Has modern wear to do with the West?

The dictionary defines ‘modern’ as relating to the present, OPPOSED to the remote past. Let us look at the definition and then the topic, ‘has modern-wear to do with the West?  And the answer to if modern-wear has to do with the west is lopsided depending on one’s cultural perceive. The definition of modern in the Indian cultural context with the NOW definition of modern is one deeply misplaced. For now given the complex cultural identity the country is facing and the blame-game it continues to promulgate, let us try to trace back its surmised provenance, the British.

We normally tend to forget that India is a land printed with multiple foot-marks. Every part of the country has their own world of social establishments and upheavals. There was/has never been a static cultural milieu. And living in a country when women are seen both as a god and as an Aunt Sally to traditional disarray, the question of everything modern to do with the west is more prominent. Hence, it is an everyday stipulation where a girl will be chastised for swaying away from the Held traditional culture. Because the frame of mind is such that modern wear equals a symbol of modern ideas. But let us not forget India as a nation has no set of written code of conduct to be worn. And the notion you have of revealing clothes as a factor of the West and everything modern wear to do with the west?? Well, you couldn’t get any more wrong if you continue to stomach the notion.

Let us accept the cultural wave of change the nation is ebbed with, with time. And for that we will dwell into the historic-cultural approach. Because as foreign as this may sound, the home rooted ideas of decorum and modesty has it root from the British. So how did the British costumes got Indianised? And how did we come to associate modern-wear with the west? The answer is more of a question really. Looking at the social dilemma of moral-cultural imposing faced by majority of the Indian households, historical facts are here to rectify. And the fact has it source from the various rules such as that of the Greeks, the Romans, the Chinese etc etc and the British. Or more so, the cultural incorporations. It also looks like the weather condition of India didn’t really suit the definition of the now ‘modest’ type of clothing.  Let us undermine the modest concept.

 Modern wear

The Gupta period of 7^th or 8^th century depicts women with their stitched upper garment along with a breast band. The breast band was called the ‘choli’ and the lower garment the ‘ghangra’. When the British Raj got established the women medium of clothing then didn’t really fit into the NOW definition of modesty. Because women of Bengal then didn’t wear blouses under their sarees. Hence they were introduced to ‘blouses’ and the ‘petticoats’. Infact, if we look at the ancient mode of Indian culture, it is more than the now definition of modern wear could attain. So, no, not modern-wear has to do with the West.

In a somewhat similar situation, the 15^th century Mughal Empire, the Muslim women wore divided garments.  They are now more commonly known as the Salwar Kameez. Hence looking at the pattern of clothing pattern in India, it all depended in one way or the other the predecessors. Which in the case is lots. So, to solely promulgate the notion of associating modern-wear with the west is preposterous.To see the nation as more an outcome of cultural partaking than of enforcement will seem more modern?? Visit CallosAngles.com to get into the show of the fashion-world!

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