress traditionally more often than Indian men, I
think, is a result of personal choices *as well as* a strong, implicit
expectation that they do so. Often the expectation is internalized.

2. The above observation holds for the present Indian situation too.
The urban men in India traded his dhoti or whatever the traditional
garb is, for western clothes starting colonial days, whereas the
Indian woman in western clothes is an object of unwanted attention
in most places in India.

As in most cultures, the Indian men have had the responsibility/freedom
to adjust to teh changing needs of their professional lives, whereas
the women have had to "maintain traditional pride". In general, the
Indian women who live in the US have to play a dual role if they
have a career -- a professional role and a traditional role -- when
it comes ot dress codes. Some manage very nicely in traditional
clothes even in professional circles and some don't feel comfortable
in Indian clothes in professional circles even if it's allowed. 
As far as I know, no Indian man goes to his place of work/study
in a dhoti. 

3. If an Indian woman chooses to "go western" clothes-wise, the
reactions from fellow Indians range from acceptance to strong
hostility depending on the occasion. Of course, most Indians
wouldn't think twice about Indian women dressed in western clothes
on campuses or other places of work. But, if the context is, say,
a classical music cocncert at a temple, a woman dressed in western
clothes isn't treated courteously, whereas there are numerous men
in the same temple in western clothes. I travel from columbus to
reasonable distances to listen to concerts, some of which are held
at temples. Now, this involves being on the highway, filling up
gas, being stopped by the cops for speeding (in my case) and staying
at motels if there is another concert the next day. I don't feel
comfortable doing all these in indian clothes (not that others can't).
I much prefer university auditorium concerts (which is
usually the case) to temple concerts, since I'm made to feel like
a "western type traitor", someone who's out to offend everyone's
sensibilities. Initially, it bothered me quite a lot, but now I
play the "western type traitor" since that's the part given to me.
Black leather jackets are a great costume for this part. 

Now, not everyone was cold or nasty -- but that is the general reaction.

4. Think of the various ways in which having to dress traditionally
interferes with the process of acculturation both socially and
professionally. (again, I do realize that this is a amtter of personal
choice -- there are professinally successful and socially well-adjusted
indian women who dress in indian clothes.)

5. The pressure from families back home "to maintain tradditional 
pride" is much greater on women than on men. It's a very important
factor in a woman's attempts to maintain a career if she has to ddeal
with a traditional family with clear gender-based roles. Some Indian
women have to live double lives -- starting from waiting for one's
hair to grow to some reasonable length to go home, to tackling 
questions like "when are you going to do X? How long do you have
to work? WHy do you have to work?"

I realize that this goes far beyond the scope of the original article,
but I had to get these things out for discussion, even though I
didn't feel like raising these in my own postings. A post that
Ramesh Venkat (was it him?) made amonth or two ago raised teh question
of women shouldering the responsibility of maintaining cultural pride.
This response of mine could very well have been a resposne to that
post he made, validating his points.

Uma Subramanian


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