Where, Oh Where,

 

Have the Langas Gone?

 

The Tug of War Between Traditional and Modern Indian Clothing

 

Alice L. and Deepthi K.

World Studies A2

 

 

 

 

 

               According to Shoba Narayan, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, “Indian clothes are on the verge of dying out of corporate India…In corporate India, however, few wear Indian clothes. Just as English has become the lingua franca of global business, I think Western attire will soon be its sartorial equivalent. Most of the young executives I meet, both men and women, wear a shirt and pants…There are very few downsides to wearing Indian clothes; you aren’t hurting anyone and best of all, it is easy.”

 

               She voices out the opinon of many people in India. They are sad that their traditional ways are fading away, and do not see any problem in keeping with their original ways, such as wearing traditional clothing like kurtas and langas. As we learned earlier, this idea is very similar to Gandhi’s idea of proudly displaying Indian clothing in everyday life. However, traditional clothing is not fully dying out. For example, a famous Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai flaunts her Indian clothing in many western countries. Overall, Indians do not view westernized clothing in India with total scorn, but they do miss their old ways of wearing traditional clothing everywhere around India.  We chose this topic because we thought it would be interesting to explore what Indians who follow traditional and those who follow modern beliefs feel about the movement towards more modern, westernized clothing.  Also, one of us (guess who) has some background information about this topic.   

 

 

Several Indian women are wearing the traditional sari while working.

http://portal.unesco.org/ci/photos/showphoto.php/photo/1630/size/big/cat/last7/limit/last7

 

 

 

 

A growing population is starting to wear more Western style clothing

as opposed to traditional Indian clothes.

http://facts-about-countries.com/2008/04/basic-facts-about-india/ 

 

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Skit

 

 

Characters

Deepthi (D): An Indian mother who holds traditional Indian beliefs

Alice (A) :  The daughter who wants to westernize

 

Dialogue

D: [scream] 

A: What? Is something wrong? 

D: YES!  Your clothes!  Where is your salvar camis?!?!

A: I wanted to change into American clothes!

D: That's absolutely unacceptable!

A: What?  Why?

D: You need to ask?  That shirt!  Those pants! Those shoes!  Everything is just...so... horrible, tasteless, and disrespectful!  I forbid you from wearing anything but your salvar camis from now on! 

A: No!  Amma, everybody wears these clothes now!  My Indian dress looks so WEIRD among all of my new classmates' clothes, and I LIKE these clothes!  They're comfortable, and I like the style!  Anyways, how are they disrespectful?

D: Silence!  I will hear no more of this nonsense!  I've tried to talk to you nicely, but it is now clear to me that you are not ashamed to defy the traditions that our family has always followed and upheld!  Have you no respect, for your religion, your country, or your family?!

A: Amma, please!  I don't mean to insult you!  I just don't want to be the outcast in my class, or in this world.  Besides, I don't think I'm going to get my dhupatta from my salvar camis back anytime soon...

D: Why?  Now what have you done?!

A: Well, when I walked into class this morning, my teacher saw it and she said, "That cloth is just fabulous!  Th-"

D: [cut off] Good!  It makes me very happy to see that Westerners are startingto see things from the views of other cultures!

A: Well, things didn't exactly happen like that...

D: Then continue on!  I can't see how this could end negatively in any way!

A: Okay, but only because you said so... After my teacher said that, she took it and hung it over a curtain rod saying, "I'm so glad that the curtains I ordered finally came!"

 

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Works Cited

 

"India Flag".  04 May. 2009 <http://www.khalsapunjabischool.no/viewpage.php?page_id=17>.

Narayan, Shoba.  "Save Indian Clothing, Wear a Kurta to Office".  29 Aug. 2008  03 May. 2009 

     <http://www.livemint.com/2008/08/29000522/Save-Indian-clothing-wear-a-k.html?d=1>.